Development of a UAV based topographic sensor for monitoring dynamic coastal environments

Despite the importance placed upon our coastal environments in terms of providing inland protection from marine flooding and the habitat and economic value associated with them, due to high costs, repeat monitoring is largely limited to annual timescales. Yet the implications for managing the coastal sediment resource are such that accurate, high spatio-temporal resolution data is essential to underpin the geomorphological understanding driving maintenance decisions. The regular delivery of high resolution topographic data will transform our current understanding of large scale beach dynamics, by providing the very first ~daily measurements of high the sediment is moving around.

In conjunction with our CASE partner, Pevensey Coastal Defence Ltd (see CASE partner section), this project will develop a novel, small form factor, mobile laser scanning sensor (MLS) which will be integrated into an UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The sensor and platform will be able to collect suitably high resolution (high vertical accuracy and 100s points per m2) data along the Pevensey coast in a matter of hours, improving the understanding of sediment dynamics. On board image processing will enable the development of feature (e.g. shingle spits) tracking in an effort to develop 'smart' systems which can monitor dynamic environmental features.

As well as the immediate impact of this research for monitoring large areas of dynamic land forms, it will be of great interest to those developing sense and avoid systems for full autonomous flights and in further refinement of smart feature tracking.