Tracking geometric changes on primary sand dunes with UAVs

Coastline Watch is performing  the first UAV flights to track the geometric changes on primary sand dunes at Figueira da Foz.

Prof. Gil Gonçalves from INESCC made this week (Feb 12, 2015) several UAV image acquisitions supported with Ground Control Points (GCPs) taken by RTK-GNSS geodetic receivers. The data acquired is being processed to produce a Digital Surface Model (DSM) using a Structure from Motion (SfM) approach.

Panoramic image

The resulting DSM (see preliminary results on the figure below) will be compared with a reference Digital Surface Model (DSM) available from the area of interest. The reference baseline that will be used is a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) DSM of the Portuguese coast with a horizontal resolution of 2m and acquired during summer 2011 .  These DSM time series will enable to compute profiles (1D), surface (2D) and volume (3D) changes from the baseline surface.

preliminary 3D model

This UAV service from Coastline Watch aims to be performed on specific critical areas for environment monitoring and research purposes. Further UAVs acquisitions and processing can be performed via commercial requests.

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