Close-Range Photogrammetry Application to Monitor Levee Erosion in Case of Wave Overtopping

Ebrahimi, Masoumeh;van Damme, Myron;van Hemert, Henk;Soares Frazao, Sandra
(2025) Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (New York) — Vol. 151, n° 1, p. 1943-7900 (2025)

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Coastal and riverine levees are prone to wave and steady-flow overtopping, which can result in breaching and consequential flooding of the hinterland. Full-scale field experiments on a levee are a sound approach to understanding of the underlying physical processes without suffering from scale effects, provided that accurate and valuable data can be collected. This paper outlines how close-range photogrammetry was applied to monitor a levee’s morphological evolution continuously and intermittently during wave overtopping. High-resolution spatial topographical models were obtained from which erosion rates could be quantified. Two camera setups-a system of multiple stationary synchronized cameras and a single mobile camera-were used for photo acquisition. The first configuration enabled reconstruction of the target zone as a dynamic scene and reduced photogrammetric analysis time through simultaneous processing of several frames [four-dimensional (4D) processing]. The second configuration applied the structure-from-motion (SfM) technique using multiple overlapping photographs to obtain three-dimensional (3D) elevation models at specific moments. Both approaches resulted in high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) with low mean absolute errors (MAEs) on the order of a few centimeters. Furthermore, photogrammetry proved to be highly flexible and could be applied to different types of levees with various cover layers, hydraulic loads, and meteorological conditions.
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Ebrahimi, M., van Damme, M., van Hemert, H., & Soares Frazao, S. (2025). Close-Range Photogrammetry Application to Monitor Levee Erosion in Case of Wave Overtopping. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (New York), 151(1), 1943-7900. https://doi.org/10.1061/jhend8.hyeng-13897 (Original work published 2025)