ABSTRACT Images from agile (viewing angle over 40°) and very high spatial resolution satellites (inferior to 1 m) can be useful for monitoring cliff faces, which is the best proxy to better understand coastal cliff dynamics. However, these images with a specific configuration are rarely used, partly because it is cumbersome to process them. Based on Pléiades images of the coastal cliff face along the coast of Normandy, with a high angle of incidence (up to 40°) and taken on multiple dates, the paper aims to identify i) the best open-source processing chain to reconstitute three-dimensional (3D) cliff faces by stereo restitution ii) the reasons behind its best performance and iii) the key parameters to change depending on the image datasets or processing chains so as to facilitate transposition. The Ames Stereo Pipeline® (ASP®) and MicMac® software programmes were tested using different parameters (matching algorithm, size of correlation window, etc.) for the 3D reconstructions. MicMac® provides the best performance using GeomImage (1–2 pixel matching) with a size of correlation window of 3 × 3 or 7 × 7 associated with a regularization parameter of 0.10. With these parameters, the point clouds of the cliff face have an average point density of 1.70 point m−2, a mean distance from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) ground truth data of 0.04 m and a standard deviation of 1.72 m. With these characteristics, the threshold of rockfall detection using a multi-source comparison is assessed at 100 m3, which involves that the large majority of rockfalls (69%) around the study area could be detected by a diachronic approach. Considering the daily Pléiades revisiting time, this method offers a great opportunity to monitor erosion and to better understand coastal cliff dynamics.

To monitor chalk cliff face along the Normandy coast (NW France) which is prone to erosion, we tested the potential of cliff face 3D reconstruction using pairs of images with high angle of incidence at different dates from the agile Pléiades satellites. The verticality aspect of the cliff face brings difficulties in the 3D reconstruction process. Furthermore, the studied area is challenging mainly because the cliff face is north-oriented (shadow). Pléiades images were acquired over several days (multi-date stereoscopic method) with requested incidence angles until 40°. 3D reconstructions of the cliff face were compared using two software: ASP® and ERDAS IMAGINE®. Our results are twofold. Firstly, despite ASP® provides denser point clouds than ERDAS IMAGINE® (an average of 1.60 points/m² from 40° incidence angle stereoscopic pairs on the whole cliff face of Varengeville-sur-Mer against 0.77 points/m² respectively), ERDAS IMAGINE® provides more reliable point clouds than ASP® (precision assessment on the Varengeville-sur-Mer cliff face of 0.31 m ± 2.53 and 0.39 m ± 4.24 respectively), with a better spatial distribution over the cliff face and a better representation of the cliff face shape. Secondly, the quality of 3D reconstructions depends mostly on the amount of noise from raw images and on the shadow intensity on the cliff face (radiometric quality of images).