Optimizing Photogrammetric Techniques for Wetlands Monitoring: Southeast Texas

Abstract

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 introduces unmanned aerial system (UAS) coupled with with structure-from-motion (SfM) technology as a new method in wetland mapping. The contributions of this study are aimed at maximizing the efficiency and accuracy of the data collection process for mapping the Southeast Texas wetlands and other related applications. This paper serves as a summary and evaluation of various photogrammetric and data extraction techniques.