Drone Survey of Historic Built Environments

Background

The aim of the project has been identified by professionals at the Swedish Transport Administration and by Heritage Professionals and Human Geographers who carry out surveys on behalf of the agency. It is based on the realisation that knowledge of culturally and historically valuable built heritage is often incorporated too late in today’s planning processes, particularly in areas where up-to-date inventories or knowledge bases are lacking, which limits the ability to take cultural values into account in construction and infrastructure projects and to strengthen the cultural environment concerned. At the same time, the potential of drone technology as a tool in the early inventory stages of the Swedish Transport Administration’s projects remains unutilised.

Aim

The overall aim of this pre-study is to strengthen the connection between built heritage considerations and transport planning by exploring new methods and tools that could enable a more proactive approach within the Swedish Transport Administration. The specific aim is to examine the potential for identifying values of the historic built environment in road and railway projects at early planning stages using drone technology. By testing whether a more comprehensive and detailed view of the historic built environment can be achieved, the pre-study aims to provide knowledge on how values might be better integrated into the planning process, and how negative impacts could potentially be reduced through adapted measures.

Method

The project combines a qualitative analysis of the usefulness and documentary value of drone technology with quantitative elements to compare efficiency and resource consumption.

• Three varied areas (urban, village, rural landscape) have been selected for this study: Norrbottniabanan, Borås-Bollebygd and Helsingborg-Maria.
• Data collection is carried out using both drone flights and traditional field surveys.
• A comparative analysis of data quality, time, and resource usage will be carried out.