Seabrook Beach Drone Survey Project

The Seabrook Beach Drone Survey Project is a project that involves using drone photographs to create a digital elevation model (DEM) which is a 3-D representation of the terrain surface. The goal of the project was to use a Phantom 3 drone to map the changes to the beach over time. Along with the drone, in order to ensure the Global Positioning System (GPS) accuracy during the surveys, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) mounted on a rover was used. The GNSS rover was used to accurately determine the positions of ground control points (GCPs) placed throughout the survey area because it has the ability to roll over the GCP so that the antenna was situated directly above the point. The drone photos and the GCP positions were combined in a software called Agisoft Metashape to build a DEM. Once all of the surveys were complete and three DEMs were generated, one for each survey, the data was imported into Quantum GIS. Quantum GIS is a geographic information system that was used to illustrate contour lines on the DEMs. The contour lines allowed the DEMs to be compared to one another to see where the most change occurred. Additionally, maximum wave height data at the Jeffery’s Ledge Buoy was downloaded from the NOAA database to determine if there were any significant winter storms that may have affected the beach. Jeffreys Ledge is located in the western Gulf of Maine approximately 50 km off the coast of New Hampshire, but within 10 km of the shore by Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The maximum wave height data was plotted using MATLAB. Once all of the data was organized and processed, it was easy to determine that there were major changes to the beach over the course of the project due to significant wave events.