Quantifying rates of soil deflation with Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry in west Greenland

Abstract

Aeolian processes are important drivers of geomorphic change in cold regions. Because these processes often occur at slow timescales over large areas, it can be difficult to quantify rates using traditional field methods. In the Kangerlussuaq region of Greenland, strong katabatic winds have shaped distinct erosional landforms, or deflation patches, that appear to expand across the landscape. The modern erosion rate along the active margins, or scarps, of these deflation patches is unknown. We use Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry to quantify the geomorphic change of ten deflation patches between 2014 and 2016. During the two-year study period, significant positive and negative change occurred at all sites, suggesting that deflation patches are active landforms and that geomorphic change is highly heterogeneous and localized. We observed significant change primarily along the scarps, while little to no change occurred in the center of the patches. Along the scarps, the mean negative change ranged from −0.7 to −2.5 cm, and erosion dominated in eight out of the ten deflation patches. The modern erosion rate appears to be lower than the century-scale rate of 2.5 cm yr −1 estimated from prior work using lichenometry, potentially because of the episodic nature of scarp retreat. Longer-term monitoring using these methods will help quantify the geomorphic response of this landscape to a rapidly changing regional climate.

A method based on structure-from-motion photogrammetry to generate sub-millimetre-resolution digital elevation models for investigating rock breakdown features

“…In our experience, we found that using three arbitrary points separated by a longer distance (a few metres) and using these points to find relative coordinates with each other can be difficult in the field due to the curvature and slope of rock surfaces (e.g. Heindel et al, 2018). In comparison, this study achieved submillimetre horizontal (< 0.5 mm) and vertical (< 1 mm) accuracy in a sub-millimetre-resolution DEM using a relatively simple georeferencing approach (Sect.…”

“…Applications in geomorphology include laboratory flume experiments (Morgan et al, 2017), rockslides and landslides (Niethammer et al, 2012;Russell, 2016), eroding badlands (Smith and Vericat, 2015), fluvial morphology (Javernick et al, 2014;Dietrich, 2015;Bakker and Lane, 2016;Dietrich, 2016a, b), peatland microforms (Mercer and Westbrook, 2016), glacial process dynamics (Piermattei et al, 2016;Immerzeel et al, 2017), river restoration (Marteau et al, 2016), mapping coral reefs (Casella et al, 2016), beach surveying (Brunier et al, 2016), soil erosion (Snapir et al, 2014;Balaguer-Puig et al, 2017;Prosdocimi et al, 2017;Vinci et al, 2017;Heindel et al, 2018), volcanic terrains (James and Robson, 2012;Bretar et al, 2013;Carr et al, 2018), porosity of river bed material (Seitz et al, 2018), grain size estimation of gravel bed rivers (Pearson et al, 2017), and coastal erosion (James and Robson, 2012). In addition, SfM has also been widely used in archaeology for photogrammetric recording of small-scale rock art and artefacts and largescale archaeological sites (Sapirstein, 2016(Sapirstein, , 2018Sapirstein and Murray, 2017;Jalandoni et al, 2018).…”

Combining the Stock Unearthing Method and Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry for a Gapless Estimation of Soil Mobilisation in Vineyards

“…SfM provides a perfect opportunity to survey any terrain of interest by taking a sufficient number of photos from specific positions [28,29], to develop a continuous point cloud. The point clouds of specific different sampling points in time, when the measurements were made, are subtracted in order to achieve a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the difference [30].…”

UAV survey method to Monitoring and analysing geological hazards: The Case study of mud volcano of Villaggio Santa Barbara, Caltanissetta (Sicily)

“…In geosciences many studies have been dedicated to morphological processes (Casella et al, 2014;Castillo et al, 2012;Dietrich, 2016;Eltner et al, 2015;Gomez-Gutierrez et al, 2014;James and Robson, 2012;James andRobson, 2014b, James andVarley, 2012;Javernick et al, 2016;Lucieer et al, 2014;Ryan et al, 2015;Smith et al, 2016;Westoby et al, 2015;Woodget et al, 2015). Applications include runoff laboratory trials (Morgan et al, 2017), applied geology (Niethammer et al, 2012;Russell, 2016), geomorphology (Bakker and Lane, 2016;Balaguer-Puig et al, 2017;Dietrich, 2015;Dietrich, 2016 a/b;Heindel et al, 2018;Javernick et al, 2014;Marteau et al, 2016;Mercer and Westbrook, 2016;Pearson et al, 2017;Prosdocimi et al, 2017;Seitz et al, 2018;Smith and Vericat, 2015;Snapir et al, 2014;Vinci et al, 2017), glaciology (Immerzeel et al, 2017;Piermattei et al, 2016), coastal morphology (Casella et al, 2016;Brunier et al, 2016;James and Robson, 2012), volcanology (Bretar et al, 2013;Carr et al, 2018 ;…”