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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ISPRS-Annals</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ISPRS-Annals</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2194-9050</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-631-2026</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Drone-Based Photogrammetry for Pavement Deterioration Detection and Quantification in Airport Infrastructure</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Staub</surname>
<given-names>Guido</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jara</surname>
<given-names>Elisabet</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>University of Concepción, Department for Geodetic Sciences and Geomatics, Los Ángeles, Chile</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>03</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>XI-2-2026</volume>
<fpage>631</fpage>
<lpage>637</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Guido Staub</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/631/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-631-2026.html">This article is available from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/631/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-631-2026.html</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/631/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-631-2026.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://isprs-annals.copernicus.org/articles/XI-2-2026/631/2026/isprs-annals-XI-2-2026-631-2026.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The maintenance of airport pavements is critical to ensuring the safety and efficiency of air operations. Conventional inspection methods are often time-consuming, subjective, and prone to inconsistencies in data collection. Recent advances in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry offer a potential alternative for improving inspection efficiency and measurement accuracy. This study evaluates the applicability of UAV-based photogrammetry for the detection and quantification of pavement distresses under conditions representative of airport infrastructure. Image data were acquired at different flight altitudes and overlap configurations and processed using Structure-from-Motion techniques to generate high-resolution orthomosaics and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The resulting datasets were analyzed to identify, delineate, and classify deterioration types and severity levels. The results indicate that a flight altitude of 10 m combined with 80% longitudinal and 70% transversal overlap provides an optimal balance between spatial resolution and operational efficiency. Under unobstructed conditions, photogrammetric analysis detected more than 98% of existing distresses and enabled more precise geometric delineation compared to traditional field-based methods. Undetected distresses were primarily associated with shadowed or obstructed areas, highlighting the influence of environmental conditions on detection performance. Overall, the findings demonstrate that UAV-based photogrammetry is a reliable and efficient approach for pavement condition assessment, with significant potential to enhance data quality and reduce inspection time in airport infrastructure management.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="7"/></counts>
</article-meta>
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