Status: this preprint has been withdrawn by the authors.
Short Communication: Optimizing UAV-SfM based topographic change detection with survey co-alignment
Tjalling de Haas1,Wiebe Nijland1,Brian W. McArdell2,and Maurice W. M. L. Kalthof1Tjalling de Haas et al.Tjalling de Haas1,Wiebe Nijland1,Brian W. McArdell2,and Maurice W. M. L. Kalthof1
Received: 27 May 2020 – Discussion started: 16 Jun 2020
Abstract. High-quality digital surface models (DSMs) generated from structure-from-motion (SfM) based on imagery captured from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are increasingly used for topographic change detection. Classically, DSMs were generated for each survey individually and then compared to quantify topographic change, but recently it was shown that co-aligning the images of multiple surveys may enhance the accuracy of topographic change detection. Here, we use nine surveys over the Illgraben debris-flow torrent in the Swiss Alps to compare the accuracy of three approaches for UAV-SfM topographic change detection: (1) the classical approach where each survey is processed individually using ground control points (GCPs), (2) co-alignment of all surveys without GCPs, and (3) co-alignment of all surveys with GCPs. We demonstrate that compared to the classical approach co-alignment enhances the accuracy of topographic change detection by a factor 4 with GCPs and a factor 3 without GCPs, leading to xy and z offsets < 0.1 m for both co-alignment approaches. We further show that co-alignment leads to particularly large improvements in the accuracy of poorly aligned surveys that have severe offsets when processed individually, by forcing them onto the more accurate common geometry set by the other surveys. Based on these results we advocate that co-alignment, preferably with GCPs, should become the common-practice in high-accuracy UAV-SfM topographic change detection studies.
High-quality digital surface models generated by automated photogrammetry techniques on aerial images captured with drones are increasingly used for topographic change detection. We demonstrate that co-aligning the images from multiple surveys strongly enhances the accuracy of topographic change detection. We find that co-alignment leads to particularly large improvements in the accuracy of poorly aligned surveys that have severe offsets when processed individually.
High-quality digital surface models generated by automated photogrammetry techniques on aerial...