Abstract
Among the different types of natural disasters, floods are the most devastating, widespread, and frequent. Floods account for approximately 30% of the total loss caused by natural disasters. Accurate flood-risk mapping is critical in reducing such damages by correctly predicting the extent of a flood when coupled with rain and stage gage data, supporting emergency-response planning, developing land use plans and regulations with regard to the construction of structures and infrastructures, and providing damage assessment in both spatial and temporal measurements. The reliability and accuracy of such flood assessment maps is dependent on the quality of the digital elevation model (DEM) in flood conditions. This study investigates the quality of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based DEM for spatial flood assessment mapping and evaluating the extent of a flood event in Princeville, North Carolina during Hurricane Matthew. The challenges and problems of on-demand DEM production during a flooding event were discussed. An accuracy analysis was performed by comparing the water surface extracted from the UAV-derived DEM with the water surface/stage obtained using the nearby US Geologic Survey (USGS) stream gauge station and LiDAR data.
Highlights
Among the different types of natural disasters, floods are the most devastating, widespread, and frequent
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) have been proven to be highly useful for mapping applications and have a great potential for fast and accurate on-demand digital elevation model (DEM) production in flood-assessment applications
There are failed image matching in low altitude image sets, because traditional processing methods are not flexible enough for UAV data
Summary
Among the different types of natural disasters, floods are the most devastating, widespread, and frequent. Şerban et al [21] investigated the use of UAV technology along with Leica MultiStation GNSS surveying to generate a high-quality DEM of the major and minor riverbeds in the Someşul Mic basin to obtain certain hydraulic parameters to study flood-risk management practices. Leitao et al [8] demonstrated the applicability and the advantages of using UAVs to generate very high resolution DEMs for urban overland flow and flood modelling. They investigated the quality of DEMs for 14 UAV flights considering different flight altitudes, images overlapping, camera pitch, and weather conditions. Accurate monitoring and mapping of the DEM and flood extent are critical to assess flooding risk, develop comprehensive relief efforts immediately after flooding, and provide damage assessment in both spatial and temporal measurements
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
