Detection of surface change in complex topography using terrestrial laser scanning: application to the Illgraben debris‐flow channel

TLDR

Detection of surface change is a fundamental task in geomorphology, and terrestrial laser scanners are increasingly used for monitoring such changes, but the data are subject to finite positional ambiguity that propagates into large volume uncertainties. The study proposes a methodology to detect surface change and quantify volumetric errors in complex topography such as channels. The method combines data from multiple scan stations and propagates positional ambiguities through to volume calculations. The authors find that laser point elongation at low incidence angles has negligible effect, while elevation ambiguities and changes in surface roughness strongly affect change detection, and that accounting for these ambiguities enables detection of 87 ± 5 m³ volume change over ~4900 m² in the Illgraben channel. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Detection of surface change is a fundamental task in geomorphology. Terrestrial laser scanners are increasingly used for monitoring surface change resulting from a variety of geomorphic processes, as they allow the rapid generation of high‐resolution digital elevation models. Irrespective of instrument specifics, survey design or data processing, such data are subject to a finite level of ambiguity in position measurement, a consideration of which must be taken into account when deriving change. The propagation of errors is crucial in change detection because even very small uncertainties in elevation can produce large uncertainties in volume when extrapolated over an area of interest. In this study we propose a methodology to detect surface change and to quantify the resultant volumetric errors in areas of complex topography such as channels, where data from multiple scan stations must be combined. We find that a commonly proposed source of error – laser point elongation at low incidence angles – has a negligible effect on the quality of the final registered point cloud. Instead, ambiguities in elevation inherent to registered datasets have a strong effect on our ability to detect and measure surface change. Similarly, we find that changes in surface roughness between surveys also reduce our ability to detect change. Explicit consideration of these ambiguities, when propagated through to volume calculations, allows us to detect volume change of 87 ± 5 m 3 , over an area of ∼ ​4900 m 2 , due to passage of a debris flow down a 300 m reach of the Illgraben channel in Switzerland. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.