On the way to airborne gravelometry based on 3D spatial data derived from images

This paper presents basic tests to develop an airborne photogrammetric methodology that derives grain size characteristics of gravel bed rivers. The data acquisition was done using a lightweight action cam and a hand-held digital single lens reflex camera. Image processing comprised the structure from motion technique and multiview-stereo algorithms to obtain digital elevation models of non-cohesive gravel beds. Laboratory results indicate that the method accuracy is about four to six times lower than laser-scan data when based on action cam data. The accuracy of digital elevation models computed via photos taken by the reflex camera is almost of the same range as the laser data. Field experiments were done to test the performance of image based gravelometry against manual surface sampling. For this application the action cam was mounted to a low-cost quadrocopter, while the reflex camera was operated by hand. Results indicate that this combination has a high potential to generate data from which characteristic grain size parameters can be estimated.