Efficiency of Using GNSS-PPP for Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Production

Abstract In the developing countries, cost-effective observation techniques are very important for earthwork estimation, map production, geographic information systems, and hydrographic surveying. One of the most cost-effective techniques is Precise Point Positioning (PPP); it is a Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning technique to compute precise positions using only a single GNSS receiver. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of using Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS/ Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS) post-processed kinematic PPP solution for digital elevation model (DEM) production, which is used in earthwork estimation. For this purpose, a kinematic trajectory has been observed in New Aswan City in an open sky area using dual-frequency GNSS receivers. The results showed that, in case of using GPS/GLONASS PPP solution to estimate volumes, the error in earthwork volume estimation varies between 0.07% and 0.16% according to gridding level. On the other hand, the error in volume estimation from GPS PPP solution varies between 0.40% and 0.99%.