Accuracy assessment of low cost UAV based city modelling for urban planning

Abstract

This paper presents an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) based 3D city modelling approach to be used in managing and planning urban areas. While the urban growth is rapidly increasing in many places of the world, the conventional techniques do not respond to the changing environment simultaneously. For effective planning, high-resolution remote sensing is a tool for the production of 3D digital city models. In this study, it is aimed at designing the remote sensing by UAV through urban terrain. Using all the information produced from UAV imagery, high-accurate 3D city models are obtained. The analysis of XYZ data of the derived from 3D model using UAV photogrammetry revealed similar products as the terrestrial surveys which are commonly used for the last development plans and city maps. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the UAV-based 3D city modelling. The assessed accuracy of the UAV photogrammetry proved that urban planners can use it as the main tool of data collection for boundary mapping, changes monitoring and topographical surveying instead of GPS/GNSS surveying.