Assessing road damage caused by Hurricane Helene

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employs a range of drone technologies for data collection in science, mapping, and monitoring. The aircraft seen here is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing small Uncrewed Aircraft System (sUAS), which takes off like a helicopter and transitions to horizontal flight like an airplane, allowing for efficient mapping of large areas. In November 2024, remote pilots Matthew Burgess and Joe Adams from the USGS National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) flew this drone to gather natural color imagery and lidar data over the landscapes surrounding the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. The UAS data were collected and processed by the USGS and then provided to the National Park Service (NPS) to quantify and document the material displaced by landslides. The NPS will use this information to formulate plans for stabilizing hazardous areas and repairing the Parkway to restore travel access.