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Beach Topography Surveying Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Photogrammetry Technology, Hui-Ming Fang, Kuan-Tsung Chang, Sung-Shan Hsiao, Shih-Peng Chiang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology

The mechanisms of in situ topography changes must be identified for spatial planning in coastal areas. In this study, the authors used in situ direct measurement methods and indirect remote-sensing technologies to develop a method for beach topography surveillance. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have advantages of high portability and mobility and low operating altitude. Therefore, a UAV was equipped with a lightweight camera and a positioning system that comprised a global positioning system and an inertial measurement unit. Aerial photogrammetry and aerial triangu-lation methods were adopted for matching image feature points to obtain the corresponding topographic points in the sand. …