Topographic Information Extraction of Tidal Flats Using Remote Multi-sensory Data

Sediment from rivers has created a vast tidal flat over the west coast of Korea. The topography of the area is critical to the fishing industry and pollution purification, and it is a dangerous area causing fatal accidents due to the depth and steep slope with the tidal flow. Topographic information of the area needs to be obtained and monitored periodically for rapid changes due to periodic tides; however terrestrial surveying of the area is limited by poor accessibility. For this reason, it would be better to use remote sensors, such as satellite or aerial sensors, which differ in terms of spectral bands, spatial resolution, and coverage. This study integrated data from the three platforms, processed the data through synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry and stereo aerial photogrammetry to generate separate Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), and then fused these into a final product using three-dimensional (3D) point cloud matching. The product was used for automatic extraction of tidal flat channel information by analyzing tidal flat topography and deriving channel depth and width.