UAV Photogrammetry for Volume Calculations. A Case Study of an Open Sand Quarry

Traditional geomatic surveying techniques for calculating volumes of bulk or extracted material have evolved in recent years. From the traditional GNSS or total station survey to the current UAV photogrammetric system with the Structure from Motion (SfM) approach. The calculation of the volumes of bulk or landfill materials is of considerable importance both from an economic point of view and from an environmental point of view. The emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles - UAVs made it possible to automate the entire volume detection process, as well as reduce the time required for detection itself. This paper presents the calculation of the volume for the heaps of material (sand) on an open sand quarry with the use of UAV and multimages Close Range Photogrammetry. The survey was carried out on the same sand quarry in two successive time with the DJI Phantom 4 UAV. The images processed with the Metashape software, and the volume calculation performed with the Cloud Compare software.