Case Study: The Nature Conservancy maps aquatic habitats and advances conservation with DroneDeploy

Mapping Aquatic Habitats with Drones

The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization protecting lands and waters worldwide, needed a better way to collect critical environmental data in fast-changing aquatic habitats where traditional surveys can fall short. In Tomales Bay, the team partnered with DroneDeploy to support a project with Hog Island Oyster Company and UC Santa Cruz, using drones to map eelgrass and assess the impact of oyster aquaculture, even in remote areas with zero connectivity.

With DroneDeploy’s offline mapping capabilities and easy-to-use platform, The Nature Conservancy was able to gather high-quality imagery and “primary science data” for conservation research. The result was a faster, more effective way to capture fleeting environmental changes and improve understanding of aquatic ecosystems, helping advance the organization’s conservation work now and in the future.

The Nature Conservancy

Matt Merrifield

GIS Manager