Low-altitude UAV-borne remote sensing in dunes environment: Shoreline monitoring and coastal resilience

UAV systems, fitted with either active or passive surveying sensors, can provide land-related measures and quantitative information with low costs and high resolution in both space and time. Such surveying systems can be quite valuable in defining geometrical and descriptive parameters in coastal systems, especially dune ecosystems. The present work is based on a survey of the dune system at the mouth of the Fiume Morto Nuovo in the San Rossore Estate (Pisa) and focuses on comparing LiDAR with UAV- and airplane-borne photogrammetry, as well as the respective 2D and 3D cartographic output, in order to assess topography changes along a stretch of coastline and to check their possible use in defining some ecological resilience features on coastal dune systems. Processing of survey data generates a Digital Surface Model (DSM) or Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and an orthophotograph, checked for accuracy and image resolution. Comparison of these products against those available in public access cartographical databases highlights differences and respective strengths.