Evaluating the Performance of High Spatial Resolution UAV-Photogrammetry and UAV-LiDAR for Salt Marshes: The Cadiz Bay Study Case

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2022-08Department
Biología; Ciencias de la TierraSource
Remote Sensing, Vol. 14, Núm. 15Abstract
Salt marshes are very valuable and threatened ecosystems, and are challenging to study
due to their difficulty of access and the alterable nature of their soft soil. Remote sensing methods
in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a great opportunity to improve our knowledge in this
type of complex habitat. However, further analysis of UAV technology performance is still required
to standardize the application of these methods in salt marshes. This work evaluates and tunes
UAV-photogrammetry and UAV-LiDAR techniques for high-resolution applications in salt marsh
habitats, and also analyzes the best sensor configuration to collect reliable data and generate the
best results. The performance is evaluated through the accuracy assessment of the corresponding
generated products. UAV-photogrammetry yields the highest spatial resolution (1.25 cm/pixel)
orthomosaics and digital models, but at the cost of large files that require long processing times,
making it applicable only for small areas. On the other hand, UAV-LiDAR has proven to be a
promising tool for coastal research, providing high-resolution orthomosaics (2.7 cm/pixel) and
high-accuracy digital elevation models from lighter datasets, with less time required to process
them. One issue with UAV-LiDAR application in salt marshes is the limited effectiveness of the
autoclassification of bare ground and vegetated surfaces, since the scattering of the LiDAR point
clouds for both salt marsh surfaces is similar. Fortunately, when LiDAR and multispectral data
are combined, the efficiency of this step improves significantly. The correlation between LiDAR
measurements and field values improves from R2 values of 0.79 to 0.94 when stable reference points
(i.e., a few additional GCPs in rigid infrastructures) are also included as control points. According
to our results, the most reliable LiDAR sensor configuration for salt marsh applications is the nadir
non-repetitive combination. This configuration has the best balance between dataset size, spatial
resolution, and processing time. Nevertheless, further research is still needed to develop accurate
canopy height models. The present work demonstrates that UAV-LiDAR technology offers a suitable
solution for coastal research applications where high spatial and temporal resolutions are required.
Subjects
salt marshes; light detection and ranging (LiDAR); photogrammetry; multispectral; high resolution; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); digital modelsCollections
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