UAV Photogrammetry-based Sea Level Establishment for a Storm Surge Early Warning System in Wolpo-beach, South Korea

Abstract

Recent environmental change exacerbates living conditions especially in coastal areas due to increases of frequency and intensity of typhoons. A storm surge early warning system (SEWS) can be a useful non-structural measure to protect the public living in coastal areas. The establishment of sea levels for the SEWS has a critical role. Thorough ground surveying is desired to establish sea levels by finding the most vulnerable point. Meanwhile, remote sensing techniques have been addressed for the coastal vulnerability especially with UAV photogrammetry. Therefore, a UAV photogrammetry procedure is proposed for a SEWS to estimate the alarming sea levels in the current study combining historical tide data for storm surge events. The procedure is comprised of five steps: 1) UAV surveying of the target area and producing the DSM data; 2) definition of the vulnerable points with DSM and ground surveying; 3) estimation of the inundation area from the DSM with sea level rising; 4) analysis of the precedent storm surge events; and 5) estimation of sea levels with the inundation area and historical sea levels of the vulnerable points. Wolpo Beach in South Korea was employed, since its coastal area has been damaged from storm surge events. Results indicated that the UAV-based procedure can be a useful method to establish sea levels for the SEWS. © Korean Society of Civil Engineers 2024.