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#           UAS-SfM for coastal research: Geomorphic feature extraction and land cover classification from high-resolution elevation and optical imagery      

      October 3, 2017    

The vulnerability of coastal systems to hazards such as storms and sea-level rise is typically characterized using a combination of ground and manned airborne systems that have limited spatial or temporal scales. Structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry applied to imagery acquired by unmanned aerial systems (UAS) offers a rapid and inexpensive means to produce high-resolution topographic and visual reflectance datasets that rival existing lidar and imagery standards. Here, we use SfM to produce an elevation point cloud, an orthomosaic, and a digital elevation model (DEM) from data collected by UAS at a beach and wetland site in Massachusetts, USA. We apply existing methods to (a) determine the position of shorelines and foredunes using a feature extraction routine developed for lidar point clouds and (b) map land cover from the rasterized surfaces using a supervised classification routine. In both analyses, we experimentally vary the input datasets to understand the benefits and limitations of UAS-SfM for coastal vulnerability assessment. We find that (a) geomorphic features are extracted from the SfM point cloud with near-continuous coverage and sub-meter precision, better than was possible from a recent lidar dataset covering the same area; and (b) land cover classification is greatly improved by including topographic data with visual reflectance, but changes to resolution (when <50 cm) have little influence on the classification accuracy.

## Citation Information

## Related Content

                  -              Data           
                  -              Connect           

September 20, 2017

####                 Topographic, imagery, and raw data associated with unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flights over Black Beach, Falmouth, Massachusetts on 18 March 2016              

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

#### Erika Lentz, PhD

##### Research Geologist

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

elentz@usgs.gov

508-457-2238

#### Rob Thieler, PhD

##### Center Director

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

rthieler@usgs.gov

508-457-2211

#### Amy S Farris

##### Oceanographer

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

afarris@usgs.gov

508-457-2344

#### Kathryn M Weber

##### Oceanographer

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

kweber@usgs.gov

508-457-2351

#### Rachel Elizabeth Henderson

##### Physical Scientist

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

rehenderson@usgs.gov

## Related Content

September 20, 2017

####                 Topographic, imagery, and raw data associated with unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flights over Black Beach, Falmouth, Massachusetts on 18 March 2016              

Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

#### Erika Lentz, PhD

##### Research Geologist

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

elentz@usgs.gov

508-457-2238

#### Rob Thieler, PhD

##### Center Director

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

rthieler@usgs.gov

508-457-2211

#### Amy S Farris

##### Oceanographer

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

afarris@usgs.gov

508-457-2344

#### Kathryn M Weber

##### Oceanographer

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

kweber@usgs.gov

508-457-2351

#### Rachel Elizabeth Henderson

##### Physical Scientist

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

rehenderson@usgs.gov

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#### Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

384 Woods Hole Rd.Woods Hole, MA02543United States

508-548-8700

508-457-2310

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