Sometimes it is very easy for people to only see the answers they want to see in data they are presented with. The answers they want to see support what they are expecting to see - this is a perfectly normal human response known as confirmation bias. When preparing the pre-construction information for a construction project, it is all too easy to miss important links or associations between various pieces of information because we are too “close” to the situation, meaning that we are unable to see the impact that something may have on something else so seemingly disconnected.

Management-speak created the term “helicopter view”, which meant to see things from a macro scale in order to understand the correlation of things. This is, quite literally, what Attis do when preparing pre-construction information for a project. We fly a sub-250g drone across the proposed site, as well as conducting ground-level surveys in order to see how any observable or foreseeable risks might impact the project. From this we can then make any necessary proposals for further, more incisive surveys, such as ground-penetrating radar or lidar.

Often, hazards can only be best viewed from an aerial perspective allowing the risks that they pose to better understood. And if more detailed surveying needs to take place, Attis call in specialists like Harry Fuge of Pathfinder Drone, who can provide various drone services including extremely accurate aerial photography of a site as well as producing detailed mapping suitable for a range of risk mitigation. Anyone undertaking pre-construction information should do so with “boots on the ground”, but Attis also ensure that we have an eye in the sky too.