sUAS and their application in observing geomorphological processes

Abstract

Abstract. Methodologies and procedures in processing gained data vary based on possibilities and needs of scientific projects. This paper should help to get a general overview in the choice of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAScommonly known as drones) for scientific purposes, namely remote sensing of geomorphologic processes such as soil degradation in high mountainous areas that are hard to access and have unfavourable weather conditions. All high mountain areas in European countries are legislatively protected, and so various permissions and observation of strict procedures are needed in order to not have a negative influence on the environment. Nowadays, several types of UAS exist that could effectively help us in such protection, as well as in fullfledged utilization when answering scientific questions about the alpine lake genesis. We demonstrate it here with selected examples of our photo documentation.

Water Surface Overgrowing of the Tatra’s Lakes

“…This fact is confirmed in particular by the analyses of lake sediments (Owens, Slaymaker, 1994;Kotarba, 1996;Šporka et al, 2002;Irmler et al, 2006;Rybníčková, Rybníček, 2005;Hamerlík, Bitušík, 2009;Mîndrescu et al, 2010;Hutchinson et al, 2016;Kłapyta et al, 2015), and also by the results of other studies (Kotarba, 2004;Kapusta et al, 2010;Hreško et al, 2012;Necsoiu et al, 2013;Kohler et al, 2014;Gądek et al, 2015;Kubinský et al, 2015;Gallik, Bolešová, 2016). In particular, smaller and shallower lakes react much more sensitively to changes than larger lakes because of their small volume of the water.…”

“…It has been used in researches where it emerged secondary from a study of other landscape phenomena (Kapusta et al, 2010;Hreško et al, 2012;Długosz, Kapusta, 2015;Gallik, Bolešová, 2016;Kapusta, 2016).…”

“…Debris flows and deposition of fine fractions in shallow parts of lake basins are the main causes of the creation of the sediments in lakes. Fine fractions are flooded out from adjacent debris cones, moraines and gutters, especially during their high water saturation due to extreme precipitation (Lukniš, 1973;Gregor, Pacl, 2005;Kapusta et al, 2010;Hreško et al, 2012;Długosz, Kapusta, 2015;Gallik, Bolešová, 2016). Intensive accumulation of weathered material is mainly due to the fact that the lake basins and their surroundings at highly rugged relief by elevation present a local erosive base for geomorphological processes.…”