Point clouds from oblique stereo-imagery: Two outcrop case studies across scales and accessibility

Digital elevation models (DEM) were generated from oblique stereo-images acquired with a handheld digital camera. Two model scenarios are considered. Firstly, at local outcrop scale, with easy access, and distances between camera and outcrop varying between c. 40 m and c. 120 m, a very dense and high resolution point cloud was produced. The quality of the point cloud was evaluated against a terrestrial laser scan derived model of the same outcrop. The deviation between the two datasets varies between 0.02 m and 0.09. This is negligible for most geological purposes and illustrates the potential of using terrestrial photogrammetry at local outcrop scale as an alternative to lidar generated elevation data. Secondly, the method is explored at a regional scale, where a set of oblique stereo-images of a remotely located steep inaccessible mountain cliff was collected from a helicopter at a distance of c. 2-5 km under challenging and unfavourable conditions. The quality of the point cloud was evaluated against two elevation models extracted from conventional aerial photographs. Compared to a DEM extracted from monochrome aerial photographs, such as are often the only available topographic source for remote regions, a clear improvement in resolution is observed. Comparison with a DEM extracted from high resolution coloured aerial photographs shows the two digital elevation models to be very similar in resolution and with root mean square deviation (RMSE of 6.0 m).