Geomorphometry 2013 - Announcement

Geomorphometry 2013: Conference + Workshops

October 16-20, 2013 (Wednesday to Sunday)

Xianlin Campus, Nanjing Normal University

THEMES

Themes include but not limited:

Creation of DEM, such as LiDAR DEM, bathymetry DEM, Aster G-DEM etc.
Terrain attributes and objects extraction & mapping.
Scaling effect and uncertainty quantification analysis in terrain analysis.
Terrain visualization.
High performance computation and big data in terrain analysis.
Terrain analysis for land-cover modeling, hydrological modeling, soil-landscape modeling, environment modeling and - other landform modeling.
Other fundamental issues of geomorphometry.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME (WORKING)

Click here for a detailed conference programme.

Day 1 16.10.2013: DEM generation methods / DEM attributes and objects: extraction & mapping I
Day 2 17.10.2013: DEM attributes and objects: extraction & mapping II / DEM analysis for land-cover, hydrological, soil-landscape and environmental modeling / High performance computation and big data in terrain analysis; geo-computing and statistics analysis
Day 3 18.10.2013: Fundamental problems of geomorphometry I, II and III.
Day 4 19.10.2013: Geomorphometry workshops (training sessions)
- Peter Guth (US Naval Academy): Free and Open Source Geomorphometry Software
- Jarek Jasiewicz: Watershed modeling with r.stream (GRASS GIS toolbox)
- Scott Peckham: RiverTools 4.0
Day 5 20.10.2013: Excursion (optional)

PROGRAM CHAIRS

Tang Guoan, Nanjing Normal University, China
Zhou Qiming, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Helena Mitasova, North Carolina State University, NC, USA
Tomislav Hengl, ISRIC / Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands

Conference secretariat: Prof. Liu Xuejun, Conference secretary School of Geographical Science, Nanjing Normal University No.1 Wenyuan road, Xianlin Campus, Nanjing 210046, P.R. China Mobile: 0086 13776685731 Email: liuxuejun@njnu.edu.cn

Dr. Li Fayuan, Conference secretary School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University No.1 Wenyuan road, Nanjing, 210023, P.R. China Mobile: 0086 13776626973 Email: lifayuan@njnu.edu.cn

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Ian Evans, Durham University, UK
Michael Hutchinson, Fenner School of Environment and Society Canberra, Australia
Chenghu Zhou, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources, CAS, China
Peter Guth, US Naval Academy, USA

INVITED SPEAKERS

Josef Strobl, Salzburg University, Austria
Qinke Yang, Northwest University, China
Alexander Brenning, University of Waterloo, Canada
Benjamin Bräutigam, Microwaves and Radar Institute, Germany

KEY DATES

Workshop proposals due: 1 April 2013
Extended abstracts due: 1 April 2013 (one time extension)
Notification of acceptance (revisions): end of May 2013
Submit a proposal for Geomorphometry workshop: end of June 2013
Early registration deadline: 4th of August 2013
Final camera-ready digital manuscripts due: 15th of September 2013
Late registration deadline: at the conference (+$90 additional fee)
Conference date: October 16-20, 2013 (Wednesday to Sunday)
Special issue openning: 1st of November, 2013

AIMS AND SCOPE

The aim of Geomorphometry 2013 is to create a platform for better communications and scholarly exchange among researchers in the fields of terrain analysis, geomorphometry, environmental modeling and geographical information sciences. It is the intention of the conference organizer to allow sufficient discussion and exchange of ideas during the conference sessions, so that the conference will be run in the single session format with sufficient time for each paper presentation and follow-up discussion.

Conference language: English

SUBMISSIONS

Prospective authors are invited to submit extended abstracts of up to 4 pages (ca 2000 words) and at least 2 pages by 1st of April 2013. Extended abstracts must be original works by the authors, not be currently under review in the same form by another outlet and not submitted elsewhere prior to the notification date.

Author guidelines

Extended abstracts that have been accepted for the conference (either as poster presentations or oral talks) must be submitted before 15th of September 2013. Please follow the author guidelines closely. The submitted digital copies of extended abstracts (PDF) that do not comply with the author guidelines might not be included in the conference proceedings and shared at the conference.

After the conference, a number of authors will be invited to submission a full article for the special issue on “Advances in Geomorphometry: new technologies, data and software for DEM analysis” in the Earth Surface Dynamics (ESurf) journal (this is an interactive Open Access journal).

REGISTRATIONS

Registrations are now open!

Regular registration fees:

￥1800 or $280 (before 4th of August 2013)
￥2300 or $370 (after 4th of August 2013)

The registration fees will cover all sessions of the conference, proceedings, meals, welcome banquet and coffee breaks.

Students registration fees:

￥900 or $140 (before 4th of August 2013),
￥1150 or $235 (after 4th of August 2013).

The registration fees will cover all sessions of the conference, proceedings, meals, welcome banquet and coffee breaks.

Accompanying person registration fees:

￥800 or $130

The registration fees will cover all meals, welcome banquet and coffee breaks.

LOGISTICS

Recommended accommodation:

Xian Lin Hotel, Xian Lin Campus, Nanjing Normal University.
仙林宾馆
Address: No.1 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing，南京市栖霞区文苑路1号
Tel: (0086) 25 85845888
Fax: (0086) 25 85845766

Nanjing Normal University, Xian Lin Hotel was founded in 2005, located in Xian Lin Campus of Nanjing Normal University. Xian Lin Hotel is an accommodation, dining, academic exchanges, meeting and a modern tourist resort place for three-star hotel.

There are over 150 rooms available for at least 250 people. It takes about 10 minutes walk to Jinwen library and about 10 minutes walk to K3/K4 buildings.

To know more about Nanjing, please vist http://www.cityofnanjing.com/.

Local transportation:

From SHANGHAI Pudong International Airport

Train from SHANGHAI Pudong International Airport to SHANGHAI Railway Station takes about one hour and 30 minutes using the metro line 2; or airport bus from Shanghai pudong to Shanghai Railway station \ then two hours by high-speed rail from SHANGHAI Railway Station to Nanjing South Railway Station; taxi to the Xian Lin Campus.

From Nanjing Lukou International Airport taxi : 60km , about 150 yuan public transit : take airport bus to NanJing Railway Station 20yuan bus route 97 to the station of Ya Dong Xin Cheng Qu, then walk to XianLin Hotel from south gate (you can find walk route in the programm)

From Nanjing railway station——–XianLin Hotel Taxi: 15km, about 38yuan Public transit:bus 97Nanjing Normal University south gate,walk to XianLin Hotel from south gate

From Nanjing South Railway Station——–XianLin Hotel Taxi: 26.5km, about 90yuan Public transit:take the metro 1 to Xin Jiekou Station then transfer Metro 2 to Xue Zelu Station take bus 138 or bus 165 to Wenlan Road, walk to Xianlin Hotel utes and costs about 140RMB.

SPONSORS

This event is sponsored by:

Geographical Society of China
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographical Environment, Ministry of Education
Nanjing Normal University
Centre for Geo-computation Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

Nanjing Normal University, located in Nanjing–an old ancient capital city of Six Dynasties, which is a key university of Jiangsu Province. The history of Nanjing Normal University can be traced back to Sanjiang Normal Institute, which was established by Zhang Zhidong, Governor-General of Jiangsu and Jiangxi, in 1902. It has three campuses including Xianlin, Suiyuan and Zijin, of which Suiyuan is a key historical site under state protection and has been praised as “the most beautiful campus of the east”. The university covers a total area of 2,199,575 m2 and the built-up area is 1,064,103m2; it has 24 colleges with 2 independent ones added. The number of the faculty is 3293, 482 of them with Senior Title and 842 with the Vice-senior. 16,213 undergraduates (without the consideration of independent colleges), 6681 masters and 963 doctors are pursuing knowledge of various fields, as well as 1725 on-the-job graduates working for the master degrees and more than 5000 adults for the higher and further education.

School of Geography is the most prestigious college of Nanjing Normal University. It has three major research platforms including Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographical Environment of Ministry of Education, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Ecological Construction and Regional planning and Development Research Center, there are 8 departments in the college including Geographic Science, Tourism Management, Land Management, Geographic Information System, Marine Science, Surveying and Mapping Engineering, Environmental Science, and Environmental Engineering. Nanjing Normal University have already hosted the International Science Seminar on the Terrain Analysis and Digital Terrain Stimulation (TADTM) in 2006. Later in 2008, the team participated in organizing ISPRS Summer School as well.

Latest Posts

DEMIX reveals which DEMs perform best

First round of the DEMIX exercise published final report

Global digital elevation models (DEMs) have become routine operational inputs across mapping, environmental monitoring, modelling and Earth-observation workflows. Their broad coverage and global availability have made them data that many practitioners simply take for granted. But knowledge of the terrain and topography of Earth’s surface is fundamental for monitoring and understanding terrestrial ecosystems and the planet’s habitability. For that reason, the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) maintains a subgroup dedicated to digital topography and the quality of DEMs, the ‘Terrain Mapping Sub-Group (TMSG).

DEMs are representations of elevation in the form of a georectified grid, at global scale commonly derived from space-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) or stereoscopic optical observations, while regionally and locally airborne Laser induced detection and ranging (LIDAR) has become the primary source. DEMs can be classified as digital surface models (DSMs) when depicting the lower surface of the atmosphere or digital terrain models (DTMs) when depicting the top of the lithosphere (the Earth’s crust).

A wide variety of DEM products exist – each having different characteristics which suit different applications. It can be challenging to understand which of the available DEM products are fit for purpose for certain applications or regions. That is the practical gap addressed by the Digital Elevation Model Intercomparison Exercise (DEMIX) undertaken by TMSG. By exposing where widely used global DEMs agree, where they differ and how those differences affect rankings, the exercise delivered evidence to users for selecting a DEM rather than defaulting to one by habit.

DEM products were compared through a ‘wine contest,’ which identified requirements of openness, reproducibility, adaptability, and statistical rigour. The characteristics, evaluations, and ranking for each DEM were collected in a GIS database with over 50,000 entries. A quantitative assessment was carried out for each global DEM based on pixel-by-pixel differences of geomorphometric parameters against finer spatial resolution (1-5 m resolution) reference DEMs.

The study incorporates an unprecedented amount of high quality reference data covering a broad range of landforms and surface types, comparing their characteristics without resampling or interpolation. Users are invited to consult the results of DEMIX in order to make informed choices when needing to use a DEM, or in some cases a combination of the most relevant DEMs for their applications.

The final rankings of the wine contest, presented below, compared the six DEMs based on land cover (forest, urban, or barren), slope (cliff, steep, gentle, or flat), differences in elevation, slope and roughness, and statistical metrics.

Led by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) Terrain Mapping Subgroup (TMSG) established DEMIX in partnership with the International Society for Geomorphometry. Several members of the International Society of the Geomorphometry contributed significantly and we hosted various secssions at our latest conference. The exercise was performed over a three-year period starting in 2020, with community-wide calls for participation and an assembly of experts producing a number of peer-reviewed publications, culminating with a JRC reference report published in July 2026.

The objective of DEMIX was to propose a procedure to rank the available free and open global DEMs, taking into consideration user needs while promoting the implementation of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles. The exercise compared DEMs based on criteria for land cover and terrain slope categories, representative testing, and a statistically sound ranking approach. The report outputs tailored recommendations regarding available DEM products that are not limited to one domain, geographic area, or landscape type, with flexibility for different user needs and applications.

A major challenge in the comparison of the global DEMs were the varying formats, data, and metadata contents. The adoption of a common set of standards would enhance the quality and interoperability of global DEMs and streamline the exchange and utilisation of DEM data for both providers and users. DEMIX makes the following recommendations for data providers:

● Adopt a standardised grid layout, with complete grid definitions and encodings following ISO/OGC rules.

● Include vertical datum information as part of raster DEM files.

● Clearly indicate the product version in the file names.

● Participate in future DEMIX rounds, which serve as a neutral platform for independently evaluating products before their release.

● Provide high quality, finer resolution, accurate, and multi-temporal elevation data to be used as a reference alongside DEM products.

Global DEMs are indispensable operational geospatial datasets, but they should not be treated as error-free or interchangeable. DEMIX delivered to the global community a systematic and transparent method to help choose elevation products more intelligently and help define what better elevation measurements should look like in the future.

Benchmarking Elevation Plus Land Surface Parameters Finds FathomDEM and Copernicus DEM Win as Best Global DEMs (2025) and subsequent discussion (2026a, 2026b)
Ranking of 10 Global One-Arc-Second DEMs Reveals Limitations in Terrain Morphology Representation 2025
Novel Approach for Ranking DEMs: Copernicus DEM Improves One Arc Second Open Global Topography (2024)
Digital Elevation Models: Terminology and Definitions (2021)
The Digital Elevation Model Intercomparison eXperiment DEMIX, a community-based approach at global DEM benchmarking (2021)

Coffee Talk - GeoNadir

Building the world’s largest repository of FAIR drone mapping data

Paul Mead GeoNadir

September 2nd, 2026
11:30 (UTC)

Bio: Paul Mead is Co-founder and Head of Business & Strategy at GeoNadir, a platform building the world’s largest repository of FAIR drone mapping data to support environmental decision-making. A non-technical co-founder, Paul focuses on strategy, commercial development, and building high-performing teams — a discipline shaped by 11 years in the New Zealand Army, including leading a bomb disposal team in Lebanon and service in Afghanistan and the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2013 he has built and led several small businesses and start-ups, with drones as a central technology since 2016. Alongside GeoNadir, Paul co-founded She Maps, an internationally recognised drone and geospatial STEM education organisation, and has helped raise over $7M in equity and non-equity funding across his ventures. He holds a Master of Philosophy from the University of Queensland and is a Chartered Manager.

Abstract: GeoNadir set out to build the world’s largest repository of FAIR drone mapping data, and ended up building something more powerful. Drones have democratised data capture, but the same democratised ability to generate decision-grade insights from the data is lacking. I’ll walk through how we’re closing that gap: the data infrastructure behind hosting large volumes of UAV imagery and derived products, and how we’re moving from manual analysis toward automated, repeatable geospatial analytics.

Coffee Talk - Geomorphometry with GRASS

Geomorphometry with GRASS

Dr. Corey T. White Center for Geospatial Analytics at NCSU, USA

April 1st, 2026
14:00 (UTC)

Recording available in our YouTube channel

Bio: Corey White is a geospatial research software engineer with the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University and a maintainer of the open-source GRASS project. He is also the founder of OpenPlains Inc., an open-source web-based platform for interactive geospatial modeling. His work sits at the intersection of geomorphometry, environmental modeling, UAS mapping, and open-source software development, with a focus on making interactive terrain analysis accessible and reproducible. He has applied GRASS to problems ranging from post-disaster topographic change detection following Hurricane Helene to designing a participatory geospatial modeling platform to address ‘wicked’ socio-environmental problems. Corey is an active member of the OSGeo community and an advocate for open geospatial science.

Abstract: GRASS is a modern, actively developed, and extensible geospatial processing engine for geomorphometry. This session draws on post-Hurricane Helene landscape change analysis and ongoing addon development for DEM data fusion, terrain uncertainty modeling, and overland flow simulation to showcase what GRASS does well and where it fits in contemporary geomorphometric practice. Beyond its core analytical capabilities, GRASS’s Python, R, and Jupyter integration make it straightforward to build reproducible, scriptable terrain workflows that move easily from exploration to publication. Join this informal discussion to explore how GRASS serves not only as a research tool but as a community platform where geomorphometric methods can be developed, shared, and reused through its open addon ecosystem.