GEOG 493/593: Digital Terrain Analysis
Course Webpage: http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/courses/geog493f10/index.htm
(Or go to http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/ and select "Courses-> GEOG 4/593 (F10)")
Instructors: Geoffrey Duh (jduh@pdx.edu), Office: CH 424J Ph: 503-725-3159 Office hours: Mon 1-3 pm
Course emailing list: digitalterrain@lists.pdx.edu
Lecture and Lab: Tue, Thu 12:00-13:50 (Tue in CH418 and Thu in CH469)
Pre-course survey: 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 delineation. 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, Erdas Imagine and Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS).
Required: Li, Z., Zhu, Q, and Gold, C. 2004. Digital Terrain Modeling: Principles and Methodology. CRC Press. (ISBN-10: 0415324629)
Optional: Lillesand, T. M., Kiefer, R. W., and Chipman, J. W. 2004. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 5th edition (or the 6th Edition published in 2008). John Wiley & Sons. (Instructors will distribute readings from this text.)
Articles: (pdf in I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\GEOG4593\Readings folder.)
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.
Gatziolis, D and Andersen, H. 2008. A Guide to LIDAR Data Acquisition and Processing for the Forests of the Pacific Northwest. USDA Technical Report PNW-GTR-768.
Software documents: There are several digital books (including ERDAS Imagine Field Guide) that will be used for both the theoretical and practical components of the course. These materials can be found at I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\ERDAS Imagine\Imagine10.
Grading
The instructor will grade graduate and undergraduate students based on separate distribution curves. The components of a student's grade are:
|
Class Participation |
10 % |
|
Midterm |
15 % |
|
Lab Assignments |
40 % |
|
Project |
35 % |
Class Participation (10%)
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 and if you are not in class then you cannot. If you are repeatedly late you will be given an absence. The labs are due by Thursday before class the week after they are assigned (see the course schedule for the exact due dates). You can hand them in class or put them in my mailbox in CH424.
All students are required to select a topic from a list provided by the instructor (see next page) and give a 10 minutes presentation on that topic to the class. You must prepare a powerpoint presentation, 4 discussion/quiz questions and their answers. Students who are responsible for the week's topics must email the questions to the course mailing list and the questions and their answers to the instructor by 5pm the day before the class (i.e., on Monday); provide the powerpoint file to the instructor at least 30 minutes before the class begins. The presentation should be mainly based on the assigned readings. I strongly encourage you to put additional relevant materials you find on the internet or from other references that might help students understand the topic.
Exams (15%)
There will be one in-class, closed-book mid-term exam and no final exam. Unscheduled in-class quizzes will be administered without notifications. Results of these quizzes will be counted toward class participation.
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.
A term project is required for all students. Students will form project groups (2 to 3 members) to investigate a particular research problem using the software packages that we use in class. The project should involve some types of digital terrain analysis. The deliverable is a digital copy of Powerpoint presentation that student groups will present to the class. Each project group 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).
Click here for the information on the requests for academic accommodation and the policy on academic honesty.
Student Discussion Topics
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Presenters |
|
2 Oct 5 |
Basic aerial photography geometry Relief displacement Image parallax |
Melinda Lamb Michael Pinker Katie Urey |
|
3 Oct 12 |
Single Frame Orthorectification and Block Triangulation Image resolution and scanning resolution Coordinate Systems in Digital Photogrammetry |
Victor Vigil David Dearth Adam Mosbrucker |
|
4 Oct 19 |
Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) systems Range distance and resolution of ALS Lidar laser beam "returns" and point cloud |
Zeph Haley Dillon Wendy Berg |
|
5 Oct 26 |
No readings |
|
|
6 Nov 2 |
Delaunay triangulation and triangulation from a DEM Bilinear interpolation Least-squares fitting of a local surface Point-based moving averaging |
Doni Diaz Chris Rowlette Wayne Coffey Daniel Lyvers |
|
7 Nov 9 |
Slope, aspect, curvature, and fractal dimension Spatial autocorrelation - semivariance Fractal dimension Flow direction and flow accumulation Sinks (depressions) on DEM Viewshed analysis: point-to-point (area) visibility |
Charles Cannon Kelly Singh - Willow Campbell Christopher Estes - |
|
8 Nov 16 |
Watershed delineation: Stream burning and normalized excavation Watershed delineation: AGREE Comparisons among different watershed delineation methods |
Alex McManus - Nick Stockton |
|
9 Nov 23 |
Variables for visualization Basic principles of rendering Terrain animation techniques |
James Springer Dustin Vandehey James Bradd |
Course Schedule
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
|
1 Sep 28, Sep 30 |
Course Overview & Digital Terrain Data Models (Ch 1 & 4) Slides |
Lab 1. Digital Terrain Data Models (Due by noon Oct 7) |
|
2 Oct 5, Oct 7 |
Photogrammetry 1 (Ch 3, pp 31-39 & Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman. pp. 149-183 - or 146-181 in 6th edition) Slides |
Lab 2. Digital Photogrammetry: DEM Extraction (Due by noon Oct 21) |
|
3 Oct 12, Oct 14 |
Photogrammetry 2 (ERDAS Field Guide Photogrammetric Concepts pp 587-625) Slides |
Continue Lab 2. |
|
4 Oct 19, Oct 21 |
LiDAR (Ch 3, pp 50-56 and Gatziolis & Andersen 2008) Slides |
Lab 3a. LiDAR Data Processing Part I (Due by noon Oct 28) |
|
5 Oct 26, Oct 28 |
Project Proposal Due (email to instructor before class) Guest Lecture - LiDAR acquisition and processing (No readings for this week) Slides |
Lab 3b. LiDAR Data Processing Part II (Due by noon Nov 4) |
|
6 Nov 2, Nov 4 |
TIN and Surface Interpolation (Ch 5 & 6) Slides Midterm Exam |
Lab 4. Surface Interpolation and terrain visualization (Due by noon Nov 18) |
|
7 Nov 9, Nov 11 |
Derived surfaces, Viewsheds, and Watersheds (Ch 2 and Ch 13) Slides |
Veterans Day - University Closed |
|
8 Nov 16, Nov 18 |
Watershed delineation methods (Baker et al. 2006) Slides |
Lab 5. Watershed Delineation and Terrain Descriptions (Due by noon November 30) |
|
9 Nov 23, Nov 25 |
Terrain Visualization (Ch 12) Slides, Google Earth Slides |
Thanksgiving - University Closed |
|
10 Nov 30, Dec 2 |
Digital Terrain Applications (Ch 14) Slides |
Final presentation |
|
Dec 9 (Thu) |
Final Presentation & Project Deliverables Due Final presentation (10:15 ~ 14:00) |
|