Integration of UAV and GNSS Data for Accurate Land Use Mapping at Wasit University

Aerial surveys of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in conjunction with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) surveying offer high resolution, accuracy, and completeness of data that is necessary in developing detailed digital models and maps. High-resolution drone images have highly enhanced land use mapping. It is a significant part of urban planning management because of the abundance of geographical information that it offers. By combining various drone-based approaches with multi-domain technology, complex operations can be optimized and completed more efficiently. The current research paper proposes a new idea for acquiring land-use maps of the campus of Wasit University based on a combination of UAV aerial photography and GNSS surveying. The aerial survey was conducted at a flight altitude of 125 meters using a multirotor drone equipped with a MAVIC2 PRO photogrammetric camera. Waypoints 2.0 application was used to plan and organize the best flight route for the autonomous mission. With real-time kinematic application of the GNSS used as a source of data within the survey area, we were able to obtain the coordinates of fourteen Ground Control Points (GCPs). The Agisoft Metashape and ArcGIS 10.8 were used to process the 652 aerial photographs that were produced by the flight plan. The results demonstrated the capability of UAV data, when combined with GNSS surveying, to obtain land use maps at very high spatial resolution. The resulting orthophoto achieved a positional accuracy of 9.60 cm Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), confirming the reliability of the data for topographic mapping. These outputs highlight the effective integration of drone technology and GIS in supporting urban planning efforts.