The Yellow River, as the mother river of the Chinese nation, has always been shown with the image of "majestic and magnificent", but also because of the majestic momentum makes people daunting, the ancients once used "the Yellow River touches the mountains for thousands of miles, and the vortex hub turns to the Qin landmine" to describe its turbulence and strength, and also because of "the water is wide and boundless, deep and bottomless, and it does not know how many thousands of miles" expressed the respect of the ancients for the mother river. Because it flows through the Loess Plateau and other places, the Yellow River mixed with mud has always had the impression of "yellow and turbid", but recently, the water of the Yellow River has become clear! In January 24, some netizens photographed the spectacular scene of "Clear Stream Waterfall" at Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River in Yan'an, Shaanxi, and then exploded on social **.
On January 7, Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, netizens photographed the Yellow River becoming clear.
Another historical rarity is that the recent Yellow River is almost the age of Anlan. According to CCTV reports, in February 24, the Ningxia section of the Yellow River was opened smoothly, with an average of 8 days ahead of many years, and the 2023-2024 flood season of the Ningxia section of the Yellow River also ended smoothly, and no ** personnel were created. You must know that in the more than 2,000 years of recorded history, the Yellow River has only been cleared 43 times, but the breach flooded more than 1,500 times, and the flood in autumn and winter is regarded as irresistible by manpower"Acts of God"。
Is all this seemingly "abnormal" phenomenon an accident? In fact, the ecological protection and management of many river basins in China, such as the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, has always been inseparable from the perseverance and dedication of practitioners in the water conservancy industry. Among the many forces guarding the Yellow River, the "Science and Technology Inspector" UAV is a special one, which not only effectively solves the pain points of water administration inspection, but also leads the development of water administration inspection in the direction of digital intelligence.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are empowered to help the country and the people
The Liaocheng section of the Yellow River is inspected by drones.
As early as 2015, the Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources (Yellow Committee) began to explore the application of drones, and now drones have become the key equipment in the construction of the integrated three-dimensional monitoring system of air, space, ground and water in the Yellow River Basin. For example, three DJI airports have been deployed in the Liaocheng section of the Yellow River to patrol the river and grasp the water level around the clock, and the collected information will be automatically uploaded and archived without manual work. These UAVs can efficiently collect data and conduct real-time reconnaissance, serving key businesses such as water administration and hydrology, soil and water conservation (water conservation). Many of these businesses are not well known to the public, but they are closely related to our lives, the most typical is flood control, which is related to the security of the country and the people.
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) inspects the Puyang section of the Yellow River.
During the summer flood season every year, the flood control pressure of the Yellow River is very great, especially in the downstream section of the "above-ground hanging river", the riverbed is higher than the ground on both banks, and it is very easy to flood. "Seven lower and eight upper" is the key time point of the summer flood season, many sections of the Yellow River have faced the situation of difficult inspection and emergency inspection, especially the Puyang section of Henan, half of the area of Puyang City is in the Yellow River beach area, and the pressure of manual inspection is extremely great. However, after drones become the "standard" for inspections, the efficiency has increased by more than 3 times, daily inspections have become easier, and 24-hour uninterrupted inspections can be achieved during the flood season. The equipment of infrared drones makes night patrols no longer difficult. The information collected by the drone can also be transmitted back to the command center in real time to provide decision-making information for flood control deployment.
At night, the lidar data of ice accumulation in the frozen river section was collected.
The flood in winter is experienced every year in many northern regions of our country. According to the China Hydrological News, the ice in the Yellow River is more difficult to monitor with traditional methods, because of the high uncertainty and rapid formation of the river section, location and time where ice jams or ice dams occur, so there is an ancient saying that "the river officials are not guilty of the Lingxin breach". According to the Yellow Committee, drone images are now used to analyze the density and speed of drift ice in river sections, which has obvious advantages, which improves work efficiency and accuracy, and also allows personnel and equipment not to risk wading through water and ice. According to DJI, the drone is equipped with the Zenmuse P1 mapping camera, which can also accurately measure the freezing length of the river and the distance between ice and the shore, and the drone is equipped with the Zenmuse L1 Zenmuse L2 lidar, which can accurately measure multiple data at night.
UAVs also serve the ecological and environmental protection of the Yellow River Basin, which is related to lucid waters and lush mountains. The Yellow River Committee has also been exploring the use of drones and other scientific and technological means to rectify the "four chaos" problems in the Yellow River Basin, such as indiscriminate occupation, indiscriminate mining, indiscriminate piling, and indiscriminate construction. It is understood that drones can fly over obstacles to find hidden problems, generate 2D and 3D models through DJI Terra, and digitally archive and record problems. Subsequently, the drone can also inspect and accept the rectification situation, and complete the closed loop from the discovery of problems to the completion of rectification.
"Science and technology inspectors" to protect thousands of rivers
Similar stories not only appear in the Yellow River, but also in many rivers, rivers, lakes, seas, and even streams, streams, ditches, and meanders in China, which are used in many fields such as soil and water conservation (water conservation) and hydrology, which together help realize our yearning for a better life.
Hydrology studies the temporal and spatial distribution and change law of water in nature, monitors and monitors the flow rate and flow of water, and provides a scientific basis for the construction of water conservancy facilities and flood control. Director Zhao from the Hydrological Technology Research Center of the Yangtze River Hydrological Bureau said in an online open class that the construction of the Three Gorges Project has relied on more than 100 years of hydrological data to determine key indicators such as dam height, reservoir capacity, and flood control reservoir capacity. The history of the flood in 2020 is rare, but the timely monitoring and forecasting of water conditions in the hydrological industry has made flood control more calm and efficient, and the cooperation of hydrology and water conservancy projects has successfully avoided a large number of **, so that most of the public does not even know about the existence of the flood.
Infrared drones can also monitor water level and water temperature at night.
Director Zhao said that in the past, hydrological monitoring could only rely on sensors installed on fixed cables, which could only monitor the hydrological data of one section, and the hydrological cycle was a complex process, and it was difficult to flood only a few sections. Now, drones can inspect rivers within a total of 20 kilometers upstream and downstream, making flood prediction more timely and accurate. DJI staff also introduced that traditional hydrological equipment may fail when the water rises suddenly, and the drone's camera can also calculate the flow rate of water by identifying small waves and floating objects in the river, and combined with the known river section information, the flow rate of water can be calculated. Larger models such as the Matrice 350 can also be directly mounted with a current radar.
Soil and water conservation studies how to prevent and control soil erosion, so as to make water clearer and air fresher. Ling, director of the Soil and Water Conservation Monitoring Center Station of the Haihe River Water Conservancy Commission, said in the open class that soil erosion is likened to "the earth is sick", which will bring many harms to our living environment, such as water erosion will take away nutrients from the surface of the land, which will affect food security, and wind erosion will also bring sandstorms. And drones are also useful in the field of water conservation. Interpreting satellite remote sensing images also requires a lot of field verification, which is almost impossible to complete manually, while drones can be used to take pictures within a radius of 5 kilometers. Some man-made environmental damage occurs in private gardens, which are not visible from the ground and can be easily solved with drones.
The achievements of the water conservation and hydrology industries are something to be proud of, but both experts say that as people's yearning for a better life and higher requirements for a better environment are higher, the burden on their shoulders is also heavier. At present, the work intensity of personnel is already very high, how to continuously improve quality and efficiency? High technology is one of the answers, especially the advancement of drones, which can continue to help reduce costs and increase efficiency, and can also change many impossibilities.
"DJI underestimated its own role".
UAVs have been developing in the water conservancy industry for many years, and now they are relatively popular, and have even become the subject of many national skills competitions. Some hydrological experts said that 70% of the employees in their units have obtained relevant drone driving licenses, and everyone can be relatively proficient in operating drones. But that's far from the whole story, as DJI's technology continues to advance, so does the change it brings to the water industry.
The improved performance of the drone will further improve the work efficiency. Yang Teng, head of water conservancy in DJI's industry, said that in the field of water protection, the drone is also used by a single person, and the new m**ic 3e has higher investigation accuracy and efficiency. In the hydrological field, models such as the DJI Matrice 3D are also equipped with mechanical shutters that allow for precise intervals between frames and more accurate when measuring water flow rates.
Some hydrological experts believe that drone airports are a new revolutionary product, and DJI has underestimated its role. Director Zhao said that in the hydrological industry, drone airports have solved the problems of grassroots dare not fly, no one flies, and cannot upload data. The difference between a drone airport and a drone is like the difference between a sweeping robot and a vacuum cleaner, and fully autonomous operation liberates manpower and reduces the demand for personnel.
Last year, DJI released its new unmanned platform, DJI Airport 2, with drones upgraded with mapping capabilities that are more conducive to the digitalization of the water conservancy industry and help realize digital twins (digitizing real-world objects or scenes to create a digital version of a "clone"). Using drones to regularly model the dam and the mountain, and comparing the 3D models of different periods, you can find the deformation of the dam and the hidden dangers of geological disasters. Director Zhao said that the integration of various data collected by DJI Airport 2 into the hydrological early warning system, combined with the artificial intelligence model, also makes the flood forecast more timely and accurate. DJI staff said that China's natural ecological environment is still complex, the existing mechanism is also improving, and the relevant supporting technologies are just starting, so they believe that relying on technological progress and further improvement of the mechanism, there is still a broad world to explore in the front line of the industry in the future. Only by constantly improving and refining the technology in our hands and solving the needs and pain points of front-line personnel can we help the high-quality development of the entire industry and contribute to the realization of a better life for the people.
Compared with just acting as an "eye in the sky", the strength of DJI drones to penetrate into the industry and help the industry solve problems is becoming more and more apparent. Thanks to the continuous development of key artificial intelligence technologies such as machine vision, deep learning, intelligent control, and environmental perception, artificial intelligence dominated by robotics and drone technology is a powerful tool to promote the construction of ecological civilization, and we are fortunate to see that the application of drone technology in the field of ecological and environmental protection is also expanding. Director Zhao is also full of confidence that in the future, with the further deepening of cooperation between the industry and DJI, the role of drone airports "will exceed everyone's expectations".