Environmental Impacts
Our goal of utilizing drones to perform crop-dusting was inspired by the need to cut down on the pollution and harmful environmental effects of current crop-dusting methods. Using drone technologies is beneficial to replace some of these effects.
Crop-Dusting
What is the Impact of Crop-Dusting on the Environment?
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Current Crop-Dusting Techniques
Airplane-Based Crop-Dusting
Crop dusting with insecticides began in the 1920s
The current method of performing aerial crop dusting starts by a pesticide licensed crew mixing together pesticides or fertilizers. An aircraft arrives and the mixture is pumped into the tanks within the aircraft. The pilot receives GPS coordinates for where the chemicals are intended to be sprayed. As the plane flies over the fields, the pilot manually starts the sprayers, aircraft speed depending on what crops are being sprayed. Traditional crop-dusting aircrafts spray for about 20 minutes, if refueling is necessary, then the process starts all over again.
National Agricultural Aviation Industry
"There are approximately 1,560 aerial application businesses in the United States. According to NAAA records, aerial application operations are located in 45 states, excluding Connecticut, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. Aerial applications are conducted in all 50 states. Based on a 2019 NAAA survey, the agricultural aviation industry treats 127 million acres of cropland aerially each year."
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Pollutants
​​Many workers and residents, especially in the rural sector, are in contact with pesticides on a daily basis, so they are at high risk of poisoning by these compounds. This exposure can cause neuropsychiatric sequelae (mood disorders, depression, and anxiety), because many pesticides underlie changes in the function (e.g., cholinergic crisis) of the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous system, which are often followed by suicide attempts. In addition to being causative agents of neuropsychiatric disorders that might culminate in suicide, these effects may lead to the use of pesticides as a weapon.
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After application, pesticides can be taken up by target organisms, degraded, or transported to the groundwater; they can also enter the surface water bodies, volatilize to the atmosphere, or reach non-target organisms by ingestion, for example.
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Environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity impact volatility, which can occur from soil, plants, or surface water, and may continue for several days or weeks after pesticide application. In the atmosphere, the chemicals can be transported over long distances. Subsequent atmospheric deposition can contribute to surface water pollution. Finally, the degradation of pesticides that also determines the behavior and fate of these compounds in the environment. Degradation (their breakdown into other chemical forms) can occur by photodecomposition, microorganisms, and a variety of chemical and physical reactions. Pesticides with low biodegradation are called persistent, they can remain in the environment for a long time.
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Therefore, a huge amount and variety of pesticides exist in the environment. Many chemicals that exist at low concentrations may not cause acute detectable effects in organisms, but they may induce other kinds of damage, like genetic disorders and physiological alterations that, in the long run, reduce the organisms life span.
Watershed & Spray Drift Effects
The existence of drainage ditches, streams, ponds, and lakes increases the probability that rainfall or irrigation runoff will contaminate surface water. In relation to topography, flat landscapes, areas with closed drainage systems where water drains toward the center of a basin, and especially sinkhole areas, are more susceptible to groundwater contamination. As for climate, large rainfall or irrigation may culminate in large amounts of water percolating through the soil, to reach groundwater. Rainfall can also carry pesticides to surface waters, contaminating rivers, lakes, and seas, and taking these chemicals to distant places.
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Pesticides sprayed onto crops are more susceptible to volatilization and surface runoff, reaching surface waters and the atmosphere.
Drones
How can drones change this?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency...
Drones can change the pollutant nature of crop-dusting
Some of the best ways to mitigate the environmental effects of pollutants from traditional plane crop dusting are applying the pesticide only to the treatment area and being aware of the location of storm drains and other access points to water sources. With the precision spraying of drones, both of these are possible. Not only would pesticides and fertilizers be sprayed in a more concise manner because of the size of the drone, drones also have the ability to monitor where water access points are in order to avoid them.
How does Drone-Based Crop Dusting Work?
Drones can operate manually or automatically. With one system of application, autonomous drones load fertilizers or pesticides simply by landing on a truck that is manufactured to pump it into the drones tanks. The drone will then fly and administer chemicals as it was previously programmed to, coming back to the truck when it is done. If another field is wanted to be sprayed after, a human will have to operate the truck to drive it to the next location. These automatic systems can also be done manually. An individual can pump the chemicals into the drone and fly it from the ground, spraying the pesticides or fertilizers from the control panel in their hands. This can be done by any individual that has a drone and pesticide license.