Measuring ephemeral gully erosion rates and topographical thresholds in an urban watershed using unmanned aerial systems and structure from motion photogrammetric techniques.

ABSTRACT: Both rural and urban development can lead to accelerated gully erosion. Quantifying gully erosion is challenging in environments where gullies are rapidly repaired, and in urban areas where microtopographic complexity complicates the delineation of contributing areas. This study used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques to quantify gully erosion in the Los Laureles Canyon watershed, a rapidly urbanizing watershed in Tijuana, Mexico. Following a storm event, the gully network extent was mapped using an orthomosaic (0.038 m pixel size); the local slope and watershed area contributing to each gully head were mapped with a Digital Surface Model (0.3 m pixel size). Gullies formed almost exclusively on unpaved roads which had erodible soils a

SUBMITTER: Gudino-Elizondo N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6145458 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature