The use of drones in the study of relief, structure and texture of sediments on examples from Central Poland

Abstract

Drones (UAV, unmanned aerial vehicles), along with the development of technology, are more and more used to solve scientific problems. This is particularly true for Earth and environmental sciences, including geomorphology, structural geology and sedimentology. In addition to hardware and technical issues, the parallel development of photogrammetric programs and systems for increasing the precision of drone flight path measurements are contributing to the ability to create land maps as well as 3D models with increasing accuracy. This paper describes the possibility of using drones carrying a non-metric RGB camera or thermal sensor, for the study of morphological changes of terrain based on the analysis of photographs, orthophotos and 3D models. Test studies were carried out in the valleys of the Warta and Pilica rivers in the area of artificial reservoirs, as well as on moraine uplands – mainly in open-pit mines. The results of these tests show that proper flight planning and configuration of the aircraft’s camera work guarantee obtaining the right data necessary for later processing in software, such as GIS. The most important parameters included: determination of the area of the planned raid, flight altitude above ground level, aircraft speed, camera repetition rate and accuracy of the generated material.