GEOG 410/510: Digital Terrain Analysis

(CRN: 14819/14820, 4 credits)

Course Webpage: http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/courses/geog410f06/index.htm

(Or go to http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/ and select “Courses-> GEOG 4/510 (F06)”)

 

Instructors: Geoffrey Duh  (jduh@pdx.edu)

Office: CH 424J     Ph: 503-725-3159    Office hours: Mon 1-3; Wed 1-2

Kevin Martin (kmartin@ci.portland.or.us)

Office: CH 424A    Ph: 503-823-7710    Office hours: Tue & Thu 2-2:30, Weeks 4&5 only, or by appointment.

Course emailing list: digitalterrain@lists.pdx.edu

Lecture and Lab: Tue, Thu 12:00-13:50 (Tue in CH413 and Thu in CH469)

 

Pre-course survey: Go to the website below and follow the instructions to complete the questions by Sep 29, 3pm. http://survey.oit.pdx.edu/ss/wsb.dll/jduh/digitalterrain.htm

 

Course Objectives

This course focuses on the theory and methods of the generation, compilation, analysis, and applications of digital elevation data. Specific topics include GIS terrain data models, photogrammetry and LiDAR DEM processing, terrain surface modeling, digital terrain analysis, terrain visualization, and watershed modeling. The course includes computer exercises in the generation and processing of DEM using GIS and image processing software packages including ArcMap, ArcGIS 3D Analyst, ArcScene, and Erdas Imagine.

 

Text and Readings

Required: Li, Z., Zhu, Q, and Gold, C. 2004. Digital Terrain Modeling: Principles and Methodology. CRC Press.

 

Optional: Lillesand, T. M., Kiefer, R. W., and Chipman, J. W. 2004. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 5th edition. John Wiley & Sons. (Instructors will distribute readings from this text.)

 

In addition, students will read articles from peer-review journals. These articles are available in pdf format in the I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\Readings\Digital_Terrain folder.  These articles are:

 

Baker, M. E., Weller, D. E., and Jordan, T. E. 2006. Comparison of Automated Watershed Delineations: Effects on Land Cover Areas, Percentages, and Relationships to Nutrient Discharge. PE&RS 72(2): 159-168.

Peng, M-H. and Shih, T-Y. 2006. Error Assessment in Two Lidar-derived TIN Datasets. PE&RS 72(8): 933-947.

 

There are several ESRI digital books that will be used for both the theoretical and practical components of the course. These materials can be found in several subfolders in the I:\Students\data\GIS\ArcGIS9.1_documentation\ESRI_Library folder.

We will also use ERDAS Imagine Field Guide. The document is available in I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\ERDAS Imagine.

 

Grading

The instructor will grade graduate and undergraduate students based on separate distribution curves. The components of a student’s grade are:

 

Lab Assignments

30 %

Midterm

15 %

Final

15 %

Class Participation

10 %

Project

30 %

 

Attendance to this course is mandatory. If you miss more than two class periods then you will be penalized five percent of your final grade per absence. PLEASE DO NOT MISS CLASS. You are expected to take part in the discussions. If you are repeatedly late you will be given an absence.

 

Class Participation (10%) (Click here for the quiz schedule)

The lecture component of this course consists of discussions of the readings and therefore you should have read the material before class. Students are expected to come to class ready to be active participants in the discussion. To facilitate an interactive discussion each student will prepare a list of 5 quiz questions based on the readings during the term for which they will receive a grade for class participation. Students who are responsible for the week’s quiz questions must emailed the questions to the class emailing list every Monday by 5pm. It is important that everyone in the class take part in class discussions. Therefore, class attendance and participation are mandatory. If you miss class then you must hand in typed answers to all of the discussion questions for that day.

 

Exams (30%)

There will be one in-class, closed-book mid-term exam and one take-home final exam. Unscheduled in-class quizzes will be administered without notifications. Results of these quizzes will be counted toward class participation.

 

Lab Component (30%)

You will do practical exercises on the computers. If you do not finish the labs during the assigned time periods (usually every Thursday) the lab also has open hours. The practical exercises provide a way to acquire skills using GIS software packages and to apply the course concepts to real data. Lab exercises are due by the beginning of the next exercise. All exercises require a significant amount of time to finish. Make sure you pace your lab exercises appropriately to prevent from turning them in late. Please refer to the course schedule for specific due dates of the exercises.

 

Project Component (30%)

A term project is required for all students. The project should investigate a particular research problem using the GIS software packages that we use in class. You should acquire spatial data and if necessary digitize the data and the project should involve some types of digital terrain analysis.  The deliverable is a digital copy of Powerpoint presentation that you will present to the class. Individual graduate students also must submit a final paper that describes the project in a publishable style/format (see guidelines here). There are two stages to the project (the dates they are due are listed on the course schedule):


Project proposal: Submit a one page project proposal. It should include a project title, a research question, a list of the spatial and attribute databases you will use, and a conceptual description of the methods you will use. Please make appointments with the instructor to discuss your proposal if you have any questions. Here is a list of criteria for reviewing a proposal.

 

Oral presentation: Includes the essential information described in the proposal, data sets used, the analyses performed, and display the maps and tabular output derived from the analyses (see presentation rubric).

 

 


Course Schedule

   

Week

Tuesday

Thursday

1

Sep 26, Sep 28

Course Overview & Digital Terrain Data Models (Ch 1 & 4) (Slides)

Lab 1. Digital Terrain Data Models (Due by noon Oct 5)

2

Oct 3,  Oct 5

Photogrammetry (Ch 3, pp 31-39 & Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman. pp. 149-183) (Slides)

Lab 2. Digital Photogrammetry: DEM Extraction (Due by noon Oct 19)

3

Oct 10, Oct 12

Photogrammetry (Guest Speaker: Anne Hillyer, BPA) (ERDAS Field Guide Ch 8: Photogrammetric Concepts) (Slides)

Continue Lab 2.

4

Oct 17, Oct 19

LiDAR (Ch 3, pp 50-56; Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman. Chapter 8, pp 638-639 & 725-732) (Slides)

Lab 3. LiDAR Data Processing Part I (Due by noon Nov 2)

5

Oct 24, Oct 26

Project Proposal Due

LiDAR & IFSAR (Ch 3, pp 39-50;

Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman, Chapter 8, pp 652-659) (Slides)

Lab 3. LiDAR Data Processing Part II Continue Lab 3.

6

Oct 31, Nov 2

Midterm Exam

TIN and Surface Interpolation (Ch 5 & 6) (Slides)

Lab 4. Surface Interpolation & Terrain Visualization (Due by noon Nov 9)

7

Nov 7,  Nov 9

Derived surfaces and DTM Accuracy (Ch 2 &  Peng & Shih 2006) (Slides)

Lab 5. Watershed Delineation and Terrain Descriptions (Due by noon Nov 21)

8

Nov 14, Nov 16

Viewsheds and Watersheds (Ch 13 & Baker et al. 2006) (Slides)

Students work on projects

 

9

Nov 21, Nov 23

Terrain Visualization (Ch 12) (Google Earth Slides, slides)

Thanksgiving – University Closed

10

Nov 28, Nov 30

Final Exam Distributed

Digital Terrain Applications (Ch 14) (Slides)

Students work on projects

Dec 7

Final Exam & Project Deliverables Due

Final presentation (10:15 ~ 12:05)