STEREOSCOPIC 3 D-IMAGE SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF SEA SURFACES

Numerical modelling of highly complex processes in the surf and swash zone is an important task in coastal zone management. As input and reference data for these numerical models three-dimensional information about the water surface is required. In this paper a method for reconstructing a dynamic digital surface model of a surf zone based on stereoscopic image sequences is presented. The surface model is obtained by digital image matching using a variation of the vertical line locus method. The processing principles for stereoscopic image sequence analysis and the results are described. The image matching is checked by manual stereo analysis and gauge data. The research area is a groyne field on a North Sea island in Germany.