Environmental monitoring in Patagonia

Project title

Monitoring of environmental processes in Patagonia using photogrammetric and remote sensing techniques

Funding

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Motivation

The main objectiv of the research project with the Dirección de Programas y Antárticos Subantárticos (DPA) of the Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG) in Punta Areas was the development of photogrammetric and remote sensing methods for monitoring environmental processes in Patagonia. The main focus of the project was thereby on the monitoring of Patagonian glaciers in Chile (using the example of Grey glacier) on the one hand, and the development of a concept for a camera-supported pre-warning system of flood hazards (using the example of the Rio de las Minas in Punta Arenas) on the other hand.

Data Acquisition & Processing

Glacier monitoring

Installation of a terrestrial camera system at Grey Glacier
Acquisition of a temporal and spatial high-resolution image sequence
3D terrain model generation based on an additionally measured photogrammetric network
Determination of glacier flow velocities by tracking glacier surface features in the sequence images and by scaling the derived motion vectors using 3D terrain information
Validation of terrestrial flow velocities by comparing them to velocity fields derived from satellite data (Landsat 8)

Kamerainstallation — © Robert Koschitzki

River monitoring

Comprehensive examination of the landslide prone river Las Minas in Punta Arenas
Aerial survey of endangered areas and record of high temporal resolution image sequences at two epochs (2014/2015)
Measurement of natural reference points in the river valley with DGPS
Deriving three-dimensional terrain information using "structure-from-motion" techniques and geo-referencing via the measured reference points
Compensation of local modeling inaccuracies via iterative co-registration in sections
Terrain model comparison and deformation analysis

Untersuchungsgebiet - Rio de las Minas — © IPF

Results

Glacier monitoring

Dense velocity field for the middle terminal glacier tongue of Grey Glacier covering an area of 2 x 2 km.
Determination of the maximal flow velocity of Grey Glacier with 2.8 m·d^-1close to
the glacier front. In a distance of 2 km from the glacier front the maximal flow velocity decreases to 1.5 m·d^-1.
Mean standard deviation of terrestrial velocity determination: ±6,9 cm·d^-1
Good agreement of the terrestrial results with velocity values derived from satellite images (mean differences: ±0,2 m·d^-1).

Landsat-basieret Geschwindigkeiten — © IPF

River monitoring

Determination of volume changes (erosion- and ablation zones) between two epochs and localisation of landslides in the river valley
Developement of a UAV-based monitoring concept for the river "Rio de las Minas"