The US is home to approximately 228 billion trees or different species and sizes, and most of them pose different levels of risk to utility assets and communities. Keeping high-risk trees under control is the daily challenge faced by arborists, and this task is not without issues or challenges.
Your operations can be dangerous, profit margins are low, and recruitment are all cause for concern. Coupled with climate change and the increasing risk of wildfires, the role that arborists play has gone from vital to critical.
When you have such an important role you play, how can technology help you work smarter, not harder?
Sharper Shape has a suite of services that can help arborists overcome some of these issues.
Protecting critical infrastructure
We all rely on power for our everyday lives. So, protecting power transmission infrastructure is essential. While there are many contributing factors, vegetation interference is currently one of the leading causes of power outages. Overgrown vegetation near powerlines can pose a significant safety risk too. Trees or branches that meet powerlines can cause power outages, electrical faults, and even fires and these incidents can endanger people’s lives, damage property, and disrupt essential services.
Keeping vegetation under control around powerlines is fundamental for ensuring public safety, maintaining reliable power supply, optimizing transmission efficiency, facilitating maintenance activities, and minimizing environmental impact.
Find out how Utilities are protecting infrastructure
Keeping your people safe
From working at height to operating near potentially life-threatening high voltage infrastructure, your job is not without risk, and you will have likely already identified means and methods of keeping your people safe on the job.
The role of drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play a significant role in how drone service providers (DSPs) inspect critical infrastructure and it’s becoming part and parcel for arborists too. While it’s important that you can inspect vegetation from the ground to improve the safety of your people, you could be missing a trick.
Technology has allowed us to change our processes and enhance how we live our day to day lives, but those working in the vegetation management space can access tools to make their operations safer and more profitable.
Utilizing technology powered by Ai
We understand that there is technology out there for everything nowadays. In fact, technology can improve operations, keep your people safe, make you ‘stickier’ with your clients (because you’re producing high-quality data analysis and visualization to support your high-quality work) and, at the end of the day, increase your profit margins.
Many arborists are already utilizing remote sensing such as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and aerial imagery, and drones, to collect data about trees and vegetation. These technologies allow you to access detailed information about tree health, canopy cover, tree height, and structural integrity, without the need to walk the line – saving you time and money.
But, once you’ve collected all that data, what are you doing with it?
Using a single flight’s multi-sensory data, our software – Sharper CORE – can provide analytics for tree detection, species identification, and fall in or encroachment information. Our powerful artificial intelligence algorithms (AI) and automations can identify problems and compile a fully prioritized vegetation management plan for your ground crews to execute – allowing you to plan for the future, now.
Have you heard of a Living Digital Twin? You have now – find out more here
How does this benefit you?
Well, it allows you to collect all the data that you need – but we add the rest including the ability to streamline the process of coordinating, collecting, and delivering actionable information from raw data. In CORE, you can effortlessly create flight orders, handle checklists and risk assessments, seamlessly coordinate and verify data imports, analysis, and delivery. All the software you need to do the job in one neat package.
By embracing these technological advancements, arborists can streamline their workflows, improve data accuracy, enhance safety, make informed decisions, and provide more effective integrated vegetation management (IVM).
It is important for arborists to stay updated on emerging technologies in the field and evaluate how they can be integrated into their practices to optimize efficiency and deliver high-quality tree care.
Sharper CORE is simple to use, easy to understand, inexpensive (protecting your profit margins) and, it can be taken with you on the go.
Find out how you can:
- Visualize your projects, from planning, execution and delivery of analytics
- Collaborate with your clients, contractors and internal team members
- Manage your data before, during and after data collection
- Provide your clients with high quality, visual reports of their data
Sharper Shape builds Living Digital Twin (LDT) software to help power transmission & distribution (T&D) utilities, drone service providers, engineers, and arborists, manage risk and create operational efficiencies, creating a safer world through better insights.
