South Pacific Flying Labs Newsletters 2019

1. In February of this year, the remote village of Draubuta in Sigatoka,
located between difficult-to-navigate terrain and a river, was hit by
a violent landslide. Already struggling with water and network
issues, the landslide destroyed six villagers’ houses and left many
apprehensive of the environment upon which they live and rely. In
July, two teams made up of members from the National Disaster
Management Office (NDMO) and South Pacific Flying Labs made
their way to the village for a three-day mission equipped with
survey gear, an eBee, and an Inspire 2. The team conducted
controlled aerial flights aided by real-time kinematic survey
equipment and post-processed ground-controlled points (GCP) to
link the real ground elevations with ortho-mosaic outputs from the
drone imagery. The NDMO officers supported the laying of GCP on
the ground which covered the existing village boundary of Draubuta
and the new village relocation site.
From this, digital surface and digital terrain models were generated
along with ortho-mosaics to highlight areas which would be
affected next and where it would make sense to relocate. Sample
river inundation models were also produced for future planning and
to assess which houses could be impacted in the coming years.
Read more at https://blog.werobotics.org/2019/09/20/after-
devastating-landslide-drones-aid-in-relocation-effort/
Fly like a Girl Program: 2nd Session
on 14th August, 11 participants
For the very first time, the youth
program was held in the Western
Division of Fiji. The one day program
was carried out at a high school
located in the second capital city
(Lautoka) of Fiji. As per the first edition
of our Fly Like A Girl training, this
program also had the objective to
increase the knowledge of “STEM field
related studies” of participants. It
included learning drone rules and
regulations in Fiji with groups creating
their own flight codes with the theme
of drones helping communities for
management plans. Participants were
divided into groups of 3 to have equal
opportunities at flying the mini drones
and participating in coding exercises.
The students were very keen to know
the procedures of creating maps with
the use of drones and the benefits in
helping communities further develop
with the use of innovative technology.
Participants learned to prepare flight
plans using Tellos (mini drone) before
analyzing a map generated from
drone images of a settlement. The
program then allowed the students to
present their results after analysis of
the map, with the aim of increasing
student self-confidence and
presentation skills. The day concluded
with a Q&A session with gifts (T-shirt)
for good answers related to the days
activities.
Newsletter Q3 2019
Draubuta Village Landslide Project Youth trainings
Other events
On behalf of South Pacific Flying Labs Amrita Lal attended
the Women to Watch in UAS conference (4-6 September
2019) to collect her award as an honoree.

2. Newsletter April, 2019
Youth training
Aerial Adventure Program: Session 2
on 31th August, 18 participants
The program was designed for
participants to experience flying drone in
the real world. Introduction of drone rules
and regulations in Fiji were discussed
among the participants. The benefits of
having technology to solve problems that
can be identified around us and which
drones can play a vital role for any
organisations. STEM field was also
mentioned heavily in the program. We
made sure that the participants would
explore other career opportunities after
participating the program. The
participants were very eager to learn
more on flying the drones as well as what
programs can be associated with drones,
to help build a better nation. A particular
student mentioned that he wanted to
become a land surveyor which made the
boys eager to learn on the basic
procedures of surveying. The South
Pacific Flying Labs instructors were
excited to share more on our geospatial
experiences with them.
Our key learning was that the South
Pacific Flying Labs should take out the
programs to other parts of the nation in
order to empower young youths on STEM
field studies. Fiji is known to have more
rural areas and youth in these areas don't
have many opportunities to receive STEM
education. Thus, our program would be a
motivation for the youth in the rural areas
to pursue their dreams and make a
change in our nation.
Photo Gallery
Follow us and Contact us
https://flyinglabs.org/southpacific/
pacific@flyinglabs.org
https://blog.werobotics.org/tag/south-pacific/
South Pacific Flying Labs
Geospatial Science Unit
The University of the South Pacific
Private Bag, Laucala Campus,
Suva, Fiji
Fly like a Girl Training activities
Participants analyse the aerial imagery during
the Aerial Adventure training

3. South Pacific Flying Labs is partnering with the Ministry of
Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation (MOU signed) and
the Provincial Council of Serua to implement Serua Mapping
project. The main challenges we are facing currently are
navigating through the highlands of Serua in boats and carriers
with heavy equipment and unfavorable weather. Trying to keep
up with stakeholders schedules is also another challenge.
The project has two phases of 8 days each. First phase
almost completed last week. Next one is scheduled for the
22nd of July. The location of our project is province of Serua
(highlands, coastal areas and in between). Main beneficiaries of
our project are the people of these villages (target is to cover 12
of them) and The Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty
Alleviation and the Provincial Council of Fiji.
Expected outcomes are maps (resource and hazard maps) for
each village to fill in the gaps of existing data and a report
outlining the hardships currently being faced.
Report to be sent to NGO's for further focused assistance. The
project is aimed at using UAV's to highlight major issues in the
villagers daily lives and get interested NGO's to assist them.
The report will also be sent to the ministry and the provincial
councils office to prove the use of UAV's in harsh conditions to
encourage them to adapt to it.
South Pacific Flying Labs at the
Career Expo
Amrita Lal, South Pacific Flying Labs
Coordinator was a guest speaker at
the Career Expo to talk about
SPFL's many youth centered
programs and how youths can forge
careers out of Geography, Social
Science and problem solving with
UAV's.
The expo took place on 25th June in
Jai Narayan College, Suva.
Participants were composed of the
students of Jai Narayan College.
CASA Certification Training
South Pacific Flying Labs members
including Aleen, Wise, Tarish,
Semisi and Amrita, participated in
the CASA Certification Training
between 4th and 6th of June, in
Brisbane, Australia.
Training was carried out to
complement the work done in
November 2018. We all successfully
completed our training on both fixed
wing and multirotor platforms.
Main outcome was CASA Certified
RePL. This training was done for
formalities and to check the
conditions set by CASA.
Newsletter June 2019
Serua Mapping Project Other activities
Key Achievement
Successfully completing our training and getting our CASA
RePL
Starting the Serua Mapping Project after several delays due
to bad weather conditions and scheduling issues.

4. Newsletter April, 2019
Upcoming projects
Phase Two - Serua Mapping Project
(expected date: 22nd July)
Photo Gallery
Follow us and Contact us
https://flyinglabs.org/southpacific
/
pacific@flyinglabs.org
https://blog.werobotics.org/tag/south-pacific/
South Pacific Flying Labs
Geospatial Science Unit
The University of the South Pacific
Private Bag, Laucala Campus,
Suva, Fiji
Interview session with the residence of Naimasimasi village,
Serua.
Aerial View: Villagers of Wainadiro get a glimpse of what their
village looks like from above mid flight
Upcoming events
5th Pacific Urban Forum - Nadi - 3rd
July - Amrita will be in charge of
running one of the side events for the
conference with Aleen Prasad, a
colleague of Amrita. This is to
showcase how UAV's at SPFL have
been collecting data for rural and
urban villages and settlements and
how this data can be used by
organisations like the UN Habitat.
Upcoming trainings
Introduction to Pix4D Training - Suva
- Date to be confirmed: This training
is organised and run internally for the
new recruits and interns of South
Pacific Flying Labs.

5. South Pacific Flying Labs in collaboration with USP and
WeRobotics successfully held its 2nd Annual Robotics for
Good Conference on May 8th. The conference was held at
the Japan ICT Center on the University of the South Pacific’s
main campus. The conference creates a platform where drone
enthusiasts, government officials, NGOs, businesses,
academics, students and experts in the field of Remote
Sensing, Data Management and Geospatial Science get
together to share their experiences and network for future
projects and collaborations. The purpose of the conference
each year is to bring together people of like-mind and connect
them to the growing UAV community in Fiji.
The event was officially opened by the Director of the Poverty
Monitoring Unit for Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty
Alleviation, Mrs Saleshni Naidu, who is also an advocate for
STEM fields advancement in the country. During her opening
speech, she stressed how important it was for youth to be more
involved in the decision-making processes and gave a strong
shout out to Pacific Flying Labs for our Fly Like A Girl program.
The event concluded with an open discussion sessions where
some interesting issues were raised by the general audience
about data management, AI and documentation.
Aerial Adventure Program launch
at Lower Campus, Suva: A two day
event ( 3rd and 4th of May) was
organized by PFL. The goal of our
training was to engage and
encourage youths towards STEM
related field of study and career
through UAV and GIS. The training
was attended by youths in high
schools (particularly above 13 years
of age) from the capital of Fiji.
The program was designed to show
youths how drone technology is
being used to study resources such
as mangroves in the South Pacific.
After the usual introduction of drone
setup, flight planning and regulations
on the first day, the youths were
given handbooks and a short course
on the importance of a healthy
mangrove ecosystem and the
different species which are present
in Fiji.
We received mostly favorable
feedback from the participants
stating that they enjoyed the training
which allowed them to understand
that drones are not just toys. We
were able to successfully finish the
training with no injuries. Second
training is to be scheduled later in
the year. Based on the feedback, we
are thinking of taking the training out
to the schools rather than the way it
is currently being conducted so that
we can reach more students in the
Western Division.
.
Newsletter May 2019
South Pacific Flying Labs Second
Annual Conference
Training: Aerial
Adventure Program
Key Achievement
Successfully hosted the 2nd annual PFL conference.
Successfully ran the two day Aerial Adventure program.
Managed to meet with UNDP, Emalus Campus USP and
NDMO Vanuatu representatives and create dialog for
possible future project collaborations.

6. Newsletter April, 2019
Other events and upcoming
projects
Introduction to Ebee: South Pacific
Flying Labs organized a one day
training on 9th May for the Papua New
Guinea Flying Labs on the uses and
mission planning with the fixed wing
drones named ebee. The training was
held at the University of the South
Pacific’s Main Campus, Suva.
Both participants Sophia and Kevin
from PNG Flying Labs finished the
training in due time and were satisfied
with their new learning. They were able
to get each at least an hour of practical
training with the eBee and plan their
missions from scratch.
South Pacific Flying Labs attended a
two day (16th and 17th) ICT Day
Conference at Port Villa, Vanuatu. The
event was organized by the
government and people of Vanuatu.
We are currently collaborating with the
National Disaster Management Office
on a landslide mapping project in
the highlands of Viti Levu. Date to be
finalized in the coming days.
Moreover, our UAV pilots plan to
complete CASA certification training
in Brisbane Australia between 5th
and 7th of June.
We are also in the process of hiring of
Engineering support and interns for
PFL.
Photo Gallery
Follow us and Contact us
https://flyinglabs.org/southpacific
/
pacific@flyinglabs.org
https://blog.werobotics.org/tag/south-pacific/
South Pacific Flying Labs
Geospatial Science Unit
The University of the South Pacific
Private Bag, Laucala Campus,
Suva, Fiji
South Pacific Flying Labs Second Annual Conference
Aleen (SPFL Pilot) teaching students how to differentiate
between the different species of mangrove at the site during
Aerial Adventure Program

7. Tsunami Evacuation Drill : South Pacific Flying Labs assisted
the National Disaster Management Office (main partner) in
coordinating a Tsunami Evacuation Drill with the help of UAV's
to monitor peoples movement and response time to improve
strategy. It was a one day event which took a week to organize.
With the help of drones, the team was able to provide real time
video feeds to the National Emergency Operations Center from
three different sites. They, in return, were able to communicate
with their drill wardens on the ground and help in the
coordination of movements. More than 4 campuses and the Fiji
Sports Council evacuated their premises, and made their way
to assembly sites. Several drill wardens were spread out all
along the evacuation routes to direct people to safety and
maintain levels of panic and hysteria. The exercise was
completed within an hour and the simplicity of the project
allowed everyone involved to find gaps in the evacuation
exercise. It was noted that while the officials were doing their
job according to standards, many individuals deviated from
designated routes and showed lack of cooperation. From the
exercise it was apparent that more awareness on the
seriousness of these drills needs to be done and more officials
need to be on the ground to ensure that people do not proceed
to wrong routes. Similar projects is expected to be replicated in
other divisions. Read more at https://blog.werobotics.org/
People in Fiji rely on mangroves for
a variety of ecosystem services
including food, timber, traditional
medicine, coastal protection and as
a physical buffer against tsunamis.
There is also growing recognition of
the role of mangroves in accretion of
coastlines in the face of sea level
rise and their role as massive carbon
stores in mangroves soils.
Pacific Flying Labs continued three
mangrove sites mapping for a
Marine masters students' project in
April. The students are studying
mangrove ecosystems and how the
concentration of plastics varies in the
dry and wet seasons. The mapping
of mangrove clusters is done once a
month (since January) at the three
sites (Lami, Nasese Foreshore and
My Suva Park) and will continue to
August this year.
Eagle Technology Conference at
Holiday Inn (ESRI): Representing
Esri in New Zealand, Eagle
Technology facilitates a conference
that challenges, inspires and
supports the geospatial community.
Amrita Lal, PFL Coordinator,
attended this conference on 10th
April as a guest and got a chance to
speak and answer a few PFL related
questions at the event. The
conference was attended by GIS
and Remote Sensing users or
enthusiasts in Fiji.
Newsletter April 2019
Project: Using Drones to Better Prepare for
Tsunamis
Other projects and
events
Key Achievement
Completing training designed and delivered by Sebastian
Kaeser on how to clean, maintain and possibly fix the
mosquito releasing mechanism for the World Mosquito
Program.
Securing the venue for the South Pacific Robotics
Conference after multiple rejections and expensive quotes.

8. Newsletter April, 2019
Upcoming projects
and training
South Pacific Robotics
Conference : South Pacific Flying
Labs, USP and WeRobotics are
pleased to organize the second
annual South Pacific Robotics
Conference on the 8th of May. Kindly
hosted by the GIS Lab at USP, the
purpose of this conference is to
actively create synergies,
connections and partnerships
between different organizations and
projects engaged in the use of aerial,
marine and terrestrial robotics for
social good in the Pacific Region.
Launch of Aerial Adventure
Program on the 3rd and 4th of May:
The Aerial Adventure Camp is the
next youth program created
specifically for boys after the girls
program. The Aerial Adventure
Camp program aims to give
opportunity of setting a curriculum
outside high school disciplinary
subjects where the students will be
exposed to a field of drones and
geospatial studies.
One day Introduction to eBee
Training for the Papuan New Guinea
Flying Labs on the 9th of May.
Training will be conducted by Semisi
Ketenilagi and Waisale
Rakusanavanua (PFL UAV Pilots).
Photo Gallery
Follow us and Contact us
https://flyinglabs.org/southpacific
/
pacific@flyinglabs.org
https://blog.werobotics.org/tag/south-pacific/
South Pacific Flying Labs
Geospatial Science Unit
The University of the South Pacific
Private Bag, Laucala Campus,
Suva, Fiji
Earthquake track image from Tsunami Evacuation
Drill
Trials with the new mosquito releasing mechanism and
new flight plan at Vuci, Nausori

9. South Pacific Flying Labs is currently working on the following
projects:
1. The Mangrove Mapping Project with WWF and UniFiji: We
are trying to submit a budget and secure the project in three
different locations on the main island of Fiji. At the moment the
budget is focused on one site. This project is focused on
collecting transects data to see species change and health.
2. Fiji’s heritage site mapping for the Ministry of Lands and
Mineral Resources: This project is scheduled to pick up by the
end of March and as a pilot study, we will map 5 prominent
sites in the greater Suva area.
3. The UN Habitat Mapping project: We are trying to secure
the tender of this project and plan to start working on it as soon
as possible.
4. We are also collaborating with the School of Marine on a
boulders mapping project with the use of both aerial and
underwater drones. Currently we are just assisting but there is
potential for this to become a foundational project for PFL.
An Introduction training to
Pix4D for staff members of a
government department ( Ministry
of Lands and Mineral Resources)
took place between 25th and 26th
of March.
It prepared the participants to
handle and understand the data
that they will eventually capture
for their natural heritage sites.
Two-day Pix4D training focused
on 3D model making for heritage
site mapping.
South Pacific Flying Labs
organized, with the University of
South Pacific, Fly Like a Girl,
one-day program on the February
23, 2019.
It was attended by 5 secondary
schools students in the Central
Division namely Sacred Heart
College, Ratu Sukuna Memorial,
Saint Joseph Secondary and DAV
College.
Read more at:
https://blog.werobotics.org
Newsletter Q1 2019
Projects Trainings
Key Achievement
Hiring of the Youth Coordinator.
Successfully executing the Fly Like A Girl program.

10. Newsletter April, 2019
Upcoming events
Follow us and Contact us
https://flyinglabs.org/southpacific/
pacific@flyinglabs.org
https://blog.werobotics.org/tag/south-pacific/
South Pacific Flying Labs
Geospatial Science Unit
The University of the South Pacific
Private Bag, Laucala Campus,
Suva, Fiji
South Pacific Flying Labs participated in CDC Workshop
in PNG for seeing the potential of cargo drone delivery for
medical supplies.
1. The second youth centered project is scheduled to happen in April and will be a two-day photogrammetry
software and survey hardware focused training. This project will have male participants from the age of 16 and
above.
2. We are also working on our second Regional Workshop where we will gather NGOs, government agencies
and commercial drone operators for better dialogs and future project collaboration opportunities.
Photo Gallery
Amrita Lal, South Pacific Flying Labs Coordinator, talks
about youth engagement at the WeR Global
Conference, held on the 1st March, 2019.