Drones & Pix4D protect vital water resources in Costa Rica
We spoke with Costa Rica Flying Labs about a recent project carried out in collaboration with the organization Guardianes del Bosque in the town of Puerto Viejo, located in the southern Caribbean region of Limón province, Costa Rica. The organization is dedicated to protecting the rainforest from deforestation, raising awareness about environmental conservation, and ensuring that tourism activities do not harm local ecosystems. They work to safeguard both the forests and water resources, recognizing the importance of clean water for sustaining wildlife habitats.
The project
This project aims to map critical areas that are being impacted by new construction and land use changes. Currently, there are no up-to-date maps available to analyze how these changes are affecting local water resources. The resulting maps will allow for better observation and planning, with the aim to monitor the region’s biodiversity, protect the water resources, and guide urban development.
Rio Enersto micro catchment
The micro-catchment of the Ernesto River forms a water network essential for the region's ecosystems and local communities. These water networks are crucial not only for the surrounding wildlife and vegetation but also for human consumption and agriculture. The quality and availability are fundamental to sustaining livelihoods and preserving the ecosystem.
The Ernesto River has been the focus of community conservation and restoration projects to protect the water resource and preserve local biodiversity. The participation of communities and conservation organizations is key to mitigating these impacts and ensuring that ecosystems and water supply remain sustainable in the long term. This collective effort of the community is essential to protecting the region.
The effect of urban development on the ecosystem
In the same region, there is a planned urban development project which could lead to high fragmentation of the forest, which would severely affect the movement of animal species. Fragmentation creates physical barriers and intensifies the effects of the edge theory, where natural ecosystems are exposed to external conditions that alter their internal structure, such as changes in temperature, humidity, and increased exposure to predators and can lead to a decline in biodiversity in future generations.
It is essential that any urban development in this area be planned with an integrated approach, prioritizing the conservation of forest cover and biological corridors. This is where drone mapping and Pix4D comes in.
The rivers in the area are very small and carry limited amounts of water, which requires them to capture high-resolution images with a small Ground Sampling Distance (GSD). And, since most of the region is covered by dense forest, they had to carefully plan the image overlap and GSD to ensure accurate and high-quality results.
Project details
| Location | Punta Uva, Costa Rica |
| User | Flying Labs Costa Rica |
| Project duration | 6 months |
| Area surveyed | 150 hectares |
| Software used | PIX4Dmatic |
| Hardware used | DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral, Workstation AMD7, RAM: 32GB, SSD 1TB and NVIDIA GPU |
| Images captured | Total images: 1069 |
| Number of images per flight or dataset | |
| Processing time | 3 hours per flight |
| GSD | 4cm |
The high-resolution geospatial data supplied by mapping critical ecosystems such as mangroves and small rivers enabled Guardianes del Bosque to better understand how deforestation, land use changes, and illegal construction are affecting water resources and biodiversity. The accurate orthomosaics served as a key input for environmental monitoring and advocacy, helping the organization raise awareness and promote sustainable tourism practices. Additionally, the updated imagery filled a major information gap, allowing local stakeholders to make more informed decisions to protect the rainforest and aquatic ecosystems.
Costa Rica Flying Labs found they were able to generate detailed orthomosaics, point clouds, and DSM models, all with high spatial resolution and georeferenced accuracy. The project lasted 6 months. The results were a success, achieving the project's objectives. The reconstructions were accurate, and they used the generated point cloud as the primary input for further analysis.
The project’s results were presented to key stakeholders and the general community at an event held at the Cultural Hall of Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica. The findings and progress of teh project was shared in order to encourage dialogue and community participation. They also wished to highlight the importance to biodiversity conservation in the region. Local community members and local authorities and organizations attended.
A primary challenge for this project was to strike a balance between development and conservation. This requires comprehensive planning with input from all key stakeholders, integrating environmental, social, and economic criteria. The informative maps generated by PIX4Dmatic provided crucial information supporting the project and their aim to protect vital ecosystems in Costa Rica!
“We love working with PIX4D software because it consistently delivers accurate and reliable results. We trust it for all our processing needs and enjoy using its intuitive tools to support our environmental and mapping projects." - Carlos Saito, Costa Rica Flying Labs Coordinator & Hanzel Leon, Costa Rica Flying Labs Research Assistant
