Beach Topography Surveying Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry Technology

The mechanisms of in situ topography changes must be identified for spatial planning coastal areas. In this study, the authors used direct measurement methods and indirect remote-sensing technologies to develop a method beach surveillance. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have advantages high portability mobility low operating altitude. Therefore, UAV was equipped with lightweight camera positioning system that comprised global an inertial unit. Aerial photogrammetry triangu-lation were adopted matching image feature points obtain corresponding topographic sand. A virtual base station real-time kinematic functionality measure coordinates ground control correcting actual results obtained using image-matching point clouds measurements compared. sample distance at operational altitude 70 m 3.26 cm. Moreover, average elevation error 3.20 cm, root mean square 0.169 m. ±25 which within acceptance criteria of±50 cm set by Water Resources Agency, Ministry Economic Affairs, Taiwan. imaging technology can increase efficiency conventional manual sampling reduce cost observations, thus minimizing errors field costs.