Developing bare-earth digital elevation models from structure-from-motion data on barrier islands, Dauphin Island, AL, 2018–2019

Publication Date

2021-08-23

Start Date

2018-09-01

End Date

2019-04-30

Enwright, N.M., Kranenburg, C.J., Patton, B.A., Dalyander, P.S., Brown, J.A., Piazza, S.C., Cheney, W.C., and Villani, R.K., 2021, Developing bare-earth digital elevation models from structure-from-motion data on barrier islands, Dauphin Island, AL, 2018–2019: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P99PX0O3.

Type: Related Primary Publication

Unoccupied aerial systems (UAS) can collect monitoring data, including elevation information via structure-from-motion (SfM) and vegetation information from multispectral imagery, with a temporal resolution that is well-suited for dynamic barrier island environments. However, SfM data represents the elevation of the surface including the vegetation canopy. Processing is required for estimating bare-earth elevation, which is critical for understanding the underlying geomorphology. In this study, we used vegetation and elevation surveys collected using a real-time kinematic global positioning system to develop a vegetation correction model to produce bare-earth elevation surfaces from SfM data for two sites on Dauphin Island, Alabama. The methods used for this project are portable to other areas with calibration and could provide an efficient and repeatable framework for monitoring changing geomorphology and/or provide baseline elevations for predicting changes to these environments under future conditions.

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