Submitting Campus

Prescott

Student Status

Undergraduate

Archival Class Information

Undergraduate Student Works

Advisor Name

Dr. Ronny Schroeder

Abstract/Description

Accurate streamline delineation and high-resolution topographic products are essential across numerous disciplines, including hydrological analysis, environmental monitoring, construction, and erosion modeling. Products derived from high-accuracy elevation data provide greater reliability and improved decision-making outcomes for all fields that depend on them. A 2018 USGS airborne LiDAR dataset covering the Del Rio Springs riparian area north of Chino Valley, Arizona, offers a valuable opportunity to evaluate the relative accuracy of the DJI L1 LiDAR sensor when mounted on a Matrice 300 RTK UAV platform. Compared to traditional manned airborne systems, the UAV-mounted L1 provides high-accuracy, high-density point cloud data over small to medium-sized areas, with the added advantages of greater operational flexibility and significantly lower acquisition costs. This study assesses the validity and performance of the DJI L1 LiDAR system by generating and comparing two Digital Elevation Models (DEMs): one derived from self-collected UAV-L1 data and the other from the publicly available 2018 USGS airborne LiDAR dataset. Following automated ground point classification on each dataset, 50 cm resolution DEMs were compared through two quantitative metrics: (i) a pixel-by-pixel difference raster (USGS airborne DEM − DJI L1 UAV DEM) to identify localized elevation differences, and (ii) the coefficient of determination (R²) derived from regression analysis of paired elevation values to measure the strength of spatial correspondence.

Document Type

Poster

Publication/Presentation Date

2026

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