OpenTopography Blog

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

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Terrestrial Laser Scanning: Applications in Geology and Geomorphology session at GSA 2010

Posted on Sun, May 23, 2010 by C. Crosby in Meetings • TLS

TLS session at the 2010 Geological Society of America Meeting in Denver, CO announced.  Via the GEOMORPHLIST:

Dear Colleague-

With apologies for cross-posting, I encourage you to submit abstracts for Session T.125 Terrestrial Laser Scanning: Applications in Geology and Geomorphology at GSA 2010 in Denver, Colorado.  This session is co-sponsored by the GSA Engineering Geology Division and the GSA Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division.

Contributions describing the applications of this technology, as well as discussions of critical issues associated with the implementation of TLS to geomorphic and geologic studies are encouraged.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Dennis M. Staley
U.S. Geological Survey
1711 Illinois St
Golden, CO 80401
303.273.8568

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Session Description:

The characterization of surface features at multiple spatial scales is fundamental to understanding the process-form interactions and to the progression of geomorphic and geologic research.  Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS, commonly referred to as terrestrial LiDAR) permits the development of topographic data at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions over large areas. TLS data in the form of point clouds and/or digital terrain models are used to assess topographic boundary conditions, enhance geomorphological mapping by identifying spatial patterns and morphometric changes in landforms at various spatial scales, quantify rates of sediment transport through morphological DTM of differences approaches, and serve as benchmark datasets to test numerical and physical models of surface processes.  Repeat TLS surveys also permit the detection of fine scale changes in topography associated with geomorphic processes.

Advancing our understanding of geomorphic processes by incorporating TLS methodology presents new challenges: evaluation of scalar variability and dependencies in process-form relationships; linking process mechanics to high resolution topographic data, and data storage and transfer issues are also important considerations in TLS analytics.  While similar topics have been previously addressed at professional conferences (e.g. the LiDAR oral and poster sessions at the previous GSA meeting), these sessions have largely focused upon airborne LiDAR applications. Very little discussion has centered on TLS applications.  The growing popularity of TLS use in the geosciences necessitates a session devoted to the development of TLS methodology and data analysis in geology and geomorphology.  This session seeks to bring together researchers using TLS to identify and discuss critical issues concerning the application of TLS in the geosciences, as well as highlight cutting edge research that utilizes this methodology to further our understanding of the processes that sculpt the surface of the Earth.

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LiDAR data for N. Baja, Mexico in Google Earth: pre-M 7.2 El Mayor - Cucapah earthquake

Posted on Tue, May 04, 2010 by C. Crosby in 2010 Baja EQ • Data • Google Earth

Thanks to a close collaboration with OpenTopography colleague Alejandro Hinojosa at CICESE in Ensenada, Mexico, we have obtained 5 meter resolution LiDAR topography data for the epicentral region of the Sunday, April 4th 2010 magnitude 7.2 El Mayor - Cucapah earthquake in northern Baja, Mexico.  These data, which cover an area of over 2,000 square kilometers southwest of Mexicali, were acquired in 2006 by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI), a Mexican government agency.  We’ve been told that these data were collected from an elevation of 6000 m with GSD of 10 to 12 meters. 

As I’ve done for the EarthScope LiDAR hosted by OpenTopography as well as the data collected following the January Haiti Earthquake, I’ve generated hillshade and slopeshde imagery from the DEM data and produced a network linked Google Earth KMZ file that can be used to access the imagery.  Download the KMZ file using the button below and open in Google Earth to get started:

At the moment, we have not obtained permission from the INEGI to release the actual DEM data (and we do not have the point cloud data), but we hope that the derived imagery accessed via Google Earth will be helpful for researchers currently investigating ground rupture and other phenomena associated with last month’s earthquake.  To assist groups working in the field who won’t have network access to connect to the imagery stored on OpenTopography servers, KMZs with the imagery stored locally can be downloaded below:

• KMZ with 315 degree imagery
• KMZ with 45 degree imagery
• KMZ with slopeshade imagery

We anticipate that higher-resolution LiDAR topography will be collected along the ground rupture in the next few weeks.  Clearly these pre-event data, although lower resolution than forthcoming data in the region, present an exciting opportunity for comparing pre- and post-event data to calculate near-field deformation along the rupture.  We’re optimistic that we’ll be able to obtain permission to distribute both the DEM and point cloud INEGI data in the future so that they can be used for these types of analysis.

NOTES:

• The LiDAR topography data set from which these images were derived was acquired by INEGI and kindly provided to OpenTopography by Alejandro Hinojosa at CICESE.  Citation for the LiDAR topography data is: ”INEGI 2006, Modelo digital de elevación de alta resolución Lidar, Tipo TERRENO”.
• The extent of the LiDAR data is shown by the cyan colored outlines.  The images will load once the user has zoomed into an area of interest.  The imagery becomes progressively higher resolution as you zoom in.
• All of the imagery is accessed via “Network Link” to servers in San Diego, thus a strong and consistent internet connection is required.  Alternatively, you can download the individual KMZ files above where the imagery is stored locally, removing the need for a network connection.  Note however that access to the default imagery and map layers in Google Earth requires a connection.
• The transparency of the LiDAR hillshades can be adjusted using the slider bar at the bottom of the PLACES menu in the left hand navigation bar.

EXAMPLES:

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New Point Cloud Processing and Custom DEM Video Tutorial

Posted on Mon, May 03, 2010 by C. Crosby in Education • OpenTopography Updates

Thanks to the ASU Capstone team - a group of senior undergraduate School of Computing and Informatics students at Arizona State supervised by OpenTopography Co-I Ramon Arrowsmith - we now have a very nice video tutorial on how to use OpenTopography to download and process LiDAR point cloud data to digital elevation models:

This is the first of what we hope will be a series of instructional videos that will appear on the OpenTopography Tutorials page and the OpenTopography YouTube channel.  Stay tuned for more soon.

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Southwest Idaho Regional LiDAR Conference

Posted on Fri, April 30, 2010 by C. Crosby in Meetings

OpenTopography received the following information about this upcoming event in Boise via email today.  The conference theme is “Light Detection and Ranging laser technology (LiDAR) to plan for, mitigate and solve public safety issues” and the list of topics looks interesting.  Details in the announcement below:

On Thursday, June 17th the Southwest Idaho Geographic Information System (GIS) Users Group (SWIG) is holding its Summer 2010 Regional Conference at the University of Idaho’s Water Center Room 162, at 322 East Front Street, Boise Idaho 83702 from 9:00am to 5:00pm. The event is FREE. Visit: http://swig.gisidaho.org/upcoming_mtg.html

Topics for this event are designed to appeal to all audience types: from non-GIS users who are more interested in policy related issues or applications of this technology to the advanced GIS web programmer.

The theme for this conference is “Light Detection and Ranging laser technology (LiDAR) to plan for, mitigate and solve public safety issues”. Local professionals have volunteered to present on important topics related to their technical field of expertise. These experts include:

1. Boise: Kevin Jones (Idaho State University) has committed to a presentation titled “GIS Web Programming” that is billed as a technical survey of programming scripts used in the technical application necessary to create an interactive interface at a GIS enabled website.

2. Boise: Nicole Hanson (GIS Professional For Hire!!!) has committed to a presentation titled “Tips and Tricks” that is billed as a comprehensive presentation on increasing efficiency of operating the GIS system, accessing the built-in shortcuts of the program appealing to all users and skill levels.

3. Boise/Meridian: Bret Hazell (3di West) and Jason Paff (Power Engineers) have committed to a duel presentation titled “Mapping Technologies for Land Planning” that is billed as a
comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of using both photogrammetry and LiDAR technologies in land planning.

4. Pocatello: Derrick Sharp (Whisper Mountain Inc.,) has committed to a presentation titled “Hazard Mitigation using LiDAR” that is billed as a case study of using lidar to create the evacuation plans for Bonneville County in the event of a dam breach.

5. Boise: Brian Kienle (Pictometry International) has committed to a presentation titled “The Use of Oblique Imagery in Today’s World” that is billed as how LiDAR data is collected in support of various topics, including forest fire fuels modeling.

6. Boise: Jay Breidenbach (National Weather Service, NOAA) has committed to a presentation tentatively titled “Inundation Mapping for Advance Hydrologic Predictive Services” that is billed as a survey of the NOAA’s Advanced Hydrologic Predictive Services (AHPS) capability to provide the emergency management community with detailed inundation maps corresponding to rivers. These maps have been used to plan flood mitigation activities and protect the general public from hazardous conditions during a flood event.

7. Boise: Craig Thompson (National Park Service) has committed to a presentation titled “GIS in the Federal Government” that is billed as how Geographical Information System is being used in fire prediction and prevention treatments.

Presentation Schedule has not yet been established and is subject to change until May 26, 2010.

See http://swig.gisidaho.org/upcoming_mtg.html for the most up-to-date information or Contact: Ryan McDaniel, (208) 323-2288, Planning Committee Chair.

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NCALM moves to Univ. of Houston

Posted on Mon, April 12, 2010 by C. Crosby in News

The University of Houston put out a press release today - National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping Comes to Houston - announcing that one half of the NSF-supported NCALM LiDAR mapping center has moved to UH (the other half of NCALM remains at University of California, Berkley).  Formerly at University of Florida, NCALM acquires high-resolution topographic data for NSF-researchers.  OpenTopography has worked closely with NCALM on a number of projects, most notably the EarthScope LiDAR project where data were collected by NCALM and are hosted for community access by OpenTopography.

Read the full press release: National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping Comes to Houston

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Golden Gate LiDAR Project

Posted on Mon, April 05, 2010 by C. Crosby in Data • News

Another new LiDAR data collection funded with stimulus dollars that I recently became aware of is the ARRA Golden Gate LiDAR Project.  Led by San Francisco State University and funded by USGS ARRA, this project will collect data in coastal regions around San Francisco:

The project extent is based upon the watershed boundaries for all watersheds that contain the lands of Marin County and San Francisco County. It also includes the watersheds that contain Point Reyes National Seashore and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  The area of interest includes watersheds that are also located in southern Sonoma County and northern San Mateo County and when combined total ~835 square miles (planimetric estimate) of area. The project area includes the Marin Peninsula and San Francisco Peninsula that form the western edge of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay.

Like the Northeast ARRA data collection I just posted about, the Golden Gate data sound like they will be collected to the meet the USGS-NGP Base LiDAR Specification with 2m nominal point spacing.  The data will be available via the USGS CLICK archive and will be incorporated into the USGS 1/9 arc-second NED layer.  The project website indicates that data collection may have begun last month.

For the OpenTopography community, these Golden Gate data are likely of great interest given that they expand upon the existing Bay Area LiDAR coverage provided by the OpenTopography-hosted Northern California EarthScope LiDAR and are designed to capture full watersheds.  Although lower resolution than the data collected by EarthScope, these data should be very interesting to a large number of users.

Map of the collection area from the Golden Gate LiDAR project website:

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LiDAR for the Northeast Project Funded

Posted on Mon, April 05, 2010 by C. Crosby in Data • News

A proposal for an extensive LiDAR collection of coastal regions of the Northeastern U.S. (New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine) has been funded by the USGS with American Reinvestment and Recovery Act money.  The proposal, led by the Maine Office of GIS, is to collect LiDAR data over ~13,500 square miles.  MEGIS has an announcement about the funding.  From the LiDAR for the Northeast proposal (PDF):

Full or partial county lidar collections for all coastal areas in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, including many coastal watersheds and subwatersheds. The total area proposed is 13,561 square miles in a continuous swath with no gaps, including all coastal towns in the region, towns adjacent to major tidal rivers, and other adjacent areas deemed important to the stakeholders. Of this area, 8979 square miles is new data, 1056 square miles is being collected by FEMA, and 3526 square miles of other existing data (not in CLICK or NED). Only 58 sq. mi. of this entire region is currently in CLICK and only 410 sq. mi. are in the 1/9th arc-second NED

.
Map of the project area from the LiDAR for the Northeast proposal:

Data will be collected to the meet the recently released USGS-NGP Base LiDAR Specification, and thus will have 2m nominal point spacing.  As is required by the ARRA LiDAR RFP, all of these data will eventually end up in the USGS CLICK archive and will be incorporated into the USGS 1/9 arc-second NED layer.

It appears that the proposal pulls together an impressive collection of federal and state agencies and non-profit organizations to build a consortium and generate matching funds.  This looks like a great project and will produce a lot of new and valuable data. 

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LiDAR 101 Video

Posted on Thu, April 01, 2010 by C. Crosby in Education • Resources

I just stumbled upon this LiDAR 101 video, produced by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at University of Georgia, while Googling for something else.  In ~13 minutes, it does a nice job of summarizing LiDAR technology, data products, the costs associated with acquiring data, and various applications.  It is worth a watch if you are looking for a quick crash-course in LiDAR or need a video to show in the classroom:

Are there other good introduction to LiDAR videos out there?  Leave a comment if you are aware of others.

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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, dorothy.merritts@fandm.edu)
Noah Snyder (Boston College, noah.snyder@bc.edu)

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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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