New techniques in processing stereo imagery for quantifying landscape changes in Iceland

Open lecture hosted by the center for remote sensing, CRS.

Link to live stream: https://eu01web.zoom.us/my/crs.talks.2023

Talk will be given by Sydney Gunnarson, Remote Sensing Specialist, National Land Survey of Iceland and Joaquín Belart, Remote Sensing Group leader, National Land Survey of Iceland. Sydney and Joaquín are researchers in the remote sensing department of the National Land Survey of Iceland, focused on encouraging and facilitating the use of optical remote sensing data for research and decision-making in Iceland.

Abstract:

Analysis of stereo images from multiple platforms, such as drones, airplanes, or satellites, can provide invaluable information on changes in the landscape throughout time. We present a series of novel techniques used for handling large optical remote sensing datasets, mainly consisting of aerial photographs and satellite stereoimages, using automated pipelines and open-source software, with the goal of creating Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and orthoimages to quantify changes in the landscape. These automated techniques lead to faster processing without the need for in-situ nor manually digitized ground control points. This is particularly suitable for evaluating large-scale landscape changes where accurate ground control is difficult to come by. We present two applications as case-studies: (1) near-real time monitoring of the effusion rate of the August 2022 Meradalir volcanic eruption and (2) measurement of glacier mass balance from stereoimages.