Dear Colleagues,

Photogrammetric mapping based on drones has become a mature technique, even if in continuous development, widely used thanks to the obtainable precision and relatively low costs. The quality of the data now allows change detection by comparing multitemporal models obtained by drone-based surveying or even models obtained in the past using different techniques.

The Special Issue aims to collect original contributions to this topic, focusing on both methodological aspects, including theoretical studies, and applications. The applications can concern every sector, from the natural environment (e.g., landslides, morphological changes of an area, etc.) to urban areas and structures (e.g., single buildings, old towns, bridges, dams, etc.), performed for various motivations (e.g., risk assessment, study of the state of health of a structure, cultural heritage safeguard, cadaster, etc.). The comparison with results obtainable through other techniques is another interesting topic for this issue, with particular regard to analysis of precision, costs, survey and data processing time. This is also interesting because the change detection could be based on comparison of current data from drones and past data obtained by means of other techniques. Moreover, contributions in which drone-based data are used in conjunction with data provided by other techniques (e.g., terrestrial photogrammetry, aerial or terrestrial laser scanning, thermal imaging, GNSS, etc.) are welcome. Papers discussing theoretical models, results obtained from monitoring activities, evolution in space and time of drone-based surveying processes, are also encouraged. Methodological papers whose authors make available the developed software, as supplementary material or placed on a permanent external site, are particularly welcome. Finally, methods based on machine learning techniques are also particularly welcome.

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• UAV
• UAS
• Photogrammetry
• Structure-from-Motion (SfM)
• Mapping
• Surveying
• Change Detection
• Pattern Recognition
• Natural Environment
• Built Environment