“This is where Camenai comes to our rescue,” says Norbert Vervaet from Waterschap Rijn en IJssel (WRIJ), “During our regular mowing rounds, approximately 80 to 90% of the area is now photographed, creating a current image bank. That's why we don't always have to come to location anymore. This innovation not only saves time and costs by reducing physical inspections, but also provides access to locations that were previously out of the picture. This gives our units an up-to-date overview of the real situation, of vegetation, water quality and quantity (dry fall), damage and the condition of dikes plus works of art.”

The image bank is widely used within our organization, from hydrologists to project managers, from ecologists to administrators and maintenance staff. My colleagues use the photos for daily tasks, especially for good movement in a situation, for enforcement cases, and a start has been made to use artificial intelligence to extract the photos we are looking for (e.g. location of our signs). Collecting data over several years also creates a historical archive. This allows us to compare developments over time, a powerful tool for planning and risk management.” An example of this is that if we have fought certain exotics, we can monitor the effect via the footage after the fight. We will still be on location, but we expect the frequency to decrease.