Earthwork Volumetrics with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Softcopy Photogrammetry

Hugenholtz, Chris H.; Walker, J. Douglas; Brown, Owen W.; Myshak, Steve

doi:10.1061/(asce)su.1943-5428.0000138

Cited by 62 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, airborne laser scanning (ALS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) surveys remain costly, particularly where time‐series data are required, while having additional limitations in terms of range and line of sight. Consequently, there is a need to develop alternative methodologies that can provide high‐resolution topographic data cost‐effectively and at user‐defined time‐steps (Hugenholtz et al , ). Structure‐from‐motion (SfM) photogrammetry is emerging as a powerful tool in the geosciences, offering the capability to derive high‐resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) from overlapping, convergent digital images (James and Robson, ; Westoby et al , ; Bemis et al , 2014; Javernick et al , ; Lucieer et al , ; Smith et al , , ; Snapir et al , ; Tonkin et al , ; Reitman, 2015; Stumpf et al , ; Carrera‐Hernández et al , 2016; Carrivick et al , 2016; Nouwakpo et al , 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the utility of structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry reconstructions using small unmanned aerial vehicles and ground photography to estimate the extent of upland soil erosion

Glendell

McShane

Farrow

et al. 2017

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Quantifying the extent of soil erosion at a fine spatial resolution can be time consuming and costly; however, proximal remote sensing approaches to collect topographic data present an emerging alternative for quantifying soil volumes lost via erosion. Herein we compare terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), and both unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and ground photography (GP) structurefrom-motion (SfM) derived topography. We compare the cost-effectiveness and accuracy of both SfM techniques to TLS for erosion gully surveying in upland landscapes, treating TLS as a benchmark. Further, we quantify volumetric soil loss estimates from upland gullies using digital surface models derived by each technique and subtracted from an interpolated pre-erosion surface. Soil loss estimates from UAV and GP SfM reconstructions were comparable to those from TLS, whereby the slopes of the relationship between all three techniques were not significantly different from 1:1 line. Only for the TLS to GP comparison was the intercept significantly different from zero, showing that GP is more capable of measuring the volumes of very small erosion features. In terms of costeffectiveness in data collection and processing time, both UAV and GP were comparable with the TLS on a per-site basis (13.4 and 8.2 person-hours versus 13.4 for TLS); however, GP was less suitable for surveying larger areas (127 person-hours per ha À1 versus 4.5 for UAV and 3.9 for TLS). Annual repeat surveys using GP were capable of detecting mean vertical erosion change on peaty soils. These first published estimates of whole gully erosion rates (0.077 m a À1 ) suggest that combined erosion rates on gully floors and walls are around three times the value of previous estimates, which largely characterize wind and rainsplash erosion of gully walls.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the utility of structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry reconstructions using small unmanned aerial vehicles and ground photography to estimate the extent of upland soil erosion

Glendell

McShane

Farrow

et al. 2017

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At 50 m flight altitude and 5 GCPs, which are similar conditions to those of our work, they report RMSE values around 0.050 m for X, Y and Z components. Hugenholtz et al [45] reported vertical RMSE values of 0.106 m and 0.097 m derived from a photogrammetric project on a stockpile, with a rotatory-wing UAV and 100 m flight altitude, before and after a portion of this pile was removed. In complex-morphology terrains, Carvajal-Ramírez et al [37] yield planimetric and vertical accuracies of 0.058 m and 0.100 m respectively working in a road cut slope.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstruction of Earth Extreme Topography from UAV Structure from Motion Photogrammetry

Agüera-Vega¹,

Ramírez²,

Martínez-Carricondo³

et al. 2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

UAV photogrammetry development during the last decade has allowed to catch information at a very high spatial and temporal resolution from terrains with very difficult or impossible human access. This paper deals with the application of these techniques to study and produce information of very extreme topography which is useful to plan works on this terrain or monitoring it over the time to study its evolution. The methodology stars with the execution of UAV flights on the cut slope studied, one with the cam horizontally oriented and other at 45º respect that orientation. Ground control points (GCPs) and check points (CPs) were measured for georeference and accuracy measurement purposes. Orthophoto was obtained projecting on a fitted plane to a studied surface. Moreover, since a digital surface model (DSM) is not able to represent faithfully that extreme morphology, information to project works or monitoring it has been derived from the point cloud generated during the photogrammetric process. An informatics program was developed to generate contour lines and cross sections derived from the point cloud, which was able to represent all terrain geometric characteristics, like several Z coordinates for a given planimetric (X, Y) point. Results yield a root mean square error (RMSE) in X, Y and Z directions of 0.053 m, 0.070 m and 0.061 m respectively. Furthermore, comparison between contour lines and cross sections generated from point cloud with the developed program on one hand and those generated from DSM on other hand, shown that the former are capable of representing terrain geometric characteristics that the latter cannot. The methodology proposed in this work has been shown as an adequate alternative to generate manageable information, as orthophoto, contour lines and cross sections, useful for the elaboration, for example, of projects for repairing or maintenance works of cut slopes with extreme topography.

show abstract

“…Remote sensing techniques using airborne and satellite-based sensors can provide a very cost-effective means of acquiring highresolution information for the ground surface over very large areas Miller et al 2012;Castagnetti et al 2013;Cigna et al 2015;Wasowski et al 2014;Hugenholtz et al 2015), but are generally limited in terms of temporal resolution (which is based on satellite orbits or flight schedules) and provide only surface or very near-surface information. For smaller infrastructure slopes (v. large landslides) spatial resolution may also be insufficient, and remote sensing techniques can also be impeded by the dense vegetation cover present on some infrastructure slopes (e.g.…”

Section: How To Monitormentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and future role of instrumentation and monitoring in the performance of transport infrastructure slopes

Smethurst

Smith

Uhlemann

et al. 2017

QJEGH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Instrumentation is often used to monitor the performance of engineered infrastructure slopes. This paper looks at the current role of instrumentation and monitoring, including the reasons for monitoring infrastructure slopes, the instrumentation typically installed and parameters measured. The paper then investigates recent developments in technology and considers how these may change the way that monitoring is used in the future, and tries to summarize the barriers and challenges to greater use of instrumentation in slope engineering. The challenges relate to economics of instrumentation within a wider risk management system, a better understanding of the way in which slopes perform and/or lose performance, and the complexities of managing and making decisions from greater quantities of data.

show abstract

Earthwork Volumetrics with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Softcopy Photogrammetry

Cited by 62 publications

References 13 publications

Testing the utility of structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry reconstructions using small unmanned aerial vehicles and ground photography to estimate the extent of upland soil erosion

Testing the utility of structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry reconstructions using small unmanned aerial vehicles and ground photography to estimate the extent of upland soil erosion

Reconstruction of Earth Extreme Topography from UAV Structure from Motion Photogrammetry

Current and future role of instrumentation and monitoring in the performance of transport infrastructure slopes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About