Shallow Water Bathymetry Mapping from UAV Imagery based on Machine Learning

The determination of accurate bathymetric information is a key element for near offshore activities, hydrological studies such as coastal engineering applications, sedimentary processes, hydrographic surveying as well as archaeological mapping and biological research. UAV imagery processed with Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multi View Stereo (MVS) techniques can provide a low-cost alternative to established shallow seabed mapping techniques offering as well the important visual information. Nevertheless, water refraction poses significant challenges on depth determination. Till now, this problem has been addressed through customized image-based refraction correction algorithms or by modifying the collinearity equation. In this paper, in order to overcome the water refraction errors, we employ machine learning tools that are able to learn the systematic underestimation of the estimated depths. In the proposed approach, based on known depth observations from bathymetric LiDAR surveys, an SVR model was developed able to estimate more accurately the real depths of point clouds derived from SfM-MVS procedures. Experimental results over two test sites along with the performed quantitative validation indicated the high potential of the developed approach.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

SHALLOW WATER BATHYMETRY MAPPING FROM UAV IMAGERY BASED ON MACHINE LEARNING

The determination of accurate bathymetric information is a key element for near offshore activities, hydrological studies such as coastal engineering applications, sedimentary processes, hydrographic surveying as well as archaeological mapping and biological research. UAV imagery processed with Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multi View Stereo (MVS) techniques can provide a low-cost alternative to established shallow seabed mapping techniques offering as well the important visual information. Nevertheless, water refraction poses significant challenges on depth determination. Till now, this problem has been addressed through customized image-based refraction correction algorithms or by modifying the collinearity equation. In this paper, in order to overcome the water refraction errors, we employ machine learning tools that are able to learn the systematic underestimation of the estimated depths. In the proposed approach, based on known depth observations from bathymetric LiDAR surveys, an SVR model was developed able to estimate more accurately the real depths of point clouds derived from SfM-MVS procedures. Experimental results over two test sites along with the performed quantitative validation indicated the high potential of the developed approach

LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR AN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR PHOTOGRAMMETRIC RIVERINE BATHYMETRY

Abstract. This work aims to test the effectiveness of artificial intelligence for correcting water refraction in shallow inland water using very high-resolution images collected by Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and processed through a total FOSS workflow. The tests focus on using synthetic information extracted from the visible component of the electromagnetic spectrum. An artificial neural network is created using data of three morphologically similar alpine rivers. The RGB information, the SfM depth and seven radiometric indices are calculated and stacked in an 11-bands raster (input dataset). The depths are calculated as the difference between the Up component of the bathymetry cross-sections and the water surface quotas and constitute the dependent variable of the regression. The dataset is then scaled. The observations of one of the analyzed case studies are used as the unseen dataset to test the generalization capability of the model. The remaining observations are divided into test (20%) and training (80%) datasets. The generated NN is a 3-layer MLP model with one hidden layer and the Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) and sigmoid activation functions. The weights are initialized to small Gaussian random values, and kernel regularizers, L1 and L2, are added to reduce the overfitting. Weights are updated with the Adam search technique, and the mean squared error is the loss function. The importance and significance of 11 variables are assessed. The model has a 0.70 r-squared score on the test dataset and 0.77 on the training dataset. The MAE is 0.06 and the RMSE 0.08, similar results obtained from the unseen dataset. Although the good metrics, the model shows some difficulties generalizing swallow depths

Structure-from-Motion on shallow reefs and beaches: potential and limitations of consumer-grade drones to reconstruct topography and bathymetry

Reconstructing the topography of shallow underwater environments using Structure-from-Motion—Multi View Stereo (SfM-MVS) techniques applied to aerial imagery from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is challenging, as it involves nonlinear distortions caused by water refraction. This study presents an experiment with aerial photographs collected with a consumer-grade UAV on the shallow-water reef of Fuvahmulah, the Maldives. Under conditions of rising tide, we surveyed the same portion of the reef in ten successive flights. For each flight, we used SfM-MVS to reconstruct the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the reef and used the flight at low tide (where the reef is almost entirely dry) to compare the performance of DEM reconstruction under increasing water levels. Our results show that differences with the reference DEM increase with increasing depth, but are substantially larger if no underwater ground control points are taken into account in the processing. Correcting our imagery with algorithms that account for refraction did not improve the overall accuracy of reconstruction. We conclude that reconstructing shallow-water reefs (less than 1 m depth) with consumer-grade UAVs and SfM-MVS is possible, but its precision is limited and strongly correlated with water depth. In our case, the best results are achieved when ground control points were placed underwater and no refraction correction is used

Deriving Coastal Shallow Bathymetry from Sentinel 2-, Aircraft- and UAV-Derived Orthophotos: A Case Study in Ligurian Marinas

Bathymetric surveys of shallow waters are increasingly necessary for navigational safety and environmental studies. In situ surveys with floating acoustic sensors allow the collection of high-accuracy bathymetric data. However, such surveys are often unfeasible in very shallow waters in addition to being expensive and requiring specific sectorial skills for the acquisition and processing of raw data. The increasing availability of optical images from Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles, aircrafts and satellites allows for bathymetric reconstruction from images thanks to the application of state-of-the-art algorithms. In this paper, we illustrate a bathymetric reconstruction procedure involving the classification of the seabed, the calibration of the algorithm for each class and the subsequent validation. We applied this procedure to high-resolution, UAV-derived orthophotos, aircraft orthophotos and Sentinel-2 Level-2A images of two marinas along the western Ligurian coastline in the Mediterranean Sea and validated the results with bathymetric data derived from echo-sounder surveys. Our findings showed that the aircraft-derived bathymetry is generally more accurate than the UAV-derived and Sentinel-2 bathymetry in all analyzed scenarios due to the smooth color of the aircraft orthophotos and their ability to reproduce the seafloor with a considerable level of detail

Supplementary report to the final report of the coral reef expert group: S6. Novel technologies in coral reef monitoring

[Extract] This report summarises a review of current technological advances applicable to coral reef monitoring, with a focus on the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (the Marine Park). The potential of novel technologies to support coral reef monitoring within the Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program (RIMReP) framework was evaluated based on their performance, operational maturity and compatibility with traditional methods. Given the complexity of this evaluation, this exercise was systematically structured to address the capabilities of technologies in terms of spatial scales and ecological indicators, using a ranking system to classify expert recommendations.An accessible copy of this report is not yet available from this repository, please contact [email protected] for more information

Applications of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) in Hydrology: A Review

In less than two decades, UASs (unmanned aerial systems) have revolutionized the field of hydrology, bridging the gap between traditional satellite observations and ground-based measurements and allowing the limitations of manned aircraft to be overcome. With unparalleled spatial and temporal resolutions and product-tailoring possibilities, UAS are contributing to the acquisition of large volumes of data on water bodies, submerged parameters and their interactions in different hydrological contexts and in inaccessible or hazardous locations. This paper provides a comprehensive review of 122 works on the applications of UASs in surface water and groundwater research with a purpose-oriented approach. Concretely, the review addresses: (i) the current applications of UAS in surface and groundwater studies, (ii) the type of platforms and sensors mainly used in these tasks, (iii) types of products generated from UAS-borne data, (iv) the associated advantages and limitations, and (v) knowledge gaps and future prospects of UASs application in hydrology. The first aim of this review is to serve as a reference or introductory document for all researchers and water managers who are interested in embracing this novel technology. The second aim is to unify in a single document all the possibilities, potential approaches and results obtained by different authors through the implementation of UASs

Using unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to map seagrass cover from Sentinel-2 imagery

Seagrass habitats are ecologically valuable and play an important role in sequestering and storing carbon. There is, thus, a need to estimate seagrass percentage cover in diverse environments in support of climate change mitigation, marine spatial planning and coastal zone management. In situ approaches are accurate but time-consuming, expensive and may not represent the larger spatial units collected by satellite imaging. Hence, there is a need for a consistent methodology that uses accurate point-based field surveys to deliver high-quality mapping of percentage seagrass cover at large spatial scales. Here, we develop a three-step approach that combines in situ (quadrats), aerial (unoccupied aerial vehicle—UAV) and satellite data to map percentage seagrass cover at Turneffe Atoll, Belize, the largest atoll in the northern hemisphere. First, the optical bands of four UAV images were used to calculate seagrass cover, in combination with in situ data. The seagrass cover calculated from the UAV was then used to develop training and validation datasets to estimate seagrass cover in Sentinel-2 pixels. Next, non-seagrass areas were identified in the Sentinel-2 data and removed by object-based classification, followed by a pixel-based regression to calculate seagrass percentage cover. Using this approach, percentage seagrass cover was mapped using UAVs (R2 = 0.91 between observed and mapped distributions) and using Sentinel-2 data (R2 = 0.73). This work provides the first openly available and explorable map of seagrass percentage cover across Turneffe Atoll, where we estimate approximately 242 km2 of seagrass above 10% cover is located. We estimate that this approach offers 30 times more data for training satellite data than traditional methods, therefore presenting a substantial reduction in cost-per-point for data. Furthermore, the increase in data helps deliver a high-quality seagrass cover map, suitable for resolving trends of deteriorating, stable or recovering seagrass environments at 10 m2 resolution to underpin evidence-based management and conservation of seagrass.publishedVersio

고해상도 초분광영상을 활용한 하천 부유사농도 계측기법 개발

학위논문(박사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 공과대학 건설환경공학부, 2022. 8. 서일원.기존의 하천 부유사 농도 계측은 샘플링 기반 직접계측 방식에 의존하여 시공간적 고해상도 자료 취득이 어려운 실정이다. 이러한 한계점을 극복하기 위해 최근 위성과 드론을 활용하여 촬영된 다분광 혹은 초분광 영상을 통해 고해상도의 부유사농도 시공간분포를 계측하는 기법에 대한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 하지만, 다른 하천 물리량 계측에 비해 부유사 계측 연구는 하천에 따라 부유사가 다양하게 분포하고 다른 부유물질 혹은 하상에 의한 바닥 반사의 영향 때문에 분광 자료를 통해 정확한 부유사농도 분포를 재현하기 어려운 실정이다. 특히, 부유사 분광 특성에 영향을 미치는 입도분포, 광물특성, 침강성 등이 하천에 따라 강한 지역성을 나타내기에 이러한 요인에서 야기되는 분광다양성으로 인해 특정 시기와 지역에만 적합한 원격탐사 기반 계측 모형들이 개발되어 왔다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 분광다양성을 반영하여 다양한 하천 및 유사 조건에서 적용 가능한 고해상도 초분광영상을 활용한 하천 부유사농도 계측방법을 개발하기 위해 초분광 군집화 기법과 다양한 파장대의 분광 밴드를 학습할 수 있는 기계학습 회귀 모형을 결합하여 CMR-OV라는 방법론을 제시하였다. CMR-OV 개발 및 검증은 1) 실험적 연구를 통한 하천 부유사 분광 특성의 주요 교란 요인 분석, 2) 최적 회귀모형 선정 및 초분광 클러스터링과의 결합, 3) 현장적용성 평가의 과정을 거쳐 수행되었다. 실험적 연구에서는 우선 실내 실험실에서 횡방향 혼합기를 활용하여 바닥 반사를 제거하고 완전 혼합된 상태에서 부유사의 고유 초분광 스펙트럼 자료를 수집하였다. 이를 바탕으로 실제 하천과 유사한 조건의 실규모 옥외 수로 실험에서 다양한 유사 특성(입도 및 광물)과 하상 특성(식생 및 모래)에 대한 초분광 자료를 수집하여 고유 초분광 스펙트럼과 비교하였다. 그 결과, 부유사의 분광 특성은 유사의 종류 및 입도에 따라 농도 증가에 따른 초분광 스펙트럼의 반사율 변화가 상이하게 나타났다. 또한, 1 m 이하의 얕은 수심 조건에서는 바닥 반사의 영향으로 하상 종류에 따라 초분광 스펙트럼의 개형이 크게 변화하였으며, 고농도의 부유사가 분포할 때도 바닥 반사가 크게 영향을 미치는 것을 확인하였다. 이러한 분광다양성이 반영된 부유사농도와 초분광 자료의 관계를 구축하기 위하여 기계학습 기반 랜덤포레스트 회귀 모형과 가우시안 혼합 모형 기반 초분광 군집 기법을 결합한 CMR-OV를 적용한 결과, 기존 연구들에서 주로 활용된 밴드비 기반의 모형과 단일 기계학습모형에 비해 정확도가 크게 향상하였다. 특히, 기존 최적 밴드비 분석 (OBRA) 방법은 비선형성을 고려해도 좁은 영역의 파장대만을 고려하는 한계점으로 인해 분광다양성을 반영하지 못하는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 하지만, CMR-OV는 폭 넓은 파장대 영역을 고려함과 동시에 높은 정확도를 산출하였다. 최종적으로 CMR-OV를 황강의 직선구간 및 사행구간과 낙동강과 황강의 합류부에 적용하여 현장검증을 수행한 결과, 기존 모형 대비 정확도와 부유사 농도 맵핑의 정밀성에서 큰 개선이 있었으며, 비학습지역에서도 높은 정확도를 산출하였다. 특히, 하천 합류부에서는 초분광 군집을 통해 두 하천 흐름의 경계층을 명확히 구별하였으며, 이를 바탕으로 지류와 본류에 대해 각각 분리된 회귀모형을 구축하여 복잡한 합류부 근역 경계층에서의 부유사 분포를 보다 정확하게 재현하였다. 또한, 나아가서 재현된 고해상도의 부유사 공간분포를 바탕으로 혼합도를 산정한 결과, 기존 점계측 대비 상세하게 부유사 혼합에 대한 정량적 평가가 가능한 것으로 나타났다. 따라서, 본 연구에서 개발한 초분광영상 기반 부유사 계측 기술을 통해 추후 하천 조사 및 관리 실무의 정확성 및 효율성을 크게 증진할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다.The conventional measurement method of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the riverine system is labor-intensive and time-consuming since it has been conducted using the sampling-based direct measurement method. For this reason, it is challenging to collect high-resolution datasets of SSC in rivers. In order to overcome this limitation, remote sensing-based techniques using multi- or hyper-spectral images from satellites or UAVs have been recently carried out to obtain high-resolution SSC distributions in water environments. However, suspended sediment in rivers is more dynamic and spatially heterogeneous than those in other fields. Moreover, the sediment and streambed properties have strong regional characteristics depending on the river type; thus, only models suitable for a specific period and region have been developed owing to the increased spectral variability of the water arising from various types of suspended matter in the water and the heterogeneous streambed properties. Therefore, to overcome the limitations of the existing monitoring system, this study proposed a robust hyperspectral imagery-based SSC measurement method, termed cluster-based machine learning regression with optical variability (CMR-OV). This method dealt with the spectral variability problem by combining hyperspectral clustering and machine learning regression with the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and Random forest (RF) regression. The hyperspectral clustering separated the complex dataset into several homogeneous datasets according to spectral characteristics. Then, the machine learning regressors corresponding to clustered datasets were built to construct the relationship between the hyperspectral spectrum and SSC. The development and validation of the proposed method were carried out through the following processes: 1) analysis of confounding factors in the spectral variability through experimental studies, 2) selection of an optimal regression model and validation of hyperspectral clustering, and 3) evaluation of field applicability. In the experimental studies, the intrinsic hyperspectral spectra of suspended sediment were collected in a completely mixed state after removing the bottom reflection using a horizontal rotating cylinder. Then, hyperspectral data on various sediment properties (particle size and mineral contents) and river bed properties (sand and vegetation) were collected from sediment tracer experiments in field-scale open channels under different hydraulic conditions and compared with intrinsic hyperspectral spectra. Consequently, the change of the hyperspectral spectrum was different according to the sediment type and particle size distribution. In addition, under the shallow water depth condition of 1 m or less, the shape of the hyperspectral spectrum changed significantly depending on the bed type due to the bottom reflectance. The bottom reflectance substantially affected the hyperspectral spectrum even when the high SSC was distributed. As a result of combining the GMM and RF regression with building a relationship between the SSC and hyperspectral data reflecting the spectral variability, the accuracy was substantially improved compared to the other methods. In particular, even when nonlinearity is considered based on the existing optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA) method, spectral variability could not be reflected due to the limitation of considering only a narrow wavelength range. On the other hand, CMR-OV showed high accuracy while considering a wide range of wavelengths with clusters having distinct spectral characteristics. Finally, the CMR-OV was applied to the straight and meandering reaches of the Hwang River and the confluence of the Nakdong and Hwang Rivers in South Korea to assess field applicability. There was a remarkable improvement in the accuracy and precision of SSC mapping under various river conditions compared to the existing models, and CMR-OV showed robust performance even with non-calibrated datasets. At the river confluence, the mixing pattern between the main river and tributary was apparently retrieved from CMR-OV under optically complex conditions. Compared to the non-clustered model, hyperspectral clustering played a primary role in improving the performance by separating the water bodies originating from both rivers. It was also possible to quantitatively evaluate the complicated mixing pattern in detail compared to the existing point measurement. Therefore, it is expected that the accuracy and efficiency of river investigation will be significantly improved through the SSC measurement method presented in this study.Abstract of dissertation i List of figures ix List of tables xvii List of abbreviations xix List of symbols xxii 1. Introduction 1 2. Theoretical research 13 2.1.1 Pre-processing of hyperspectral image (HSI) 19 2.1.2 Optical characteristics of suspended sediment in rivers 28 2.1.2.1 Theory of solar radiation transfer in rivers 28 2.1.2.2 Heterogeneity of sediment properties 33 2.1.2.3 Effects of bottom reflectance 38 2.1.2.4 Vertical distribution of suspended sediment 41 2.1.3 Retrieval of suspended sediment from remote sensing data 46 2.1.3.1 Remote sensing-based regression approach 46 2.1.3.2 Clustering of remote sensing data 52 2.2 Mapping of suspended sediment concentration in rivers 56 2.2.1 Traditional method for spatial measurement 56 2.2.2 Spatial measurement at river confluences 57 2.2.2.1 Dynamics of flow and mixing at river confluences 57 2.2.2.2 Field experiments in river confluences 64 3. Experimental studies 68 3.1 Experimental cases 68 3.2 Laboratory experiment 74 3.2.1 Experimental setup 74 3.2.2 Experimental method 78 3.3 Field-scale experiments in River Experiment Center 83 3.3.1 Experiments in the straight channel 83 3.3.2 Experiments in the meandering channel 96 3.4 Field survey 116 3.4.1 Study area and field measurement 116 3.4.2 Hydraulic and sediment data in rivers with simple geometry 122 3.4.3 Hydraulic and sediment data in river confluences 126 3.5 Analysis of hyperspectral data of suspended sediment 141 3.5.1 Hyperspectral data of laboratory experiment 142 3.5.2 Hyperspectral data of field-scale experiments 146 3.5.2.1 Effect of bottom reflectance 146 3.5.2.2 Principal component analysis of the effect of suspended sediment properties 154 4. Development of suspended sediment concentration estimator using UAV-based hyperspectral imagery 164 4.1 Outline of Cluster-based Machine learning Regression with Optical Variability (CMR-OV) 164 4.2 Pre-processing of hyperspectral images 168 4.3 Regression models and clustering technique 173 4.3.1 Index-based regression models 173 4.3.2 Machine learning regression models 175 4.3.3 Relevant band selection 183 4.3.4 Gaussian mixture model for clustering 185 4.3.5 Performance criteria 188 4.4 Model development and evaluation 189 4.4.1 Comparison of regression models 189 4.4.1.1 OBRA-based explicit models 189 4.4.1.2 Machine learning-based implicit models 194 4.4.2 Assessment of hyperspectral clustering 200 4.4.3 Spatio-temporal SSCV mapping using CMR-OV 215 5. Evaluation of field applicability of CMR-OV 225 5.1 Outline of field applicability test 225 5.2 Cross-applicability validation of CMR-OV 227 5.3 Assessment of field applicability in rivers with simple geometry 234 5.4 Assessment of field applicability in river confluences 241 5.4.1 Classification of river regions using hyperspectral clustering 241 5.4.2 Retrievals of SSCV map 258 5.4.3 Mixing pattern extraction from SSCv map 271 6. Conclusions and future study 274 6.1 Conclusions 274 6.2 Future directions 278 Reference 280 Appendix 308 Appendix A. Breakthrough curve (BTC) analysis 308 Appendix B. Experimental data 310 Appendix B. 1. BTCs of in-situ measured SSC from field-scale experiments 310 Appendix B. 2. Dataset of spectra from hyperspectral images and corresponding SSC in rivers 330 Appendix C. CMR-OV code 331 국문초록 337박

Bathymetric detection of fluvial environments through UASs and machine learning systems

In recent decades, photogrammetric and machine learning technologies have become essential for a better understanding of environmental and anthropic issues. The present work aims to respond one of the most topical problems in environmental photogrammetry, i.e., the automatic classification of dense point clouds using the machine learning (ML) technology for the refraction correction on the fluvial water table. The applied methodology for the acquisition of multiple photogrammetric flights was made through UAV drones, also in RTK configuration, for various locations along the Orco River, sited in Piedmont (Italy) and georeferenced with GNSS—RTK topographic method. The authors considered five topographic fluvial cross-sections to set the correction methodology. The automatic classification in ML has found a valid identification of different patterns (Water, Gravel bars, Vegetation, and Ground classes), in specific hydraulic and geomatic conditions. The obtained results about the automatic classification and refraction reduction led us the definition of a new procedure, with precise conditions of validity