UAV DIRECT GEOREFERENCING APPROACH IN AN EMERGENCY MAPPING CONTEXT. THE 2016 CENTRAL ITALY EARTHQUAKE CASE STUDY

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> UAVs platform are increasingly deployed by first responders and local stakeholders to get a first overview of disaster affected areas with a high level of detail and different off-nadir angle configurations. Through a rapid mapping approach, the acquired data (video sequences or pictures) are analysed to extract information on damages to buildings and infrastructures with the goal to support the Search and Rescue operations. The specific focus of the paper is on evaluating the expected benefits (from the rapid mapping perspective) deriving from a direct georeferencing approach when using UAV with RTK capabilities. Specifically, data acquired by a fixed wing eBee RTK platform by SenseFly over the areas affected by the earthquake that hit central Italy in 2016 have been processed to compare the positional accuracies of orthoimagery generated by means of a direct georeferencing approach (without any GPC) with and without a post-processing kinematic solution. The results highlight that an RTK-enabled platform allows to achieve orthoimagery positioning accuracy values up to few centimeters without the need of any control point. In the conclusion session the operational implications of a PPK-based approach versus a standard direct georeferencing are critically discussed.</p>