Potentiality of high-resolution topographic survey using unmanned aerial vehicle in Bangladesh

Abstract

Topographic surveys are generally used for the representation of earth's undulating topography, commonly known as relief features of the earth's surface. It is generally determined by the difference in elevation between two points. Although several satellite imagery and field-based methods are available for representation of earth's relief but both of them are either high-cost or time-consuming method with lower accuracy. High-resolution UAVs have the potentiality of drawing very accurate earth's relief features with lower cost and time. Primary data was key to conduct the research work. DroneDeploy software was utilized for the planning and acquisition of imageries using UAV with a side and frontal overlap of 80%. The vertical accuracy was ± 0.1 m, and the horizontal accuracy was ± 0.3 m. Georeferencing, Geocorrection, Building Tie Points, Dense Cloud, Depth Maps, 3D Model, DSM, and Orthomosaic operations conducted with Agisoft Metashape Professional software. Geomatica software was used to subtract false heights. Finally, ArcMap was used to represent the DSM and DTM surface analysis and representation of analyzed results in the form of spatial distribution and spatial organization. The research reveals that UAVs have the tremendous potentiality for topographic mapping with real-time elevation.