A Bird’s Eye View: Drone Imagery From the Vantage Point of Zambian Stakeholders

by Fritz Kleinschroth, ETH Zurich, & Kawawa Banda, University of Zambia, 21 April 2022
A river flowing into green land
One of the drone images shown at the Biennale exhibition in Milano in 2019, taken over the Kafue flats wetlands (photo credit: ATEC-3D ltd)

We shared large prints of aerial images with various stakeholders in Zambian landscapes to discuss opportunities and risks of drone technology.

In less than a decade, the use of drones to collect aerial imagery has shifted from the cutting-edge to a mainstream tool in research. Yet surprisingly, little is known about how different people around the world interpret pictures taken by drones in different contexts.

As part of the ETH Zurich-led DAFNE project, funded by the EU’s horizon 2020 program, and in collaboration with University of Zambia (UNZA), we had the pleasure and the privilege of collecting aerial imagery from a wide range of Zambian landscapes. The overall goal of the project was to build a decision-analytic framework to facilitate negotiations between water resource users within the water-energy-food-ecosystems-nexus. One of the many aspects of this was to use drone imagery to better understand water quality issues related to agricultural intensification and hydropower dams, for example manifested through mass-invasions of floating water hyacinths. Supported by Simon Spratley, a professional drone pilot and in tandem with a group of UNZA students, we travelled across the country and collected a diverse range of imagery for their MSc and PhD theses, as well as other research. The outcomes were pictures of surprising beauty, showing stunning bird’s-eye-views of highly diverse wetlands, rivers and agricultural landscapes. These images featured in our papers and project videos, some even making it to the Biennale in Milano, and exhibited as artwork. Yet, due to the COVID-pandemic, the DAFNE project had to end without us being able to physically share the images with stakeholders in Zambia, and ask them in person how they perceived them.
Students from University of Zambia gathering around the drone before the first flight back in 2018
Students from University of Zambia gathering around the drone before the first flight back in 2018 (photo credit: Fritz Kleinschroth)
Luckily, in 2021, the ETH for Development programme (ETH4D) launched a grant called “research to action”, precisely suited to the purpose of sharing and discussing data and research results with practitioners when the research funding is typically over. This opened up the possibility to meet again with large and small-scale farmers, public administrators, a hydropower company, an environmental NGO, and a big sugarcane producing company. Supported by the ETH4D grant, we were able to reunite in Lusaka after years of only zoom calls and skyping. We brought with us large printed aerial maps of Zambian landscapes, ready to discuss our findings and learn from our partners. Over the course of two intense weeks, accompanied by PhD student Henry Zimba, we went back to some of the old places to meet many familiar (and some new) faces, and were able to talk to people, and ask their opinion about these kinds of bird’s-eye views of their land. We distributed printed and digital copies of the data and engaged in discussions about limits and opportunities of using different types of drone imagery, and about the ethics of drone-flying in general.
The reactions were unanimously positive. Initially people wanted to hang the posters on their walls, because they found them pretty. A followup response concerned the use of the information: farmers and public administrators talked about using this data to plan where to grow which crops, and resolve boundary issues with neighbours. Given that the images were already a few years old, stakeholders also thought it would be interesting to use the pictures for before-after comparisons of the rapidly changing landscapes. For the interpretation of the imagery, it turned out that different viewing angles were particularly useful. We had used two different drones, a rather professional one that systematically maps the ground at a straight angle at extremely high resolution, and one of those more commonly known video drones, typically used for filming and picture-taking at different angles from above. Interestingly, the latter produced images that were easier to interpret for all, independent of their previous experience working with aerial imagery.
Farmers holding a printed aerial image
Farmers holding a printed aerial image of the surrounding area. The building in the background is a pumping station located in the upper right side of the image. (photo credit: Fritz Kleinschroth)
Two men wearing masks in an office
Looking at images of dams and floating vegetation with the manager of Kafue gorge power station. (photo credit: Henry Zimba)
Three people wearing masks sitting at a table
Identification of landscape elements shown on drone images with WWF Zambia. (photo credit: Fritz Kleinschroth)
However, there was also skepticism. Ahead of the data collection, we were aware that some associated drones with threats, so we avoided populated areas, and only flew over territories with the explicit permission of landowners. Such concerns may be due to the military origin of the technology, but also the fear of being spied on— often related to the practice of land grabbing, where investors buy large swathes of land, often without respect for the customary rights of small-scale farmers who live in the area. Given these perceived threats, we assert that it is even more important to share the technology, and the final products with a wide range of stakeholders to initiate a process of empowerment. The more people can interpret and use aerial imagery of their land themselves, the more effectively they can carry out their land-use, and potentially defend their land rights when under threat. Yet, the democratisation of drone technology still has a long way to go before it will be in the hands of many, rather than a few actors, as is currently the case. The very strict regulations of drone-flying that are currently in place in Zambia may reflect a general skepticism against the technology, and do not necessarily help with making it more accessible and well understood.

Our project ended with a talk at University of Zambia, mostly to students of a remote sensing class. Not unexpectedly, their attitudes towards drones were extremely positive, and we sensed very high expectations towards this technology. For inclusive and critical future uses of drones, we probably need both regulations, and equitable access to using these novel technologies. But what it needs most is the enthusiasm that we experienced while travelling together in Zambia, when presenting a bird’s-eye view of the landscape to the people who live and work there.

Links

DAFNE project website: https://dafne.ethz.ch/
ETH4D Research to Action grant: https://eth4d.ethz.ch/funding-opportunities/eth4d-research-to-action-grants.html
Kleinschroth, F., R. S. Winton, E. Calamita, F. Niggemann, M. Botter, and B. Wehrli (2020): Living with floating vegetation invasions. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01360-6
Winton, R., F. Kleinschroth, E. Calamita, M. Botter, C. Teodoru, I. Nyambe, and B. Wehrli (2020). Potential of aquatic weeds to improve water quality in natural waterways of the Zambezi catchment. Scientific Reports 10: 15467. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72499-1
Kleinschroth, F., Banda, K., Zimba, H., Dondeyne, S., Nyambe, I., Spratley, S., & Winton, R. S. (2022). Drone imagery to create a common understanding of landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning, 228(December), 104571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104571

About the authors

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Photo credit: Tim Mak
Dr. Fritz Kleinschroth is a Senior Scientist in the Ecosystem Management group, Department of Environmental Systems Sciences at ETH Zurich. He is working on landscape approaches to integrate infrastructure development and nature conservation along rural-urban gradients.
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Photo credit: Kawawa Banda
Dr. Kawawa Banda is a Senior Lecturer in Groundwater Hydrology and Remote Sensing at the Integrated Water Resources Management Center, Department of Geology in the School of Mines at the University of Zambia, in Zambia. His research interests are in Remote Sensing, Environmental Geology and Water Resources Management.