Assessment of UAS Photogrammetry and Planet Imagery for Monitoring Water Levels around Railway Tracks

High water levels near railway tracks can be a major factor affecting the safety of train passage. Water conditions near the tracks are normally monitored through visual inspections. However, this method is limited in spatial coverage and may not provide comparable information over time. We evaluated the utility of satellite imagery (Planet Dove constellation at 3 m pixel size) at the landscape level to assess overall water surface area along railway tracks. Comparatively, we evaluated the use of Structure- from-Motion 3D point clouds and high spatial detail orthomosaics (3 cm) generated from a commercial off-the-shelf Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) (DJI M300 RTK) for measuring vertical water level changes and extent of surface water, respectively, within the right-of-way of a railway line in Ontario, Canada, in areas prone to high water level and flooding. Test sites of varied lengths (similar to 180 m to 500 m), were assessed four times between June and October 2021. Our results indicate that the satellite imagery provides a large-scale overview regarding the extent of open water in wetlands at long distances from the railway tracks. Analysis of the UAS derived 3D point cloud indicates that changes in water level can be determined at the centimeter scale. Furthermore, the spatial error (horizontal and vertical alignments) between the multi-temporal UAS data collections between sites was less than 3 cm. Our research highlights the importance of using consistent UAS data collection protocols, and the significant potential of commercial off-the-shelf UAS systems for water level monitoring along railway tracks.