A Bundle of Blogs: Aerial video of insurance and forensic sites taken with cameras mounted on drones

Aerial video of a site taken from a low flying drone is one of the best insurance and forensic investigative methods that I’ve used in a long time.  I’ve had excellent results since learning of this method in 2014 and my enthusiasm continues to grow – the following 15 blogs attest to that.

I attempted in the blogs to explain and demonstrate the worth of this method.  After 15 blogs it seemed time to bundle them together.  Particularly after the watershed development explained in Blog #1 below that enables me to plan a virtual flight over a failure or accident site days in advance and miles away.  New software and Google Earth make it happen.  But it can be very simple and low tech with a kid’s drone as explained in Blog #5.

What we’re doing is simple enough – taking aerial video of a site and analyzing it for data and evidence.  What’s different today is that we’re getting video from way down low, 10s to 100s of feet above a site.  In the past it was only possible from up high, many 1,000s of feet, from high flying planes.  Close to the ground, the detail captured with high resolution cameras mounted on drones is something else.

The following blogs describe what’s going on.  Several are of sites involved in insurance and forensic engineering investigations – see Blog #12 of an environmental investigation in the U.S.  Other blogs in the Bundle indicate the potential of up-close aerial video.

  1. It’s here, cost effective, efficient aerial video for forensic investigation!  Posted October 8, 2019
  2. The drone will get the alleged killers, if they’re there.  Posted July 31, 2019
  3. What’s wrong with this (sinkhole) picture near Vancouver?  Posted February 20, 2019
  4. Reliable forensic evidence from drone photography: Aerial photography from way down low.  Posted October 31, 2018
  5. A kid’s toy drone can photograph the site of an engineering failure, a personal injury or a traffic accident.  Posted September 12, 2018
  6. Getting evidence in slip and fall accidents and building failures with video taken from a drone.  Posted August 9, 2018
  7. Drone video as a forensic technique is joined by drone photography as an art form.  Posted August 2, 2017
  8. “Unexpected” evidence and the importance of drone photography in forensic investigation.  Posted July 19, 2017
  9. Conference call on a “drone flight” reduces cost of civil litigation.  May 18, 2017
  10. Getting evidence with a low cost, low tech drone flight over a forensic site.  Posted March 31, 2017
  11. “Crewing” on a forensic drone flight.  Posted October 4, 2016
  12. U.S. civil litigation lawyer on using air photos in environmental litigation.  Posted November 18, 2015
  13. Fixed wing drones – another tool in forensic engineering investigation.  Posted November 4, 2015
  14. New forensic aerial photographic method proving extremely valuable.  Posted January 30, 2015
  15. A picture’s worth a 1000 words possibly many 1000s in forensic engineering with a new aerial photographic technique.  Posted January 15, 2014

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(Posted by Eric E. Jorden, M.Sc., P.Eng. Consulting Professional Engineer, Forensic Engineer, Geotechnology Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada October 31, 2019 ejorden@eastlink.ca)      

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