Small scale landform mapping by integrated optical (2D) and terrain (3D) UAV data

Abstract

The potential of UAV-based data for fine-scaled remote sensing applications has been investigated for several years and is still increasing. The presented study is attached to the field of landform mapping. Mapping and extracting of landforms contributes to different sectors such as agriculture, disaster management and nature conservation. In this study recent experiences and results from working in a nature conservation area are presented. The chosen study area ’Haarmoos’ is located southwest of the lake Abtsdorf, Bavaria and is declared under the European wide Natura 2000 network. Optical imagery and terrain data were analyzed in an integrated approach based on object-based image analysis (OBIA). The classification delivered good results. Ditches may be classified well by the presented approach whereas a tradeoff was made between local rule set adaption and applicability to further data sets. The validation of the classification results was based on three steps.