Assessing the impact of the number of GCPs on the accuracy of photogrammetric mapping from UAV imagery

With recent advances in aerial data acquisition technologies from aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) very large datasets can be collected rapidly, covering significant surfaces with centimetre-scale resolution, with the consequence possibility to analyse geological structures of coastal areas within those datasets digitally. The monitoring of erosion mechanisms in fact requires high standards of precision to appreciate their effects. With the availability of a regular coastal monitoring programme being carried out in a large territory, UAVs can replace many of the conventional flights, with considerable advantages in the cost of data acquisition and without any loss in the quality of topographic and aerial imagery data. Several works in literature have been focused on finding an effective and sustainable survey strategy to limit costs and work times. However, it is necessary to refine the photogrammetric mapping process to optimize its geometrical accuracy and ensure the multi-temporal and multi-scaling repeatability of final products. The aim of this work is to test the accuracy obtainable from various photogrammetric workflows concerning the 3D modelling of a coastline area that is subject to hydrogeological instability. To this purpose, a set of image data acquired with a UAV, equipped with a non-metric camera and a low-accuracy GNSS/INS receiver, was processed. To maintain and test the accuracy of the whole process, an adequate number of Ground Control Points (GCPs) was acquired by means of a high precision GNSS surveying.