Drone Mapping Basics for South Texas
If you're a rancher, builder, or real estate agent in South Texas, you've probably stared at a survey or a drone map and thought, "Alright... what exactly am I looking at, and is this thing actually useful?"
That's why we put together these Mapping Basics guides. No jargon, no fluff - just straight talk about drone mapping, orthomosaics, and elevation data you can actually use in the field.
If you've ever wondered how a few hundred drone photos turn into one clean, accurate map you can measure off of, start with What Is an Orthomosaic Map? It breaks down the whole process in normal-people terms and shows where orthos sit between blurry satellite images and a full-blown survey.
If you're trying to sort out when a drone topo is good enough - and when you still need a traditional survey crew - or you just want to understand why water keeps heading for that same low fence line every time it rains, take a look at Drone Topographic Contours vs. Traditional Survey. It’s a plain-English reality check on where drone contours shine and where they will straight-up lie to you.
If you've heard people throw around words like "RTK" and "ground control" and you're wondering how much of that actually matters for your job, read RTK Drone Mapping Explained. That one walks through what RTK really does in South Texas wind and brush, where it starts to slip, and when a few GCPs are cheap insurance instead of overkill.
And if you're just trying to figure out what this all costs without getting surprised later, Drone Mapping Pricing in South Texas lays out how acreage, terrain, deliverables, accuracy, and travel actually shape a quote down here so you know what you're paying for and why.
