Research and development to introduce remote sensor technologies for observing the ground surface from the sky are being promoted in the construction field. Recently, the application of UAV to construction sites and other projects for improving social infrastructure is thriving. In i-Construction promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport it is common to perform the three-dimensional measurement of the ground surface exposed during earth work using three-dimensional data created from UAV images.

Under such circumstances, the authors have been working on the “current status observations” and “construction progress management” to observe the daily condition of the construction site, and are developing the “shape control” technology to apply UAV to three-dimensional measurement of daily changing ground surface. The management of the construction site is the on-site staff responsibility and has been labor demanding so far, therefore efforts have been made to improve productivity. In this paper, a case where UAV image based three-dimensional modeling is applied to “shape control” technology is described, and case examples of utilizing UAV presented from the viewpoint of work efficiency improvements are presented.

Seagrasses/seaweeds and coral reefs are important not to only provide abundant biological ecosystems and protect shores from the impact of waves, but also capture and absorb CO₂ in the “Blue Carbon” cycle. From the Asia Air Survey, we introduce two coastal mapping projects; the one is to investigate the change of seagrasses/seaweeds before and after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, and the other one is to map coral reefs cover in Kerama-shoto Islands to examine to mapping with satellite-based statistical analysis method is able to substitute the current map with visual interpretation by aerial photo.

Civil engineering inspection methods which enable sound decisions on the maintenance and renewal of aging social infrastructure under the financial and engineering resources constrains are being developed. The main issues for inspections are the large surface to inspect and the need for scaffold or inspection vehicle for crack inspection of elevated structures such as viaducts, piers and dam structures. Also inspections by engineering staff are costly, require qualified manpower and there is risk of accidents. Hence, a new system for safety inspection of the surface of structures by using the UAV multicopter (UAV) is addressing the important aspect of concrete crack inspection by automatically detecting the cracks and estimating the crack width. The possibility of detection of cracks width of 0.2mm which is the limit value to take repairs and the estimation of the crack width with the same accuracy are being show in the present paper as a result of the demonstration experiments for the real massive concrete structures by using the developed system.

We have been imaging the seafloor topography using the integration of bathymetric data obtained by multi-narrow beam echo sounder and DEM (Digital Elevation Model) data. The seafloor topography imaging shows not only the large-scale topographical features, but also small-scale features. In the case of the Japan Sea, the imaging indicates that the topographic highs such as seamounts are distributed in the basin area, and that the general trend of the seafloor topography is different at each area. These features of the seafloor topography are useful for understanding the formation process and distribution of active faults and folds in the Japan Sea.

The purpose of this study is to apply satellite RS technology to support an efficient green tea production. Multispectral cameras are installed in several tea plantations for fixed point observation and detailed investigation by UAV is also carried out. In future, we plan to combine these multi-platform data and provide tea producers with higher precision information.

The Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA) is suitable for planetary atmospheric remote sensing because of its high spatial resolution that can resolve even the small planetary disk of Neptune. From the photometryof planetary atmospheric emissions continuum that are dominated by collision-induced absorption (CIA), the horizontal/verticaltemperature structurecan be estimated at different altitudes.To enable imaging photometry of Neptune using the ALMA, we developed radiative transfer code that includes the CIA opacity for application to the upper frequency ALMA Bands 7 to 10, in the 275 to 950GHz frequency range to investigate the structure ofNeptune’s atmosphere at altitudes that can be analyzed by continuum emissionobservations atspecific frequencies which are not affectedby the strong absorption of carbon monoxide. We used the CIA intensity parameter provided by the HIgh-resolution TRANsmission (HITRAN) database for the estimation of the absorption coefficient. The estimated disk-averaged brightness temperature agrees with previous continuum observations. The contribution function indicates that the entire range of ALMA Bands 7 to 10 enables us to investigate the vertical temperature structurefrom below the tropopause to the upper troposphere over the south pole, which is in the middle of previously detected stratospheric and tropospheric hot spots that exhibited ahigher (7-30K) brightness temperaturethan lower latitudinal regions.

The utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has been spreading rapidly in forest remote sensing. UAV remote sensing has several advantages, including flexibility in observation interval setting, the acquisition of finer spatial resolution image data by low-altitude flight, and low operating cost. UAV systems consist of fixed-wing platforms or rotor-based copter systems, and attention has recently focused on the latter, particularly the multirotor type. Many different optical sensors can be mounted on UAVs, and attempts are being made to acquire information in the near-infrared region by remodeling commercially available digital cameras. In addition, UAVs equipped with hyperspectral sensors or laser measuring instruments can be employed for forest observation. Since UAV aerial photographs are generally acquired as stereo pair data, it is possible to obtain height information. Additionally, the use of Structure from Motion (SfM) technology to generate point cloud data has made it easy to acquire 3D forest data. The utilization of UAVs has also been reported for forest road maintenance and for monitoring forest fires and illegal logging, and expectations are very high for their use in wildlife management. Future developments include the popularization of near-infrared sensors, the realization of precise phenology measurement, and the implementation of triple-hyper (hypertemporal, hyperspectral, and hyperspatial) observation.