PROTECT

Drones are key in new project that develops methods to prioritise groundwater protection in Danish land use planning.

The new research project PROTECT (Groundwater Protection in a Changing Landscape), funded by Innovation Fund Denmark, will develop drone-based methods over the next four years that can secure the necessary knowledge for groundwater protection in future land use planning. The project is led by the Department of Geochemistry at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and builds upon knowledge gained in the AGAVE research project that SDU UAS Center was partner in together with SkyTEM.

Central to PROTECT is a new geophysical method for groundwater monitoring that will combine novel technological components created by SDU UAS Center with a SkyTEM-developed drone-based TEM Array carried on a Heavy Lift Drone, enabling the drone to map the extent and nature of groundwater aquifers in large areas. The resulting fully airborne drone-based TEM system works by sending electromagnetic impulses into the ground in order to collect high-resolution data in large areas all year round. The use of drone technology enables mapping the subsurface in a safe and cost-effective way.

The research project will test and develop the methods on the island of Samsø in 2025-2029 in collaboration with authorities and stakeholders. Methods and analyses will subsequently be scaled up to a national level.

The total budget is approximately DKK 35 million, of which DKK 26 million come from Innovation Fund Denmark.

PROTECT partners

The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS, lead)
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen (KU-IFRO)
SDU Drone Center, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute, University of Southern Denmark (SDU)
Groundwater Mapping, Danish Environmental Protection Agency
Department of Public Health, Aarhus University (AU HEALTH)
Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University (AU GEO)
Samsø Municipality
Central Denmark Region
SkyTEM