The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to determine the shoreline of natural watercourses
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Abstract
Abstract The aim of the paper was to study the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to determine the shoreline of natural watercourses. According to the Water Law, the shoreline is defined by: the edge of the shore if it is visible, and in other cases it is the boundary of persistent grass growth, or the line, which is determined on the basis of the average water level of a period of at least 10 years. The study included an analysis of the possibility of determining the shore line in all of these cases, using aerial photos obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) on a particular stretch of the river Narew. In order to determine the shoreline defined by the edge of the shore, a point cloud together with the necessary GIS tools were used to generate planes which then made it possible to determine that edge. Defining the shoreline using this method was done with an accuracy of ±0.21 m. The study shows that the best results for determining the shoreline were obtained using either the edge of the shore or the line, which is determined according to the average water level of a period of at least 10 years. Due to the very ambiguous course of the shoreline defined by the boundary of persistent grass growth, it would be advisable to eliminate this remove from the Water Law.