Photogrammetric Techniques for Monitoring Vegetation and Topographical Changes

Environmentalists express concerns about the health of the planet and the vital role of wetlands on Earth. Sufficient knowledge of wetland changes is becoming more crucial as loss of wetland area increases. However, an ability to efficiently map and monitor the wetland topographies requires technology advancement. Producing high resolution and high quality digital elevation models (DEMs) requires substantial investments in personnel time, hardware, and software while increasing accessibility of three-dimensional imaging methods, such as digital photogrammetry. Further refinements have highly improved the method while preserving its convenience. This study investigates the use of unmanned aerial system (UAS) coupled with structure from-motion (SfM) technology as a new methodology for monitoring vegetation and topographical changes in the southeast Texas Wetlands. This study aimed at maximizing the efficiency and accuracy of the data collection process for mapping the wetland s and other related applications. This paper serves as a summary and evaluation of various photogrammetric and data extraction techniques.