Nominations for Geomorphometry 2015 conference

Published: Dec 15, 2013 by ISG Board

The nominations to host the Geomorphometry 2015 international conference are (sorted based on the time of received nomination):

Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Madrid, Spain
ISRIC — World Soil Information / Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Poznañ, Poland

To vote for your favorite candidate simply select one of the options from the front page. Let the best candidate win! And do not forget to read what each of the nominees has to offer!

Who is eligable to vote? Only permenant society members i.e. anyone that have visited at least one of the last three conferences (because the society is covered from the conference registration fees). If you have problems voting, please write to mail@gemorphometry.org. If you wish to publicly comment on this post, please write on the Geomorphometry G+ community page:

Deadline to receive your vote: February 1th 2014.

#1	IGME, Madrid, Spain
Local organizers:	Eulogio Pardo-Iguzquiza Geological Survey of Spain Juan José Durán Director of the Research Department of the Geological Survey of Spain
Hosting institution(s):	Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME)
Venue:	The conference will take place at the Conference Room of the Gómez-Pardo Foundation (up to 120 people). There are other rooms at the School of Mining Engineering that could be used for the Conference. This venue is located in the Centre of Madrid just 50 m far from the Ríos Rosas underground station.; it is 50 m far from the School of Mining Engineering and 100 m far from the Geological Survey of Spain.
Town and surrounding:	Madrid is the city of Art. Apart the big three museums, the Padro Museum, the Thyssen Bornemisza and the Reina Sofía Museum of Modern Art, in Madrid there are tens of other Art Museums. Even at the same building of the Conference venue there is a very nice museum: the Felix Cañada Museum. Of course, Madrid is also Spanish food like "tapas" and "paella". The historical towns of Toledo and Salamanca are at 1 hour by train from Madrid.
Preferred dates:	1-4 September 2015 7-10 September 2015 14-17 September 2015
Arrival / local transport :	Madrid has virtually several hundred of hotels with an ample range of prices. The organizers will negotiate special conference rates with nearby hotels. The two most popular options for the 15th Conference of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences were: a budget Hotel with breakfast included by 58 € for a double room. The "hostales" and "pensiones" have economic prices, from 30 euros per night.
Conference theme (leitmotief):	Water, Environment and Digital Terrain Modelling
Logistical information:	The coffee will be provided at the Hall of the Conference Venue. Lunch will be provided at the bar of the School of Mines and dinner (cocktail) will be provided at the Hall of the School of Mines. All the coffees (8 coffee breaks), lunch (4 days) and cocktails (3 nights) will be included in the registration fee.
Sponsorship and support:	The organizers will look for a sponsorship but, in any case, the conference registration will not be higher than 300 euros. The registration prize will include the material and documentation, coffee and meals.
Any special reason we should come to...	A special issue of the Boletín Geológico y Minero (an Earth Sciences Journal published by the Geological Survey of Spain since 1874) will be printed with selected papers. The proceedings of the Conference will be provided on a CD with ISBN, the first day of the Conference. Geomorphometry workshop has never before been organised in Spain.
Photographs:

#2	Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Local organizers:	Tomislav Hengl ISRIC — World Soil Information Niels Anders Environmental Sciences Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Hosting institution(s):	ISRIC — World Soil Information / Wageningen University, the Netherlands
Venue:	Forum building. The conference hall can accommodate >150 people and is equipped with top multimedia facilities. There are facilities for parallel and poster sessions. Wageningen University is located on the WUR campus that consists of a number of modern buildings built in the last 2-10 years.
Town and surrounding:	Wageningen (ca. 45,000 habitants) is an university town in the centre of the Netherlands with over 10,000 students and some 5000 research and education staff. It is the
Preferred dates:	13-17 July 2015 24-28 August 2015
Arrival / local transport :	Wageningen is about 1 hour away from the Schiphol International airport. Schiphol is the third biggest European airport with direct flights to all major cities in the world. Buses from Ede-Wageningen station to Wageningen drive frequently and take about 20 minutes. We would also organize free bikes for each workshop participant that wants one :)
Conference theme (leitmotief):	High-resolution and multiscale DEMs for environmental modelling
Logistical information:	Forum building has a student restaurant and a cafeteria (the building daily hosts 3000-4000 students!). Organized meals can be provided through an university hired company at subsidized price. A barbeque on campus is planned at the beginning of the conference (night before). Considering the accommodation, Wageningen offers various possibilities, ranging from budget to four-stars hotels. In particular, the organizers can book rooms at special rates (70-80 euro) in hotel Hof van Wageningen, which in fact can also host the workshop if this is preferred (no commuting between hotel and workshop site, closer to town centre). The conference dinner will most likely be held at Castle Doorwerth (dates back to the 13th century, authentic interior and not far — cycling distance! — from Wageningen).
Sponsorship and support:	ISRIC will offer it's New multimedia World Soil Museum to host the geomorphometry workshops. Students will get a 50% reduction on the registration fees.
Any special reason we should come to...	ISRIC has the largest world soil database and library and is actively involved in digital terrain modeling through projects like SOTER or WorldGrids.org. Wageningen University and Research Centre is one of the leading European research centres in the field of Environmental Sciences. The Alterra Soil Geography team has developed and applied DEM processing methods for many years. In 2013, ISRIC will open its New World Soil Museum that can be used to host some of the Geomorphometry 2015 workshops. Geomorphometry workshop has never before been organised in the Netherlands.
Photographs:

#3	Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Poznan, Poland
Local organizers:	Grzegorz Rachlewicz Head of Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, vice-chair of the Association of Polish Geomorphologists Zbigniew Zwoliñski Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Chair of the IAG/AIG WG on Landform Assessment for Geodiversity Jaroslaw Jasiewicz Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation
Hosting institution(s):	Institute of Geoecology and Geoinformation, Poznañ, Poland / Association of Polish Geomorphologists, International Association of Geomorphologists Working Group on Landform Assessment for Geodiversity
Venue:	Modern building of Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences. The Faculty offers rooms fully equiped with audio-video facilities: one assembly hall for 300 persons, two halls for 150 persons, four rooms for 50-80 persons. Six computer labs with 20 workstations each and wireless eduroam network on the entire building. There is also a place for exhibition and firm stands.
Town and surrounding:	Poznañ (ca. 600,000 habitants) is one of the most recognized tourist cities in Poland. Some known attractions: Old Market Square with Town Hall, Citadel Park, Old Brevery, Cathedral, Malta Park and many more.
Preferred dates:	15-19 June 2015 1-5 September 2015 14-18 September 2015
Arrival / local transport :	Daily connections from Munich, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Warsaw (1 hour flight) are available. The airport is located near the city center: direct bus connection to hotels in the city center are also available. Taxi from the airport starts at 7 Euro to the city center and at 12 Euro directly to Geo-Campus.
Conference theme (leitmotief):	Geomorphometry as a key for natural hazard geomodeling
Logistical information:	Conference coffee brakes and lunches will be organized in the Geo-Campus where the conference will take place. There are two restaurants for more than 150 persons. There is an in-place catering company with long term experience in domestic and international conference events. Average meal price in a regular restaurant typically does not exceed 7-10 Euro per person.
Sponsorship and support:	Access to conference halls, computer labs and the entire infrastructure at no cost to all participants. Rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University and the President of the City of Poznañ will be invited for official patronage which might bring additional benefits and possibilities. The Association of Polish Geomorphologists will provide organizational help. There will be also help from geoinformation student volunteers.
Any special reason we should come to...	Poznañ offers quality accommodation services at relatively low cost. As Poznañ is the seat of International Fair Trade and former organizer of UN Climatic Change Conference (2008) it has one of the best hotel network in Europe. Geomorphometry workshop has never before been organised in Poland. On the other hand, Poznañ has already hosted a number of international geomorphological conferences e.g. in 1963 and 1976 (INQUA).
Photographs:

Whitebox Workflows Next Gen, a complete rewrite of the Whitebox geospatial analysis platform, is now publicly available for Python, R, and QGIS.

Built from the ground up in pure Rust, Whitebox Next Gen provides more than 700 geospatial analysis tools for geomorphometry, terrain analysis, spatial hydrology, LiDAR processing, remote sensing, vector GIS, and spatial statistics. All three interfaces run on the same high-performance backend, allowing users to work in scripts, notebooks, statistical workflows, or a familiar desktop GIS environment.

Whitebox Next Gen is not an incremental update to the previous Whitebox architecture. It replaces the earlier monolithic system with a modular, full-stack geospatial platform. Core capabilities for raster and vector I/O, coordinate systems and reprojection, vector topology, spatial indexing, LiDAR processing, and other foundational operations are implemented directly within the Whitebox codebase rather than delegated to external C or C++ GIS libraries. This approach provides consistent cross-platform behaviour, fewer system-level dependencies, tighter control over performance and correctness, and greater flexibility for continued research and development

Highlights

More than 700 tools for geomorphometry, hydrology, LiDAR, remote sensing, vector analysis, spatial statistics, and general geospatial processing
Publicly available interfaces for Python, R, and QGIS
A modular, high-performance backend written entirely in Rust, including wbprojection, wbraster, wbvector, wblidar, wbspatialstats, and wbtopology open-source (MIT/Apache licensed) backend libraries
Most of the 80+ tools that existed within the previous extension product have been migrated to the new Whitebox open core, including the tools for advanced surface curvature analysis and DEM processing
Native coordinate-reference-system handling and reprojection workflows via wbprojection
Expanded raster support (19 formats), including GeoTIFF, Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF (COGs), GeoPackage Raster, and JPEG2000
Expanded vector support (12 formats), including Shapefile, GeoPackage, FlatGeobuf, GeoParquet, GeoJSON, TopoJSON, and GML
Modern point-cloud support, including LAS, LAZ, COPC, E57, and PLY
A dedicated topology engine supporting robust vector analysis, network analysis, route-event workflows, and linear referencing
Local-first processing on Windows, macOS, and Linux
A consistent analysis platform across Python scripts and R workflows
A newly updated and more advanced QGIS Processing toolbox

Whitebox has particular strengths in terrain analysis, geomorphometry, spatial hydrology, and LiDAR processing. Whitebox Next Gen carries these areas forward while substantially expanding the project’s capabilities for vector analysis, remote sensing, modern spatial data formats, and reproducible geospatial workflows.

Get started

The geomorphometry community is invited to explore Whitebox Next Gen, test its tools and workflows, report issues, and contribute to the continued development of the project.

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.

Nominations for Geomorphometry 2015 conference

Further Reading: