Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst
Measuring ground elevation changes plays a crucial role in several environmental applications. For instance, permafrost soils undergo seasonal active layer freezing and thawing that causes cyclic elevation changes. Permafrost thaw can result in unidirectional ground subsidence, which may be gradual...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Drone Systems and Applications |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/dsa-2022-0036 |
| _version_ | 1797704190469865472 |
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| author | Robert H. Fraser Sylvain G. Leblanc Christian Prevost Jurjen van der Sluijs |
| author_facet | Robert H. Fraser Sylvain G. Leblanc Christian Prevost Jurjen van der Sluijs |
| author_sort | Robert H. Fraser |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Measuring ground elevation changes plays a crucial role in several environmental applications. For instance, permafrost soils undergo seasonal active layer freezing and thawing that causes cyclic elevation changes. Permafrost thaw can result in unidirectional ground subsidence, which may be gradual and uniform, or rapid and irregular in the case of thermokarst landforms such as slumps and degrading ice-wedges. Photogrammetric drone surveys have effectively characterized large (> 0.1 m) ground elevation changes resulting from thermokarst, yet many permafrost processes of interest lead to more subtle elevation changes. In this study, we assessed various drone-based surveying strategies for their precision to measure smaller (< 0.1 m) ground elevation changes to better characterize permafrost-driven surface dynamics. The strategies were compared by examining the short-term reproducibility of modeled elevation for 76 bare ground targets, derived from six repeat drone surveys captured under variable illumination. We found that the Phantom 4 RTK drone using direct georeferencing, combined with one fixed ground control point, could reproduce elevations with a mean absolute deviation of 0.6 cm, suggesting a minimum level of change detection of 1.4 cm at 95% confidence. Drone-based methods for measuring permafrost elevation changes should be complementary to in situ and satellite-based (e.g. differential interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) approaches. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T05:16:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6a101294f95049418b26c60cbc73bdf7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2564-4939 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T05:16:39Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Canadian Science Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Drone Systems and Applications |
| spelling | doaj.art-6a101294f95049418b26c60cbc73bdf72023-09-03T08:03:53ZengCanadian Science PublishingDrone Systems and Applications2564-49392022-01-0110140642610.1139/dsa-2022-0036Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarstRobert H. Fraser0Sylvain G. Leblanc1Christian Prevost2Jurjen van der Sluijs3Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0E4, Canada.Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0E4, Canada.Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0E4, Canada.NWT Centre for Geomatics, Government of Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, NT X1A 2L9, Canada.Measuring ground elevation changes plays a crucial role in several environmental applications. For instance, permafrost soils undergo seasonal active layer freezing and thawing that causes cyclic elevation changes. Permafrost thaw can result in unidirectional ground subsidence, which may be gradual and uniform, or rapid and irregular in the case of thermokarst landforms such as slumps and degrading ice-wedges. Photogrammetric drone surveys have effectively characterized large (> 0.1 m) ground elevation changes resulting from thermokarst, yet many permafrost processes of interest lead to more subtle elevation changes. In this study, we assessed various drone-based surveying strategies for their precision to measure smaller (< 0.1 m) ground elevation changes to better characterize permafrost-driven surface dynamics. The strategies were compared by examining the short-term reproducibility of modeled elevation for 76 bare ground targets, derived from six repeat drone surveys captured under variable illumination. We found that the Phantom 4 RTK drone using direct georeferencing, combined with one fixed ground control point, could reproduce elevations with a mean absolute deviation of 0.6 cm, suggesting a minimum level of change detection of 1.4 cm at 95% confidence. Drone-based methods for measuring permafrost elevation changes should be complementary to in situ and satellite-based (e.g. differential interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) approaches.https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/dsa-2022-0036droneUAVelevationpermafrostthermokarstsubsidence |
| spellingShingle | Robert H. Fraser Sylvain G. Leblanc Christian Prevost Jurjen van der Sluijs Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst Drone Systems and Applications drone UAV elevation permafrost thermokarst subsidence |
| title | Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst |
| title_full | Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst |
| title_fullStr | Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst |
| title_short | Towards precise drone-based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst |
| title_sort | towards precise drone based measurement of elevation change in permafrost terrain experiencing thaw and thermokarst |
| topic | drone UAV elevation permafrost thermokarst subsidence |
| url | https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/dsa-2022-0036 |
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