Revolutionary sUAS utilization for oil spill in Israel
Upon approval of the local civilian aviation authority, the Trans-Israel Pipeline and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority operated Bladeworx’ lightweight UAV’s for dealing with an extreme oil spill at the Evrona Nature Reserve near Eilat in southern Israel.
On the night of December 3rd, approximately five million liters of crude oil leaked onto the nearby Evrona Reserve, severely polluting the reserve area, endangering hundreds of animals and area residents who suffered from the oil fumes that permeated the air dozens of kilometers away. The Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection considers the event to be one of the worst environmental disasters to ever occur in Israel.
As the event unfolded, entities managing the crisis demanded a quick survey of the polluted area, by aerial photos, in order to direct the forces and estimate the extent of pollution. Bladeworx, a company specializing in the operation of multiple rotor and fixed wing lightweight UAV’s, was selected for the task. Bladeworx is the first company in Israel to attain commercial operating licenses from the Civil Aviation Authority and the only company in Israel licensed to operate various aircraft, including multiple rotor and fixed wing devices.
Upon securing the appropriate Civil Aviation Authority permits, the Company began operating various systems throughout the reserve, aiming to map the spreading of the spill. The Trimble UX5 was massively operated for this mission, as well as other multiple rotor aircraft. Seeing that the reserve area comprises part of Eilat’s final landing route, operations were coordinated with the local control tower in the city. All aircraft were operated by suitably licensed operators and they all displayed a standard tail number.
As part of the emergency arrangement, Bladeworx established a dedicated GIS server to be used by the functions involved in stopping the pollution, prepared monitoring and control accessories and created a shared language. The photography sorties during the first ten days were performed at low altitude and at a maximum resolution of 2.4 cm/pixel. All aerial photos were processed into orthophotos and uploaded to the GIS system on the same day. All of the forces involved in pumping the oil and containing the oil pollution navigated with a dedicated mobile application, using the aerial photos as an up-to-date base layer and to monitor their progress.
Upon containing the pollution, Bladeworx performed various image processing analyses enabled by the high sampling resolution achieved by the low altitude flying capability. Inter alia, the company used the aerial photos to calculate oil coverage of the reserve, to determine the condition of the trees and to locate the main oil pools in the field.
This activity proved, once again, that lightweight UAV’s can serve as very significant and extremely valuable work tools for managing crises and natural disasters as they enable rapid status sampling of land units and allow forces to move ahead quickly, while viewing high resolution images within short timeframes. Bladeworx, together with the Civil Aviation Authority and the entities that managed the crisis, succeeded in transforming theory into reality – turning lightweight UAV’s into applicable work tools integrated within the civil air traffic array.
