Aerial photography and video have grown in the produce industry. California has begun using aerial technology to achieve long-term solutions to the ongoing drought.
The California Department of Water Resources is using innovative airborne technology to map California’s groundwater basins. The information will help prepare for the future fight for water in the state, according to the department’s website.
Helicopter-based technology scans the subsurface of the ground. It’s been likened to taking an MRI of the earth, a news release said.
The technology gathers information about the state’s groundwater aquifer structure to support the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The act created a statewide framework to help protect groundwater resources over the long term, the website said.
The technology will allow scientists to see beneath the ground’s surface in order to give agencies important information in the fight for water in future droughts. The data collected will be used to create continuous images that allow people to see what the underground aquifers look like.
In the Salinas Valley of California, surveys have been completed, said the release. Surveys will be complete in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys in the summer of 2022. And the results will be ready around the end of 2022.
“The data collected during these surveys will provide a better understanding of California’s groundwater systems, and in turn, support more informed and sustainable groundwater management and drought preparedness,” Steven Springhorn, Sustainable Groundwater Management Act technical assistance manager at the California Department of Water Resources, said in the release.
The survey data will create an image of the subsurface to a depth of about 1,000 feet below the ground surface. The image provides information about large-scale aquifer structures and geology, the release added.
