• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.183-195
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• 2013

Real-time high-precision image georeferencing is important for the realization of image based precise navigation or sophisticated augmented reality. In general, high-precision image georeferencing can be achieved using the conventional simultaneous bundle adjustment algorithm, which can be performed only as post-processing due to its processing time. The recently proposed sequential bundle adjustment algorithm can rapidly produce the results of the similar accuracy and thus opens a possibility of real-time processing. However, since the processing time still increases linearly according to the number of images, if the number of images are too large, its real-time processing is not guaranteed. Based on this algorithm, we propose a modified fast algorithm, the processing time of which is maintained within a limit regardless of the number of images. Since the proposed algorithm considers only the existing images of high correlation with the newly acquired image, it can not only maintain the processing time but also produce accurate results. We applied the proposed algorithm to the images acquired with 1Hz. It is found that the processing time is about 0.02 seconds at the acquisition time of each image in average and the accuracy is about ${\pm}5$ cm on the ground point coordinates in comparison with the results of the conventional simultaneous bundle adjustment algorithm. If this algorithm is converged with a fast image matching algorithm of high reliability, it enables high precision real-time georeferencing of the moving images acquired from a smartphone or UAV by complementing the performance of position and attitude sensors mounted together.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.6_1
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• pp.1731-1738
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• 2021

The objective of this study was to extract individual trees and tree heights using UAV drone images. The study site was Gongju national university experiment forest, located in Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do. The thinning intensity study sites consisted of 40% thinning, 20% thinning, 10% thinning and control. The image was filmed by using the "Mavic Pro 2" model of DJI company, and the altitude of the photo shoot was set at 80% of the overlay between 180m pictures. In order to prevent image distortion, a ground reference point was installed and the end lap and side lap were set to 80%. Tree heights were extracted using Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Digital Terrain Model (DTM), and individual trees were split and extracted using object-based analysis. As a result of individual tree extraction, thinning 40% stands showed the highest extraction rate of 109.1%, while thinning 20% showed 87.1%, thinning 10% showed 63.5%, and control sites showed 56.0% of accuracy. As a result of tree height extraction, thinning 40% showed 1.43m error compared with field survey data, while thinning 20% showed 1.73 m, thinning 10% showed 1.88 m, and control sites showed the largest error of 2.22 m.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_1
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• pp.1055-1066
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• 2018

Vegetation indices on the basis of optical characteristics of vegetation can represent various conditions such as canopy biomass and physiological activity. Those have been mostly developed with the large-scaled applications of multi-band optical sensors on-board satellites. However, the sensitivity of vegetation indices for detecting vegetation features will be different depending on the spatial scales. Therefore, in this study, the investigation of photochemical reflectance index (PRI), known as one of useful vegetation indices for detecting photosynthetic ability and vegetation stress, under the three spatial scales was conducted using multi-spectral camera installed in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV),field spectrometer, and leaf reflectometer. In the leaf scale, diurnal PRI had minimum values at different local-time according to the compass direction of leaf face. It meant that each leaf in some moment had the different degree of light use efficiency (LUE). In early growth stage of crop, $PRI_{leaf}$ was higher than $PRI_{stands}$ and $PRI_{canopy}$ because the leaf scale is completely not governed by the vegetation cover fraction.In the stands and canopy scales, PRI showed a large spatial variability unlike normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). However, the bias for the relationship between $PRI_{stands}$ and $PRI_{canopy}$ is lower than that in $NDVI_{stands}$ and $NDVI_{canopy}$. Our results will help to understand and utilize PRIs observed at different spatial scales.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.71-80
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• 2024

In this study, a proposed ensemble learning technique aims to enhance the semantic segmentation performance of images captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). With the increasing use of UAVs in fields such as urban planning, there has been active development of techniques utilizing deep learning segmentation methods for land cover segmentation. The study suggests a method that utilizes prominent segmentation models, namely U-Net, DeepLabV3, and Fully Convolutional Network (FCN), to improve segmentation prediction performance. The proposed approach integrates training loss, validation accuracy, and class score of the three segmentation models to enhance overall prediction performance. The method was applied and evaluated on a land cover segmentation problem involving seven classes: buildings,roads, parking lots, fields, trees, empty spaces, and areas with unspecified labels, using images captured by UAVs. The performance of the ensemble model was evaluated by mean Intersection over Union (mIoU), and the results of comparing the proposed ensemble model with the three existing segmentation methods showed that mIoU performance was improved. Consequently, the study confirms that the proposed technique can enhance the performance of semantic segmentation models.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.537-549
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• 2023

The distribution characteristics of tidal flat sediment components are used as an essential data for coastal environment analysis and environmental impact assessment. Therefore, a reliable classification map of surface sedimentary facies is essential. This study evaluated the applicability of regression kriging to generate a classification map of the sedimentary facies of tidal flats. For this aim, various factors such as the number of field survey data and remote sensing-based auxiliary data, the effect of regression models on regression kriging, and the comparison with other prediction methods (univariate kriging and regression analysis) on surface sedimentary facies classification were investigated. To evaluate the applicability of regression kriging, a case study using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data was conducted on the Hwang-do tidal flat located at Anmyeon-do, Taean-gun, Korea. As a result of the case study, it was most important to secure an appropriate amount of field survey data and to use topographic elevation and channel density as auxiliary data to produce a reliable tidal flat surface sediment facies classification map. In addition, regression kriging, which can consider detailed characteristics of the sediment distributions using ultra-high resolution UAV data, had the best prediction performance compared to other prediction methods. It is expected that this result can be used as a guideline to produce the tidal flat surface sedimentary facies classification map.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_2
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• pp.379-399
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• 2020

The detection of illegal ship is one of the key factors in building a marine surveillance system. Effective marine surveillance requires the means for continuous monitoring over a wide area. In this study, the possibility of ship detection monitoring based on satellite SAR, HF radar, UAV and AIS integration was investigated. Considering the characteristics of time and spatial resolution for each platform, the ship monitoring scenario consisted of a regular surveillance system using HFR data and AIS data, and an event monitoring system using satellites and UAVs. The regular surveillance system still has limitations in detecting a small ship and accuracy due to the low spatial resolution of HF radar data. However, the event monitoring system using satellite SAR data effectively detects illegal ships using AIS data, and the ship speed and heading direction estimated from SAR images or ship tracking information using HF radar data can be used as the main information for the transition to UAV monitoring. For the validation of monitoring scenario, a comprehensive field experiment was conducted from June 25 to June 26, 2019, at the west side of Hongwon Port in Seocheon. KOMPSAT-5 SAR images, UAV data, HF radar data and AIS data were successfully collected and analyzed by applying each developed algorithm. The developed system will be the basis for the regular and event ship monitoring scenarios as well as the visualization of data and analysis results collected from multiple platforms.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.295-305
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• 2024

This study aims to analyze the micro-sedimentary structures of the Hwangdo tidal flats using ultra-high resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data. Tidal flats, located in the transitional area between land and sea, constantly change due to tidal activities and provide a unique environment important for understanding sedimentary processes and environmental conditions. Traditional field observation methods are limited in spatial and temporal coverage, and existing satellite imagery does not provide sufficient resolution to study micro-sedimentary structures. To overcome these limitations, high-resolution images of the Hwangdo tidal flats in Chungcheongnam-do were acquired using UAVs. This area has experienced significant changes in its sedimentary environment due to coastal development projects such as sea wall construction. From May 17 to 18, 2022, sediment samples were collected from 91 points during field surveys and 25 in-situ points were intensively analyzed. UAV data with a spatial resolution of approximately 0.9 mm allowed identifying and extracting parameters related to micro-sedimentary structures. For mud cracks, the length of the major axis of the polygons was extracted, and the wavelength and ripple symmetry index were extracted for ripple marks. The results of the study showed that in areas with mud content above 80%, mud cracks formed at an average major axis length of 37.3 cm. In regions with sand content above 60%, ripples with an average wavelength of 8 cm and a ripple symmetry index of 2.0 were formed. This study demonstrated that micro-sedimentary structures of tidal flats can be effectively analyzed using ultra-high resolution UAV data without field surveys. This highlights the potential of UAV technology as an important tool in environmental monitoring and coastal management and shows its usefulness in the study of sedimentary structures. In addition, the results of this study are expected to serve as baseline data for more accurate sedimentary facies classification.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.106-114
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• 2018

DEM(Digital Elevation Model) are now easily produced with advancing remote sensing technology. Depending on desired task, UAV can produce high resolution DEM. But high resolution comes with issues of data storage and processing time and cost. To check the effect of DEM resolution, this study compares six geomorphological parameters derived from different resolution DEM in a test area around Chuncheon, Korea. The comparison analysis was based on statistics of each derivatives of slope, curvature, flow direction, flow accumulation, flow length and basin. As a result, it was found that DEM remained unchanged and so did the flow accumulation area. However, slope, curvature, flow length and basin numbers were decreased with the normalization of increasing pixel size. DEM resolution should be carefully selected depending on the precision of application required.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.37 no.5_1
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• pp.1135-1147
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• 2021

In order to geometrically correct high-resolution satellite imagery, the sensor modeling process that restores the geometric relationship between the satellite sensor and the ground surface at the image acquisition time is required. In general, high-resolution satellites provide RPC (Rational Polynomial Coefficient) information, but the vendor-provided RPC includes geometric distortion caused by the position and orientation of the satellite sensor. GCP (Ground Control Point) is generally used to correct the RPC errors. The representative method of acquiring GCP is field survey to obtain accurate ground coordinates. However, it is difficult to find the GCP in the satellite image due to the quality of the image, land cover change, relief displacement, etc. By using image maps acquired from various sensors as reference data, it is possible to automate the collection of GCP through the image matching algorithm. In this study, the RPC of KOMPSAT-3A satellite image was corrected through the extracted matching point using the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehichle) imagery. We propose a pre-porocessing method for the extraction of matching points between the UAV imagery and KOMPSAT-3A satellite image. To this end, the characteristics of matching points extracted by independently applying the SURF (Speeded-Up Robust Features) and the phase correlation, which are representative feature-based matching method and area-based matching method, respectively, were compared. The RPC adjustment parameters were calculated using the matching points extracted through each algorithm. In order to verify the performance and usability of the proposed method, it was compared with the GCP-based RPC correction result. The GCP-based method showed an improvement of correction accuracy by 2.14 pixels for the sample and 5.43 pixelsfor the line compared to the vendor-provided RPC. In the proposed method using SURF and phase correlation methods, the accuracy of sample was improved by 0.83 pixels and 1.49 pixels, and that of line wasimproved by 4.81 pixels and 5.19 pixels, respectively, compared to the vendor-provided RPC. Through the experimental results, the proposed method using the UAV imagery presented the possibility as an alternative to the GCP-based method for the RPC correction.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.5_1
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• pp.521-535
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• 2023

When converting rice fields into fields,sorghum (sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has excellent moisture resistance, enabling stable production along with soybeans. Therefore, it is a crop that is expected to improve the self-sufficiency rate of domestic food crops and solve the rice supply-demand imbalance problem. However, there is a lack of fundamental statistics,such as cultivation fields required for estimating yields, due to the traditional survey method, which takes a long time even with a large manpower. In this study, U-Net was applied to RGB images based on unmanned aerial vehicle to confirm the possibility of non-destructive segmentation of sorghum cultivation fields. RGB images were acquired on July 28, August 13, and August 25, 2022. On each image acquisition date, datasets were divided into 6,000 training datasets and 1,000 validation datasets with a size of 512 × 512 images. Classification models were developed based on three classes consisting of Sorghum fields(sorghum), rice and soybean fields(others), and non-agricultural fields(background), and two classes consisting of sorghum and non-sorghum (others+background). The classification accuracy of sorghum cultivation fields was higher than 0.91 in the three class-based models at all acquisition dates, but learning confusion occurred in the other classes in the August dataset. In contrast, the two-class-based model showed an accuracy of 0.95 or better in all classes, with stable learning on the August dataset. As a result, two class-based models in August will be advantageous for calculating the cultivation fields of sorghum.