Combining the Stock Unearthing Method and Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry for a Gapless Estimation of Soil Mobilisation in Vineyards

In vineyards, especially on steep slopes like the Ruwer-Mosel Valley, Germany, soil erosion is a well-known environmental problem. Unfortunately, some enterprises and farmers are not aware of how much soil is being lost and the long-term negative impacts of soil erosion. The non-invasive technique of the stock unearthing method (SUM) can be used for a quick assessment of soil erosion in vineyards. SUM uses the graft union as a reference elevation for soil surface changes since the time of plantation commencement, which is modelled with the help of a geographic information system. A shortcoming of SUM is that the areas between the pair-vine cross sections are not surveyed, hence it is not accurate enough to identify erosion hot-spots. A structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetric technique is adopted to complement SUM to fill this data gap. Combining SUM (only measuring the graft unions) and SfM techniques could lead to an improved, easy and low-cost method with a higher accuracy for estimation of soil erosion based on interpolation by projection, and contact and gapless measuring. Thus, the main aim of this paper was to map the current soil surface level and to improve the accuracy of estimation of long-term soil mobilisation rates in vineyards. To achieve this goal, the TEPHOS (TErrestrial PHOtogrammetric Scanner), a static five camera array, was developed on a 20 m2 plot located in a steeply sloping vineyard of the Ruwer-Mosel Valley, Trier, Germany. A total soil mobilisation of 0.52 m3 (9.14 Mg ha yr−1) with soil surface level differences in excess of 30 cm in the 40 years since plantation commencement were recorded. Further research is, however, needed to reduce the number of photos used for the point cloud without loss of accuracy. This method can be useful for the observation of the impacts of other factors in vineyards, such as tillage erosion, runoff pathway detection or the trampling effect on soil erosion in vineyards