This paper describes and illustrates a technique for high resolution
monitoring of the surface morphology of water-worked sediments. The
monitoring uses close-range digital photogrammetry. While
photogrammetry is a long-established technique, more recent
developments in digital photogrammetry allow application in fluvial
research to be highly cost effective in both flume and natural river
channel studies. Results are presented that involve two scales of
laboratory flume: a smaller-scale application associated with sediment
sorting processes in a straight channel; and a larger-scale application
involving sediment transport and bed material feedbacks in a meandering
channel subject to overbank flows. A preliminary assessment of data
quality is undertaken with encouraging results. The precision of
elevation estimates corresponds to the scale of the imagery acquired
and hence may be controlled by design of the image acquisition process.