OpenTopography Blog

Information and discussion related to high-resolution LiDAR topography for the Earth sciences

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Posts from March 2010

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Application deadline change: New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data

Posted on Fri, March 12, 2010 by C. Crosby in Workshops

Note that due to the large number of applicants, the deadline for applying to the “New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data” workshop has been moved up to 9 AM EST on Monday, March 15:

Dear Colleagues,

On March 7th, we announced an upcoming workshop titled

“New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data,”

to be held June 1-2 in Boulder, CO.

Since then we received a very large number of applications (more than three
times the number of available spaces in the workshop), and must close the
application process prior to the previously listed April 1 deadline.  The
official application period now will end at 9 AM EST on Monday, March 15.
Later this month, we will contact all applicants via email regarding the
status of their applications. Thank you all for your great interest in the
lidar workshop!

Regards,

Dorothy and Noah

Dorothy Merritts (Franklin and Marshall College, )
Noah Snyder (Boston College, )

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Workshop Announcement: New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data

Posted on Mon, March 08, 2010 by C. Crosby in Workshops

Please see the following announcement for an upcoming NSF-sponsored workshop on “New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data,” to be held June 1-2 at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colorado.  The goal of the workshop is to “provide researchers in Earth surface processes with an opportunity to gain hands-on knowledge in new methods for analyzing high-resolution topographic data. Participants should have active research projects using lidar data (airborne or ground-based). Graduate students, faculty and other researchers are encouraged to attend”.

Dear Colleagues,

You are invited to participate in an NSF-sponsored workshop called “New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data,” to be held June 1-2 at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. This workshop is a follow-up to one held in 2008 called “Workshop on Studying Earth Surface Processes with High-resolution Topographic Data”. The goal of this year’s workshop is to provide researchers in Earth surface processes with an opportunity to gain hands-on knowledge in new methods for analyzing high-resolution topographic data. Participants should have active research projects using lidar data (airborne or ground-based). Graduate students, faculty and other researchers are encouraged to attend.

The format over the two days will include four three-hour workshop timeslots (with two workshops running concurrently in each), two plenary lectures by interdisciplinary experts in analysis of lidar data (Michael Lefsky from Colorado State University and Ralph Haugerud from the USGS- Seattle), and short presentations and posters by all workshop participants.

Funding will be provided by NSF for rooms, some meals, and the workshop itself for approximately 40-50 participants. It is up to each participant to get to Boulder.

To reserve a place at the workshop, please email the organizers (dorothy.merritts@fandm.edu and noah.snyder@bc.edu) the following information by April 1, 2010:

1. Name
2. Title (graduate student, professor, postdoc, researcher, etc.)
3. One sentence description of your lidar-related research

We anticipate the workshop spaces filling rapidly, so reply ASAP. Please feel free to forward this email to colleagues who might be interested.

Please contact us if you have questions.

Workshop organizers:
Dorothy Merritts (Franklin and Marshall College, dorothy.merritts@fandm.edu)
Noah Snyder (Boston College, noah.snyder@bc.edu)

New Tools in Process-Based Analysis of Lidar Topographic Data

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
Boulder, Colorado, USA
June 1-2, 2010

Workshop sessions

1.  Title:  The River Bathymetry Toolkit

Leaders: Jim McKean and Dave Nagel (U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise); and Philip Bailey (ESSA Technologies Ltd.)

Description: This workshop presents the River Bathymetry Toolkit (RBT), which processes high-resolution DEMs of channels and calculates standard measures of hydraulic geometry and aquatic habitat at user-defined locations. (Note: this workshop will be presented twice.)

2.  Title:  Filtering and quantitative analysis of lidar data

Leaders:  Steve Martel (University of Hawaii) and Taylor Perron (MIT)

Description:  This workshop will present methods for filtering and smoothing lidar data to detect and remove outliers, to diminish noise, and to detect and enhance signals.

3.  Title:  Identifying and mapping landforms and quantifying fault displacement with lidar digital topographic data

Leaders:  Ramon Arrowsmith (ASU); Kurt Frankel (Georgia Tech); and Ralph Haugerud (USGS/University of Washington)

Description:  A hands on and applied workshop on mapping, designed to bridge from academic to agency and industry communities. Workshop will include reference to activities underway by California Geological Survey and Oregon DOGAMI.

4.  Title:  Extracting landscape metrics for tectonic interpretation

Leaders:  George Hilley (Stanford University) and Ramon Arrowsmith (ASU)

Description:  This workshop includes the wavelet analysis of high resolution digital topography and the calculation of area-slope based metrics across DEMs with different spatial resolutions.

5.  Title:  1D hydraulic modeling with lidar data

Leader:  Noah Finnegan (UC- Santa Cruz)

Description:  This workshop will present the basics of 1) generating input files from lidar data for use with the 1D hydraulic modeling package HEC-RAS, and 2) Performing simple lidar-based open channel flow calculations in HEC-RAS.

6.  Title:  Meaningful Change Detection and Sediment Budgeting from Repeat Topographic Data

Leader: Joseph Wheaton (Utah State University)

Description: As repeat topographic data sets become an increasingly popular form of scientific monitoring, the need grows for robust methods of quantifying and accounting for uncertainties in those data to reliably distinguish between calculated changes likely to be real versus those changes one cannot distinguish from noise. Once the uncertainties in repeat topographic data sets are accounted for, the more interesting question of how to interpret the data and use it to test specific hypotheses remains. In this session, participants will learn how to use the DEM of Difference Uncertainty Analysis Software to do both an uncertainty analysis of repeat topographic datasets and interpret the data in terms of sediment budgets.

More Information: http://www.joewheaton.org/Home/research/projects-1/morphological-sediment-budgeting

7.  Title:  GeoNet: A computational tool for channel extraction from lidar

Leader:  Paola Passalacqua (National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, University of Minnesota)

Description:  GeoNet is an advanced methodology for channel network extraction, which incorporates nonlinear diffusion for the pre-processing of the data and geodesic energy minimization for the extraction of channels.  This 3-hour workshop will combine a lecture with hands-on practice. The lecture will introduce the theoretical background, and the hands-on portion will focus on the application of GeoNet to basins of different geomorphologic characteristics.

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On the Cutting Edge workshop on Using GIS and Remote Sensing to Teach Geoscience

Posted on Sat, March 06, 2010 by C. Crosby in Education • Workshops

I received the following announcement from Barb Tewksbury at Hamilton about an upcoming series of On the Cutting Edge workshops that they are hosting on the topics of Teaching Geoscience Using GIS and Remote Sensing and Teaching Geoscience in the Field in the 21st Century.  Certainly the GIS and remote sensing course is very applicable to many users of OpenTopography, and combined with the field course should be an excellent week in Bozeman, MT.  Note that the application deadline is March 20, 2010.  All the details:

On the Cutting Edge will offer two back-to-back workshops at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT in August, 2010:

Teaching Geoscience Using GIS and Remote Sensing (August 8-11)
Teaching Geoscience in the Field in the 21st Century (August 13-16)

The day between the workshops (August 12) will be an optional overlap day for both workshops and will focus on teaching in the field using GeoPads. The Field workshop will be followed by an optional field trip in the Yellowstone area (August 17-19).

Faculty may apply to attend either or both workshops. We are looking for applicants who currently teach GIS, remote sensing, or field geology to undergraduate geoscience students. Please note that the GIS/RS workshop is not a workshop to train faculty in the technical use of GIS systems – we are looking for people who currently teach GIS/RS and are interested in exploring effective ways of meeting the needs of geoscience students.

Application must be made online by March 20, 2010. Complete information about the workshops plus online applications can be found at:

http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/gis10/index.html
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/field/workshop10/index.html

If you have questions, please email Barb Tewksbury (btewksbu@hamilton.edu) about the GIS/RS workshop or Dave Mogk (mogk@montana.edu) about the Field workshop.

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