Aerial imagery and structure-from-motion data products from UAS surveys of the beaches at Fort Stevens State Park, OR, and Cape Disappointment State Park, WA

This data release presents aerial imagery and structure-from-motion (SfM) data products from uncrewed aerial system (UAS) surveys conducted on the ocean beaches adjacent to the Columbia River Mouth at the Oregon-Washington border.  The surveys cover approximately 3 kilometers of Benson Beach at Cape Disappointment State Park north of the Columbia River mouth, in Washington, and 3 kilometers of the beach at Fort Stevens State Park south of the river mouth, in Oregon. 

The surveys were conducted using a Department of Interior-owned quadcopter fitted with a digital camera featuring a global shutter. The UAS was flown on pre-programmed autonomous flight lines which were spaced to provide sufficient overlap between images from adjacent lines for SfM processing.

Survey control was established using temporary ground control points (GCPs) distributed throughout the survey area. The GCP positions were measured using real-time kinematic (RTK) or post-processed (PPK) GPS, with corrections from a concurrently operating GPS base station located near the study area.

This data release contains data from two surveys conducted in 2017 August, and 2021 July.  Five data products derived from each survey are available for download: 1) high-resolution orthomosaic images with resolutions of 5 centimeters per pixel 2) high-resolution digital surface models (DSM) with resolutions of 10 centimeters per pixel, 3) topographic point cloud in LAZ format, 4) the geographic positions of the ground control points, and 5) the raw aerial imagery in JPG format.