UAV survey of a coastal cliff face – Selection of the best imaging angle

UAVs are relevant for monitoring cliff faces. In this study, several flights are performed with various imaging angles (nadir, 20 degrees, 30 degrees and 40 degrees off-nadir) to assess the impact of the imaging angle on the 3D cliff face reconstruction. Occlusions issues arising with sub-vertical cliffs make nadir surveys nearly irrelevant. The results obtained with 20 degrees, 30 degrees and 40 degrees off-nadir imaging angles are satisfactory regarding texture restitution and accuracy with respectively 5.5 cm, 5.9 cm and 4.9 cm of error, higher tilting angles yielding better reconstructions on sub-vertical or overhanging parts of the cliff. This article also investigates other parameters affecting tiepoint detection on the cliff face, as the effective overlap, the UAV-cliff face distance and the cliff face illumination. Guidelines are provided for UAV survey parameterization, aiming at capturing the whole cliff face with a good trade-off between distance to the cliff, flight height and spatial resolution of the photographs.