GEOG 493/593: Digital Terrain Analysis
Course Webpage: http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/courses/geog493f17/
(Or go to http://web.pdx.edu/~jduh/ and select "Courses-> GEOG 4/593 (F17)")
Instructor: Geoffrey Duh (jduh@pdx.edu), phone: 503-725-3159
Office hours: Tue, Thu 2:00 - 3:30 pm at CH424H
Lecture and lab hours: Tue, Thu 12:00 - 13:50 at CH469
Class Google group: https://groups.google.com/a/pdx.edu/d/forum/course-geog-4593-group (email: course-geog-4593-group@pdx.edu)
D2L Daylight! Online Modules: https://d2l.pdx.edu/
Course Objectives (see the syllabus in pdf format)
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, 3-D terrain visualization and animation, and watershed modeling. The course includes computer exercises in the generation and processing of DEM using GIS and image processing software packages such as ArcGIS 3D Analyst, and ENVI.
There is no required textbook. Journal articles are available in pdf format and can be found at I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\GEOG4593-DTA\Readings. See the Readings section for a list of weekly readings.
Software documents: There are online software documents that will be used for both the theoretical and practical components of the course. The instructor will provide access instructions in class.
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%)
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. 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 the instructor's mailbox at CH424.
All students are required to select a topic from a list provided by the instructor (see the "Student Discussion Topics" table below) 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 (course-geog-4593-group@pdx.edu) 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 include additional relevant materials you find on the internet or from other references that might help students understand the topic.
Midterm exam (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 lab exercises.
A term project is required for all students. Students could form project groups (maximum 2 members per group) 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 at the end of the term and a 250 words project abstract that provides a comprehensive description of the project. See this wiki page or the journal articles we read this term for examples of how to write an effective abstract. There are two stages to the project (their due dates are listed on the course schedule):
* Project proposal: Each project group will submit a one page project proposal. It should include a project title, a research question, a list of the required spatial and attribute databases, and a conceptual description of your methods. Here is a collection of several community-based GIS projects that might fit the scope of this course. Talk to the instructor if you are interested in working on the project on the list. 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. You can use the list as a guideline for preparing your 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). At the end of the term, submit the Powerpoint file and a 250 words project abstract. The abstract should also include a title, author(s) and their affiliation and contact information, and 5 to 7 keywords.
Course Evaluation
The university will process course evaluations on online. There will be no paper evaluation. Students will be notified via PSU email at the beginning of week 10. Those who do not respond receive reminder emails the following week and again the day before the evaluations close. Students must check their PSU email accounts to receive the link to online course evaluation.
Click here for the information on the requests for academic accommodation, the policy on academic honesty, and the statement for Title IX Reporting Obligations.
Student Discussion Topics
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Presenters |
|
2 Oct 3 |
* Basic aerial photography geometry * Determining the scale of a vertical aerial photograph * Relief displacement * Image parallax |
- - Sachi Arakawa - Andrew Fritter - Eri Stern |
|
3 Oct 10 |
* Image resolution and scanning resolution * Coordinate systems in digital photogrammetry * GCP and tie points for performing aerial triangulation * Interior orientation and exterior orientation |
- Andrew Nelson - - Candice Loveland - Andrew Brown |
|
4 Oct 17 |
* Resolution of ALS * Lidar laser beam "returns" and point cloud * Lidar data attributes and LAS file format |
- Brittany Saeman - Lauren Sharwood - Christina Gray |
|
5 Oct 24 |
* Hydro-flattening |
- Erin Costello |
|
6 Oct 31 |
No discussion topics |
|
|
7 Nov 7 |
* Structure from Motion (SfM) * Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) / Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) |
- Becky Garriss - John Rogers |
|
8 Nov 14 |
* Filling depressions (sinks) in a DEM * Flow direction and flow accumulation |
- Jeremy DeCambra - Lauren McKinney |
|
9 Nov 21 |
* Watershed delineation: Stream burning * Watershed delineation: Normalized excavation * Watershed delineation: AGREE |
- Charles Rudnick - Teryl Neal - Janardan Mainali |
Course Schedule
|
Week |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
|
1 Sep 26, Sep 28 |
Course Overview & Digital Terrain Data Models (Weibel and Heller 1991) Slides |
Lab 1. Digital Terrain Data Models (10 points - Due before class on Oct 5) |
|
2 Oct 3, Oct 5 |
Photogrammetry 1 (Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman. pp. 146-165 in 6th edition) Slides |
Lab 2. Digital Photogrammetry: Image Registration & DEM Extraction (20 points - Due before class on Oct 19) |
|
3 Oct 10, Oct 12 |
Photogrammetry 2 (Lillesand, Kiefer, and Chipman. pp. 165-181 in 6th edition and ERDAS Field Guide pp 595-633) Slides |
Continue Lab 2. |
|
4 Oct 17, Oct 19 |
LiDAR (Gatziolis & Andersen 2008) Slides |
Lab 3a. LiDAR Data Processing Part I (10 points - Due before class on Oct 26) |
|
5 Oct 24, Oct 26 |
Project Proposal Due (email to instructor before class) LiDAR Applications (USGS 2010) Working with Lidar Data in ArcGIS (link) - Access ESRI E-Learning instructions. |
Lab 3b. LiDAR Data Processing Part II (10 points - Due before class on Nov 2) |
|
6 Oct 31, Nov 2 |
Midterm Exam ESRI online course - Surface Interpolation (see D2L Week 6) |
Lab 4. Surface Interpolation (10 points - Due before class on Nov 9) |
|
7 Nov 7, Nov 9 |
Structure from Motion (SfM) & UAV/UAS-Based Photogrammetry Slides ESRI online course: Derived surfaces and Viewsheds (see D2L week 7) |
Class Mannequin Challenge Exercise (MannequinChallenge) |
|
8 Nov 14, Nov 16 |
Watershed delineation methods (Jenson and Dominque 1988) Slides |
Lab 5. Watershed Delineation and Terrain Descriptions (20 points - Due before class on Nov 28) |
|
9 Nov 21 |
Advanced Watershed delineation methods (Baker et al. 2006) Slides |
Thanksgiving - University Closed |
|
10 Nov 28, Nov 30 |
ESRI online course - 3D Building Modeling (see D2L week 10) Final project assistance |
Course summary/ Final project assistance Final presentation |
|
Dec 7 (Thursday) |
Final Presentation & Project Deliverables Due Final presentation (10:15 ~ 13:00 at CH469) |
|
Readings:
The readings PDF files can be found at: I:\Students\Instructors\Geoffrey_Duh\GEOG4593-DTA\Readings
Week 1:
* Weibel, R., and Heller, M. 1991. Chapter 19: Digital Terrain Modelling. In Goodchild, M. F. and Rhind, D., eds., Geographic Information Systems, Principles and Applications. New York: Taylor and Francis.
Week 2:
* Lillesand, T., Kiefer, R. W., and Chipman, J. 2008. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation. 6th Edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 123-146.
* Lillesand, T., Kiefer, R. W., and Chipman, J. 2008. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation. 6th Edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 146-165.
Week 3:
* Lillesand, T., Kiefer, R. W., and Chipman, J. 2008. Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation. 6th Edition. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 165-181.
* ERDAS 2010. Photogrammetric Concepts. ERDAS Field Guide. 595-633.
Week 4:
* Gatziolis, D. and Andersen, H-E. 2008. Guide to LIDAR Data Acquisition and Processing for the Forests of the Pacific Northwest. United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station General Technical Report PNW-GTR-768.
Week 5:
* USGS. 2014. U.S. Geological Survey National Geospatial Program Lidar Base Specification Version 1.2. https://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/11b4/pdf/tm11-B4.pdf
Week 6:
* ESRI Virtual Campus course: Introduction to Surface Modeling Using ArcGIS (see D2L week 6 instructions)
Week 7:
* Liang, X., Wang, Y., Jaakkola, A., et al. 2015. Forest Data Collection Using Terrestrial Image-Based Point Clouds From a Handheld Camera Compared to Terrestrial and Personal Laser Scanning. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 53(9): 5117-5132.
* Unmanned aerial vehicle on Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle
* ESRI Virtual Campus course: Deriving Rasters for Terrain Analysis Using ArcGIS (see D2L week 7 instructions)
Week 8:
* Jenson, S. K. and Dominque, J. O. 1988. Extracting topographic structure from digital elevation data for geographic information system analysis. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 54(11): 1593-1600.
Week 9:
* 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. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 72(2): 159-168.
Week 10:
* ESRI Virtual Campus course (see D2L week 10 instructions)