Elevation Data Acquisition Accuracy Assessment for ESRI Drone2Map, Agisoft Metashape, and Pix4Dmapper UAV Photogrammetry Software

Whether planning urban development, conducting a hydrological construction in different terrain conditions, or analyzing terrain features for oil and gas exploration: accurate elevation information is vital. Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and Digital Surface Model (DSM) is the elevation model that provides elevation information of terrain and earth features (object), respectively. This study aims to assess the elevation accuracy of some of the most preferred Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) data processing software from ESRI, Pix4D, and Agisoft Photoscan. In this study, DJI Phantom 4 is used to collect 147 very high-resolution overlapped images in the selected study area (Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Roorkee, India) at the defined height. Collected images are processed using all the selected platform elevation datasets, i.e. Digital Surface Model (DSM) is generated. Vertical elevation error is estimated by elevation profile and statistical comparisons of UAV-derived elevation in the DSM datasets. This study helps to select the best UAV data processing software for the project that requires high elevation accuracy in topographical mapping or urban object utilization.