Small-Scale Surface Reconstruction and Volume Calculation of Soil Erosion in Complex Moroccan Gully Morphology Using Structure from Motion

Remote Sensing

Andreas Kaiser²  Fabian Neugirg⁵  Gilles Rock³  Christoph Müller¹  Florian Haas⁵  Johannes Ries⁴ 

[1] Department of Management, University Koblenz-Landau, D-56070 Koblenz, Germany; E-Mail:;Soil and Water Conservation Unit, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, D-09599 Freiberg, Germany; E-Mail:;Department of Environmental Remote Sensing and Geomatics, University of Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany; E-Mail:;Department of Physical Geography, University of Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany; E-Mail:;Department of Physical Geography, Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, D-85072 Eichstätt, Germany; E-Mails:

关键词: structure from motion;    high resolution 3D model;    multi-view stereo reconstruction;    computer vision;    photogrammetry;    LiDAR;    TLS;    Morocco;    soil erosion monitoring;    gully erosion;    volume calculation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs6087050

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study presents a computer vision application of the structure from motion (SfM) technique in three dimensional high resolution gully monitoring in southern Morocco. Due to impractical use of terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) in difficult to access gully systems, the inexpensive SfM is a promising tool for analyzing and monitoring soil loss, gully head retreat and plunge pool development following heavy rain events. Objects with known dimensions were placed around the gully scenes for scaling purposes as a workaround for ground control point (GCP) placement. Additionally, the free scaling with objects was compared to terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data in a field laboratory in Germany. Results of the latter showed discrepancies of 5.6% in volume difference for erosion and 1.7% for accumulation between SfM and TLS. In the Moroccan research area soil loss varied between 0.58 t in an 18.65 m² narrowly stretched gully incision and 5.25 t for 17.45 m² in a widely expanded headcut area following two heavy rain events. Different techniques of data preparation were applied and the advantages of SfM for soil erosion monitoring under complex surface conditions were demonstrated.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland