UAVs/drones for photogrammetry and remote sensing: Nineveh archaeological region as a case study

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is nowadays a valuable source of data for inspection, surveillance, mapping and 3D modeling issues. UAVs can be considered as a low cost alternative to the classical manned aerial photogrammetry, because they provide users with high spatial resolution images up to a centimeter limit. Following a typical photogrammetric workflow, 3D results like Digital Surface or Terrain Models (DTM/DSM), contours, textured 3D models, vector information, etc. can be produced, even on large areas. The paper reports the state of the art of UAV for Geomatics applications, giving an overview of different UAV platforms, applications and showing also the latest developments of UAV programs. The research presents the sequence of operations should be follow on the images taken with these aircraft for maximum use in remote sensing and air survey. Recent photographs were taken using the DJI Phantom 4 UAV (which was awarded to the Nineveh Department of Antiquities and Heritage by the Italian Mission) for the archaeological Nineveh region in Mosul city and use as a case study.