UAV Photogrammetry and Ground Surveys as a Mapping Tool for Quickly Monitoring Shoreline and Beach Changes

The aim of this work is to evaluate UAV photogrammetric and GNSS techniques to investigate coastal zone morphological changes due to both natural and anthropogenic factors. Monitoring morphological beach change and coastline evolution trends is necessary to plan efficient maintenance work, sand refill and engineering structures to avoid coastal drift. The test area is located on the Northern Adriatic coast, a few kilometres from Ravenna (Italy). Three multi-temporal UAV surveys were performed using UAVs supported by GCPs, and Post Processed Kinematic (PPK) surveys were carried out to produce three-dimensional models to be used for comparison and validation. The statistical method based on Crossover Error Analysis was used to assess the empirical accuracy of the PPK surveys. GNSS surveys were then adopted to evaluate the accuracy of the 2019 photogrammetric DTMs. A multi-temporal analysis was carried out by gathering LiDAR dataset (2013) provided by the “Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare” (MATTM), 1:5000 Regional Technical Cartography (CTR, 1998; DBTR 2013), and 1:5000 AGEA orthophotos (2008, 2011). The digitization of shoreline position on multi-temporal orthophotos and maps, together with DTM comparison, permitted historical coastal changes to be highlighted.