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Drone Leak Investigation · Metro Vancouver

Aerial Moisture Orthomosaic Mapping in Burnaby, BC

The deliverable layer: survey-grade, georeferenced moisture orthomosaics — radiometric thermal fused with RTK photogrammetry — exported to CAD and GIS for engineers, consultants, and owners who need leak evidence they can measure from. Flown by Transport Canada-certified RPAS pilots and confirmed by the ground crews serving Burnaby and the Metro Vancouver region — since 1999 as BC's leak detection specialists.

RTK cm
Georeferencing accuracy
Radiometric
Per-pixel temperature data
CAD + GIS
Export formats

Free phone consult · No pressure · Mon–Sat 8am–6pm PT

Flying Burnaby: local context

Metrotown/Brentwood towers plus refinery-adjacent industry give Burnaby both envelope and industrial-thermal demand.

Local property profile: Metrotown and Brentwood tower clusters on post-tensioned slabs, 1960s–70s walk-ups mid-slope, and heavy industrial along the Fraser.

Ground conditions: Till slopes give clean 2–3 m penetration; peat and high water table near Burnaby Lake and Big Bend cut effective depth — survey design accounts for it.

Typical aerial moisture orthomosaic mapping work around Burnaby

  • Tower façade scans
  • Industrial heat-loss mapping
  • Building envelope and roofing consultants
  • Civil and geotechnical engineering files
  • Litigation and insurance evidence packages

How the Burnaby survey runs

  1. 1

    Deliverable specification

    Coordinate system, accuracy requirements, export formats, and analysis goals defined with your technical team before the first flight — the survey is built backward from the document you need.

  2. 2

    RTK survey flight

    Systematic photogrammetry plus radiometric thermal at fixed parameters, with RTK positioning — every pixel of both datasets lands within centimetres of its true coordinates.

  3. 3

    Fusion processing

    Visual orthomosaic, thermal orthomosaic, and (where relevant) elevation model processed and co-registered; moisture anomalies digitised as measurable polygons with areas and coordinates.

  4. 4

    Engineering handoff

    GeoTIFF, DWG/DXF overlays, shapefiles or the formats your workflow uses — plus the annotated PDF for the humans. Raw radiometric frames available for your own analysis.

Burnaby questions, answered

How is this different from an ordinary drone thermal survey?

Rigor and usability. A screening flight answers 'where should we look?' An orthomosaic deliverable answers 'exactly how large, exactly where, against exactly which drawing?' — survey-grade positioning, fixed capture parameters, co-registered thermal and visual mosaics, and anomalies digitised as measurable polygons. It is the difference between a flashlight and a drawing.

Can our engineers analyse the raw data themselves?

Yes, and we encourage it — radiometric frames carry per-pixel temperature data, and we deliver them alongside the processed mosaics. Consultants run their own thresholds and interpretations; our processing gives them a co-registered, georeferenced foundation rather than a black-box conclusion.

What accuracy can we actually count on?

With RTK positioning and proper ground control, planimetric accuracy lands in the low-centimetre range — sufficient to scale moisture polygons, quantify areas for repair pricing, and overlay repeat surveys for change detection. Accuracy specs are stated per project and verified against control, not just claimed.

Can you legally fly drone leak surveys in Burnaby?

Yes — our pilots hold Transport Canada RPAS certification with advanced-operations capability, and Burnaby flights run under whatever airspace authorizations the location requires. Metrotown/Brentwood towers plus refinery-adjacent industry give Burnaby both envelope and industrial-thermal demand. Flight planning, NOTAM checks, and authorizations are part of the service, not your problem.

How do Burnaby ground conditions affect what the survey reads?

Burnaby ground is predominantly glacial till slopes with peat pockets around Burnaby Lake and Big Bend. Till slopes give clean 2–3 m penetration; peat and high water table near Burnaby Lake and Big Bend cut effective depth — survey design accounts for it. For buried-leak work that matters: escaping water changes the moisture and thermal behaviour of exactly that ground, and our analysts interpret the surface signal against the local soil character — then our acoustic ground crews confirm the suspect zones before anyone digs.

What does aerial moisture orthomosaic mapping cost in Burnaby?

Province-wide pricing — no regional premium for Burnaby. Single-site surveys typically start in the high hundreds; network corridors, portfolios, and multi-asset programs are quoted by scope. The free phone consult (604-239-9934) produces a firm number in about five minutes.

Need aerial moisture orthomosaic mapping in Burnaby?

Free phone consult — site, access, airspace, and a firm quote in five minutes. No pressure.

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