AUTHORS: Kirk Waters, NOAA OCM; Sue Bickford, Wells NERR; Jamie Carter*, TBG at NOAA OCM; Nina Garfield, NOAA OCM; Andrea Habeck, Jacques Cousteau NERR; Nate Herold, NOAA OCM; Jared Lewis, San Francisco Bay NERR; Jonathan Pitchford, Grand Bay NERR; Melissa Rosa, TBG at NOAA OCM
ABSTRACT: There is a near universal need within the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) and by other natural resource stakeholders for accurate Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and habitat maps to support a diversity of applications. Applications include supporting sea level rise research and management and flood forecasts; evaluating the impact of specific vegetation management practices on elevation in marsh micro-environments; assessing beaches after storms for damage assessment and restoration purposes; and identifying high priority invasive and sensitive vegetation. Our intent with this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of unmanned aerial system (UAS) platforms to produce multiple mapping data and products for elevation and vegetation mapping in marshes and dune systems. We sought a UAS solution that could fly multi-spectral and lidar elevation instruments sequentially on the same platform. We contracted UAS data collection to the private sector (Quantum Spatial, Inc., and PrecisionHawk) and conducted the ground truth ourselves (NERRS and NOAA staff). We used multiple NERRS sentinel sites as test beds. Data from multiple high-resolution multi-spectral sensors and lidar elevation were acquired for three NERRS sites: Jacques Cousteau, NJ; Grand Bay, MS; and Rush Ranch in San Francisco Bay, CA. The data were evaluated on their ability to meet specifications, primarily positional accuracy and resolution, and their potential to improve habitat mapping.
