Identification of Vegetation Surfaces and Volumes by Height Levels in Reservoir Deltas Using UAS Techniques—Case Study at Gilău Reservoir, Transylvania, Romania

Ioan Rus, Gheorghe Șerban (), Petre Brețcan, Daniel Dunea () and Daniel Sabău
Additional contact information
Ioan Rus: Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Gheorghe Șerban: Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Petre Brețcan: Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities, Valahia University of Targoviste, 130004 Targoviste, Romania
Daniel Dunea: Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Food Science, Valahia University of Targoviste, 13 Aleea Sinaia, 130004 Targoviste, Romania
Daniel Sabău: Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: The hydrophilic vegetation from reservoir deltas sustains rapid expansions in surface and important increases in vegetal mass against a background of a significant influx of alluvium and nutrients from watercourses. It contributes to reservoir water quality degradation and reservoir silting due to organic residues. In this paper, we propose an evaluation method of two-dimensional and three-dimensional parameters (surfaces and volumes of vegetation), using the combined photogrammetric techniques from the UAS category. Raster and vector data—high-resolution orthophotoplan (2D), point cloud (pseudo-LIDAR) (3D), points that defined the topographic surface (DTM—Digital Terrain Model (3D) and DSM—Digital Surface Model (3D))—were the basis for the realization of grid products (a DTM and DSM, respectively). After the successive completion of the operations within the adopted workflow (data acquisition, processing, post-processing, and their integration into GIS), after the grid analysis, the two proposed variables (topics) of this research, respectively, the surface of vegetation and its volume, resulted. The data acquisition area (deriving grids with a centimeter resolution) under the conditions of some areas being inaccessible using classical topometric or bathymetric means (low depth, the presence of organic mud and aquatic vegetation, etc.) has an important role in the reservoirs’ depth dynamics and reservoir usage. After performing the calculations in the abovementioned direction, we arrived at results of practical and scientific interest: Cut Volume = 196,000.3 m 3 , Cut 2D Surface Area = 63,549 m 2 , Fill Volume = 16.59998 m 3 , Fill 2D Surface Area = 879.43 m 2 , Total Volume Between Surfaces = 196,016.9 m 3 . We specify that this approach does not aim to study the vegetation’s diversity but to determine its dimensional components (surface and volume), whose organic residues participate in mitigating the reservoir functions (water supply, hydropower production, flash flood attenuation capacity, etc.).

Keywords: vegetation surface; vegetation volume; UAS technics; photogrammetry; Gilău reservoir delta; Romania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/648/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/648/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:648-:d:1317325

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().