Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Monitoring Recovery of Forest Vegetation on Petroleum Well Sites

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 9; no. 5; p. 413
• Main Authors: Hird, Jennifer, Montaghi, Alessandro, McDermid, Gregory, Kariyeva, Jahan, Moorman, Brian, Nielsen, Scott, McIntosh, Anne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-05-2017
• Subjects: Aerial surveys; ecological recovery; Ground crews; Oil wells; Petroleum; Photogrammetry; point clouds; Reclamation; Recovery; Remote sensing; Unmanned aerial vehicles; Vegetation cover; vegetation height; vegetation structure
• ISSN: 2072-4292; 2072-4292
• DOI: 10.3390/rs9050413

Photogrammetric point clouds (PPCs) provide a source of three-dimensional (3-D) remote sensing data that is well-suited to use over small areas that are within the scope of observation by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We compared PPC-based structural metrics to traditional ground surveys conducted by field personnel in order to assess the capacity of PPC data to contribute to vegetation-reclamation surveys. We found good statistical agreement between key structural vegetation parameters, such as mean and maximum vegetation height, with PPC metrics successfully predicting most height and tree-diameter metrics using multivariate linear regression. However, PPC metrics were not as useful for estimating ground-measured vegetation cover. We believe that part of the issue lies in the mismatch between PPC- and ground-based measurement approaches, including subjective judgement on behalf of ground crews: a topic that requires more investigation. Our work highlights the emerging value of UAV-based PPCs to complement, and in some cases supplement, traditional ground-based sources of measured vegetation structure.