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ToolboxDronesShoreline Erosion Drone Survey
An operator on a dock launching a drone over a lake for shoreline mapping
Drones

Shoreline Erosion Drone Survey

Thirty minutes with a specialist to scope your shoreline survey — then a quote for the flight.

$50

Checkout arrives with the store connection. Orders attach to the lake on your account.

Overview

Thirty minutes with a specialist to scope your shoreline survey — then a quote for the flight.

How this works, in four steps:

1. You book this call. The $50 is the specialist's time, not the survey.
2. You talk through what you actually need — a bay, a marina, one shoreline, or the whole lake — and what you want to learn from it.
3. Lake Pulse sends you a written quote for the job, scoped to that conversation.
4. If you go ahead, you pay Lake Pulse, Lake Pulse pays the pilot, and the results land in your lake's portal with insights attached.

You are not buying a survey for $50. You are buying the half hour that stops you from paying for the wrong survey.

What you get & how it's flown

3 parameters

  • Georeferenced aerial imagery of the shoreline
    Format:
    Orthomosaic map
  • Shoreline position, and change between flights
    Format:
    Map layer with measured retreat
  • Selected still images and video
    Format:
    Image and video files

You get

  • This listing is a $50, 30-minute scoping call. The survey itself is quoted after the call.
  • Imagery, video, and map layers in your Portal and Documents & Reports
  • Change measurement requires a second flight; the first sets the baseline

How it's produced

Pilot
FAA Part 107 certified remote pilot
Aircraft
FAA-registered drone, flown under FAA rules
Resolution
Ground resolution stated in your deliverable
Scheduling
Survey scheduled against weather and season once you accept the quote
Product category
  • ServiceBy the Lake Pulse Boathouse
  • Scheduled service

    Flight booked within 2–3 weeks, weather permitting

  • Delivery

    Delivered to your Portal — no shipping, no waiting on a box.

  • SKU

    LP-BH-DA-001-01

Example result

Example result

Up to 2.3 ft retreat

Comparison needs two flights; first flight sets the baseline

Turnaround

Booking: you schedule the call at checkout, and most calls happen within a few business days. Call: 30 minutes with a drone specialist. Quote: a written scope and price follows the call. Survey: scheduled against weather and season once you accept the quote. Flight windows are seasonal — see Pro Tips.

What problem does this solve for our lake?

  • Shoreline loss is slow, contested, and expensive. Everyone on the lake has an opinion about what is causing it — wakes, water level management, a neighbour's seawall, storms — and almost nobody has a measurement.
  • An aerial survey turns that into a baseline: where the shoreline sits today, mapped precisely enough that next year's flight shows the change. That record is what supports a wake ordinance, a permit application, a grant, a cost-share programme, or a conversation with a lake district that has so far gone nowhere.
  • Most of the Toolbox is deliberately DIY — you collect the sample, you mount the sensor, and you keep the cost down by doing the easy part yourself. Flying a survey is where that stops being true.
  • Most lake owners cannot fly a survey mission themselves, and a self-serve checkout that asks them to draw a polygon and enter a card number is a good way for both of us to get it wrong. Acreage alone does not price a job. Flight conditions, shoreline complexity, permissions, water clarity, time of season, and what you actually want out of the data all move the number, sometimes by a multiple.
  • So we price it the way it should be priced: talk first, quote second.

What's included?

  • A 30-minute scheduled call with a Lake Pulse drone specialist
  • A working scope for your survey — area, objectives, season, and what the deliverables should be
  • A written quote for the survey itself, following the call
  • Guidance on whether to fly the whole perimeter or the contested stretches, and on repeat-flight cadence if you want a change record
  • If you proceed: an FAA Part 107 certified remote pilot flying an FAA-registered drone, arranged and paid by Lake Pulse, so you deal with one party rather than sourcing an operator yourself
  • Deliverables loaded into your lake's portal with Boathouse interpretation, not a folder of raw imagery

What's not included

  • The survey. This listing is the scoping call only — the flight is quoted after it.
  • A price you can predict from acreage alone. That is precisely why the call exists.
  • Legal determination of property boundaries or riparian rights. A survey supports the argument; it does not settle it.
  • Pilot sourcing on your side. Lake Pulse contracts and pays the operator.
  • Permits or permissions where your state, lake district, or a marina requires them, though the specialist will tell you what applies
  • Guaranteed flight dates. Weather and season decide.

Requirements

  • Identification of the shoreline segments you are most concerned about, and any history you already have — old photos, plat maps, previous surveys
  • A rough idea of what you want to learn. You do not need technical specifics — that is the specialist's job — but "we think the north bay is filling in" is a much better starting point than "we want a drone survey."
  • A Plus, Lake Admin, or PRO subscription to have the resulting deliverables loaded into your Lake Pulse account
  • Book the call. This listing is a scheduled conversation with the Lake Pulse Boathouse, not a purchase of the survey itself.
What you get back

Results

  • A clear scope and a written quote, so you know what the survey costs before committing to it
  • A mapped shoreline baseline, and on repeat flights a measured change record rather than an argument about impressions
  • Survey deliverables load into your lake's Data Library in the Lake Pulse Portal, with Boathouse insights attached rather than raw files dumped on you
  • Data can be charted in the Analytics Hub, used to trigger alerts, or shared across your lake community
  • Results are found in your lake's portal, accessible only to Plus, Lake Admin, and PRO subscription tiers

Pro tips

  • Fly it before the argument, not during. A baseline acquires its value from length, and one flight taken the year a dispute starts proves nothing.
  • Same season, same conditions, every time. Spring high water and autumn low water produce different shorelines, and comparing across them measures the weather rather than the erosion.
  • Bring old aerials. County and state archives often hold imagery going back decades, and the specialist can tell you on the call whether yours is usable.
  • Leaf-off gives a cleaner shoreline. Overhanging canopy hides the very edge you are trying to measure.
  • Scope the contested stretch and one control stretch. A section nobody disputes is what proves the eroding section is genuinely different.
Results sync to the Portal for Plus, Lake Admin, and PRO subscribers

Results from this product land in your lake's shared record in the Portal — next to everything else your lake has ever measured, instead of in an inbox.

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About these results

Every deliverable shows the date and time of the flight or survey. Drone products record what was visible or measured on that day, under that day's light, water clarity, and weather. Mapped extents, classifications, and depths are interpretations of the imagery or sonar and carry the resolution stated in your deliverable. Plant identifications made from the air, including invasive classifications, should be confirmed in the field before any treatment decision. Surveys are not a property, boundary, or engineering survey. Results can help you make decisions about safe swimming and water use, but no result is definitive for every place and time. It is always good practice to check posted signs and your state or local health authorities.

Questions on this?

Our team can help you choose the right solution for your lake, explain how results sync to your Portal, or point you to the right subscription.

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