Building 3D CityGML models of mining industrial structures using integrated UAV and TLS point clouds

Abstract Mining industrial areas with anthropogenic engineering structures are one of the most distinctive features of the real world. 3D models of the real world have been increasingly popular with numerous applications, such as digital twins and smart factory management. In this study, 3D models of mining engineering structures were built based on the CityGML standard. For collecting spatial data, the two most popular geospatial technologies, namely UAV-SfM and TLS were employed. The accuracy of the UAV survey was at the centimeter level, and it satisfied the absolute positional accuracy requirement of creating all levels of detail (LoD) according to the CityGML standard. Therefore, the UAV-SfM point cloud dataset was used to build LoD 2 models. In addition, the comparison between the UAV-SfM and TLS sub-clouds of facades and roofs indicates that the UAV-SfM and TLS point clouds of these objects are highly consistent, therefore, point clouds with a higher level of detail and accuracy provided by the integration of UAV-SfM and TLS were used to build LoD 3 models. The resulting 3D CityGML models include 39 buildings at LoD 2, and two mine shafts with hoistrooms, headframes, and sheave wheels at LoD 3.