Abstract
Beaches are characterized by high morphodynamic activity, and high-frequency measurements are needed to understand their states and rates of change. Ideally, beach survey methods should be at once accurate, rapid and low-cost. Recently, unmanned aerial systems (drones) have been increasingly utilized to measure beach topography. In this paper, we present a review of the state of art in drones and photogrammetry for beach surveys and the respective achieved measurement quality (where reported). We then show how drones with a minimal configuration and a low-cost setup can meet the high accuracy and rapidity required for beach surveys. To test a minimal drone and ground control point configuration, we used consumer-grade equipment to perform the same flight path with different cameras and at different altitudes. We then used photogrammetry to produce digital elevation models of the beach. Using a GNSS-RTK system, we collected 2950 independent control points to evaluate the accuracy of the digital elevation models. Results show that, once a few potential sources of uncertainties in the final digital elevation model are taken into account, the average RMSE(z) of the digital elevation models was ~5 cm, with a survey efficiency of ca. 3 m2 min−1. Digital elevation models taken at different times were used to calculate the before–after sediment budget following a storm that hit a sandy coast in Sylt Island at the German North Sea coast.
Highlights
Coastal environments and, in particular, beaches are rapidly evolving systems, driven by the continuous interaction of the topography and transport processes with wind, wave and tidal forcing
UAS (Unmanned Aerial System)-based photogrammetry has become a common tool for topographic surveying (Eisenbeiss 2009)
Recent studies have shown that the cost of acquiring topographic data with traditional in situ techniques is comparable with the cost of UASphotogrammetry (Mancini et al 2013)
Summary
In particular, beaches are rapidly evolving systems, driven by the continuous interaction of the topography and transport processes with wind, wave and tidal forcing. In order to understand and quantify coastal morphodynamics, it is necessary to acquire high-resolution data on beach topographic changes. UAS (Unmanned Aerial System)-based photogrammetry has become a common tool for topographic surveying (Eisenbeiss 2009). This method has been employed in many environments, from polar to tropical regions (e.g. Dąbski et al 2017; Ryan et al 2015; Casella et al 2017; Chirayath and Earle 2016). Drones are rapidly becoming standard survey tools (Moloney et al 2018): Once few simple steps are followed (see Figure 5 in Joyce et al 2018), acquiring high-resolution data with drones is safe, straightforward and cost-effective
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