Drone mapping takes off in Malawi with Pix4D & UNICEF

Drone technology has improved to the point where it’s easier than ever to take off. Flight planning apps such as Pix4Dcapture help aspiring pilots take to the skies. But what happens next?

“People in Malawi are able to fly the drones,” says Innocent Chifundo Manyera, IT Officer in the Malawi Department Of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA). “But what was lacking is the actual processing of the data captured using drones. Processing within a short time, and as well as being able to process within a short time have accurate results.” She adds: “Flying a drone is nothing if you don’t include data processing.”

In 2017, the government of Malawi and UNICEF launched an air corridor to test the use of drones for humanitarian purposes – the first in Africa and one of the first globally with a focus on humanitarian and development use. In this context, UNICEF Malawi hosted Pix4D for a 3-day workshop in the capital city Lilongwe aimed at local participants from a range of different sectors. The work’s objective was to learn more on how they can purposefully plan, capture and process and apply drone data into their work.