Flightworks

Choosing image resolution

It is important to determine the image resolution that will achieve the objective of your project. Higher resolution requires lower altitude flying and longer flight times, increasing the complexity and cost of the imagery.

For example, Flightworks provided high-resolution imagery as a baseline monitoring system to track progress of spartina grass being targeted for eradication by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council in the Maketu Estuary.  We chose 1.95cm pixel resolution to broadly record the change in vegetation as per the project goals. Whereas, if we had needed to detect very small areas of spartina we would have chosen a higher resolution.

The series of images below give an indication of different pixel resolutions – spartina is at the top.

2.60cm pixel resolution
2.60cm pixel resolution
2
1.95cm pixel resolution
3
1.30cm pixel resolution
4
0.65cm pixel resolution