Hotspot Vegetation Structure and Terrain Monitoring of Dutch Coastal Dunes with LiDAR and Optical Camera's Mounted on Drones

Summary

Drones offer a flexible way to collect data for monitoring of natural areas. Changes in land cover can be seen in the RGB imagery and changes in the terrain are detectable from the LiDAR data. Differences in the Digital Terrain Models from 2017 and 2020 show the hotspots where blowouts and deposition occur and the Lidar profiles show the dynamics of the terrain in high detail. The results indicate significant morphological changes in the dunes that were not directly recognizable in the field. This clearly indicates to the terrain manager that the quality of the ecosystem is afresh and functions as a (near) natural