EGU 2020 Short Course: UAV Data Collection and Analysis: operating procedures, applications and standards

Tuesday, 1 October, 2019

UAV Data Collection and Analysis: operating procedures, applications and standards Conveners: Paolo Paron; Co-conveners: Mike James, Michael Smith

UAVs have reached a tipping point in geoscience research such that they are near-ubiquitous and commonly used in data collection. In this way they are opening new ways to study and understand landforms, sediments, processes and other landscape properties at spatial and temporal scales that is close to the scale of the processes that operate. However this implies that non experts are entering the field of photography, image interpretation, photogrammetry and 3D modelling often without a solid grounding in the principles of surveying. This course aims at providing a solid foundation for UAV users in order to avoid simple mistakes that can lead to legal restrictions, UAV loss, operational problems and poor quality data.

We will introduce pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight procedures that aim at optimizing the collection of high quality imagery for subsequent downstream processing. We will also demonstrate the analyses of data by means of existing state of the art commercial software, such as Pix4D and Metashape for point cloud analysis, and eCognition for object based image analysis. We will also demonstrate the use of open source/open access software like Cloud Compare and Orfeo Toolbox