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Workshop moderator: Oliver Korup

Location: Sihlwald area, SW of Lake Zurich

Meeting point: Zurich Central Railway Station (“Zürich HB”) @ “Group Meeting Point” (indicated by a large red cube!). Meeting time is 9 AM. Please try to be punctual so that we can catch the 9.18 service to Sihlwald station (train no. S4). There is no need for registered participants to purchase a ticket, which is included in the conference fees.

Daily programme:

• Full-day field-based workshop: Sihlwald area 30 min. from Zurich on train (participants bring their own field lunch; there are several nice BBQ spots, so think of packing the odd sizzler; also make sure to bring plenty of fluids as late summer can still be very warm)
• Brief overview of the area: Quaternary geomorphology, historic land use, recent conservation strategies
• Review of key morphometric parameters and scale/resolution effects
• Presentation of high-resolution LIDAR data for the area
• Group-based exercises to determine locally morphometric parameters
• Comparison of field- and LIDAR-derived parameters
• Final group discussion on the advantages, potentials, and limits of LIDAR-based geomorphometry

NECESSARY EQUIPMENT: outdoor wear (incl. sturdy footwear and raingear)

INTENDED AIMS AND SCOPE: • To test the applicability and reliability of LIDAR and other DEM-derived attributes by comparison with field-derived data; • To raise awareness among LIDAR users of the potential pitfalls and limitations that come with enhanced resolution DEMs; • To re-appreciate the meaning of terrain parameters and their applicability in geomorphic research.

This field trip is also intended as an icebreaker reception, so socialising is more than welcome. We would like to use this opportunity to bring “geomorphometrists” together to discuss in an informal manner pending issues of high-resolution DEMs and DTMs in an actual landscape rather than at the desktop. The Sihlwald is a pleasant and mainly forested area near Zurich that caters for nearly all levels of fitness and recreational demands. It also hosts a number of challenges for digital terrain analyses, which we will explore during some leisurely walks and group discussions. The underlying idea is not to simply reiterate known problems of LiDAR data, but to consider ways of improving their use in geomorphometry and related disciplines.

Overview map of the area. The blue area is Lake Zurich.

Here are the results of the e-democracy and society meeting discussion. We received 29 votes from 64 registered members (44%). Considering future organization of the society 45% of members confirmed that they prefer to keep the society of small size, while 45% of members believe that we should try to get anybody working with DEMs involved with this society.

Considering the name of the society, 89% of members find the current name “geomorphometry” more appropriate than “terrain analysis” (11%). One member proposed that the official name should be “Geomorphometry: the science of digital terrain analysis”, which seem to be the best compromise between the two alternatives. A large majority of members (90%) believes that the focus of geomorphometry should be on both technology and methods.

Considering the organization of future meetings, majority of members (48%) believes that the registration costs of the conference should not exceed 100 USD per day, however, 37% of members also do not mind the costs of registration if the programme is good. Most of people nominated Ian Evans (38%) and John Gallant (11%) for the chair, and Tomislav Hengl (52%) and Ross Purves (11%) for the vice-chairs. Both of the first nominated candidates have accepted this nomination and will represent the society until the next conference (2011). The chair and vice-chair will take further steps to organize the next meetings, regularly send information and news to all registered members (geomorphometry mailing list), and facilitate various workshops and international collaboration. They will also ensure that the coming meetings follow some quality requirements, e.g. that they focus on the topics of interest to geomorphometry society, that the first call is send on time, that enough information is provided for international visitors etc.

Considering the location of the next conference, 41% of members would like that the next geomorphometry conference stays in Europe, 31% of members would like to leave the decision to the scientific committee, 17% voted for North America. We discussed the dangers of having two conferences in a line on the same continent, and concluded that possibly the best decision will be to organize the next conference in USA, considering that the TADTM conference in 2006 was in China, 2009 was in Europe, so that this seems to be the most logical solution.

In the final block of the society meeting, we have carefully discussed advantages and disadvantages of having a more formally organized society and possible alternatives: e.g. optional merging with some other (bigger) research group such as International Association of Geomorphologists, GIS societies, ISPRS and similar. We concluded that (1) geomorphometry is a distinct field that certainly has an audience and future (especially considering the recent development of LiDAR technology, new geo-visualization tools and new fields of application); (2) place of the next meeting and similar organizational issues should be decided upon during the running conference to ensure sustainability; (3) geomorphometry should try to connect all people involved with production and processing of DEMs and surface models.

e_democracy_2009.xls

At the moment, there are three provisional nominations for the 2011 conference:

1. University of Southern California (John P. Wilson);
2. University of Colorado (Scott Peckham);
3. University of Salzburg (Lucian Dragut & Clemens Eisank);

The official nominations for the next conference are now invited to submit an official proposal in the coming 60 days.

Instructions:

The proposal to organize the next Geomorphometry meeting should include:

1. approximate date of the conference;
2. location and accessibility (connection from an international airport to the event);
3. estimate of prices for facilities and accommodation;
4. possibilities of sponsorship and/or reduced fees for post-graduate students;
5. intended publication of the special issue or a joint publication from the conference proceedings (this can only be a provisional proposal);

Please submit official nominations by sending an e-mail to the geomorphometry chair and vice-chair. The decision about the next geomorphometry conference will be published on the geomorphometry website after 15th of November 2009.

Priorities:

Proposals that specifically emphasize the following issues will receive a priority during the selection:

• This is a 5-day event with optional excursion.
• The event consists of three types of sessions: (1) conference, (2) workshops and (3) training courses. The workshops can be focused on some type of international collaboration or run as discussion panels. The training courses and workshops can be scheduled in the weekend to minimize the logistics costs.
• The location of event is within 3 hours of travelling from the international airport. The conference organizers will assists the participants in reaching the venue.
• The costs of organizing the logistics are minimized (the most economic option to encourage waverers) and/or a sponsorship is guaranteed.

Workshop moderators:

1. Tomislav Hengl (University of Amsterdam)
2. Carlos H. Grohmann (University of Sao Paulo)

Location: Room 25H86/92. This is a double room with a divider. Access will be through a locked door.

Internet: YES (Ethernet)

Please let us know about your impression of SAGA/GRASS by filling out this web-form.

Literature:

• Chapters 8 and 9 in: Hengl, T. 2009. A Practical Guide to Geostatistical Mapping of Environmental Variables. EUR 22904 EN, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 264 p.
• Conrad, O. 2007. SAGA — Entwurf, Funktionsumfang und Anwendung eines Systems fur Automatisierte Geowissenschaftliche Analysen, Ph.D. thesis, University of Gottingen, Gottingen.
• Grohmann, C.H., Steiner, S.S., 2008. SRTM resample with Short Distance-Low Nugget Kriging. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 22 (8):895-906.
• Grohmann, C.H., 2008. Introdução à Análise Digital de Terreno com GRASS-GIS. Institute of Geosciences, University of São Paulo.
• Neteler, M. and Mitasova, H. 2008. Open Source GIS: A GRASS GIS Approach, Springer, New York, 3rd edn.

Fig: Room 25H86/92

Daily programme:

DAY 1 29.08.2009

DAY 2 30.08.2009

Late registrations: 15th of August; after that no more registrations are possible;

Description: This workshop aims at PhD students and professionals interested to use open source software packages for processing of their elevation data. R is the open-source version of the S language for statistical computing; SAGA (System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses) and GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) are the two most used open-source desktop GIS for automated analysis of elevation data. A combination of R+SAGA/GRASS provides a full integration of statistics and geomorphometry. The topics in this workshop will range from selection of grid cell size, choice of algorithms for DEM generation and filtering, to geostatistical simulations and error propagation. The workshop moderators will demonstrate that R+SAGA/GRASS is capable of handling such demanding tasks as DEM generation from auxiliary maps, automated classification of landforms, and sub-grid parameterization of surface models.

The course will focus on understanding R and SAGA/GRASS syntax and building scripts that can be used to automate DEM-data processing. Each participant should come with a laptop PC and install all software needed prior to the workshop. Registered participants will receive an USB stick with all data sets and overheads at the beginning of the course.
Participants will follow a case study that focuses on generation of DEMs, extraction of DEM parameters and landform classes, and implementation of error propagation in geomorphometry.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION:

Please make sure you come to this workshop with software already installed and running. You need to install at least (please respect the chronological order):

1. R (2.9)
   • after the installation open R and install necessary packages (install.views(“Spatial”))
   • install separately packages “spgrass6” and “RSAGA”
2. Tinn-R
3. GRASS GIS (6.4)
4. SAGA GIS (2.0.3)
   • the latest version of SAGA will be distributed at the beginning of the workshop!

For simplicity, try to come with a Windows OS, possibly with a dual boot (Linux or Mac OS as the 2nd OS).
Here are some examples of code that you could test under your machine.

hort title: TOPO.AML

Inputs: INPUTDEM - a grid representing a continuous surface.
Outputs: a set of geomorphometric parameters.
&r topo INPUTDEM {streamflow threshold} {streamcover} (i.e. &r topo ls10 150)

Purpose and use:

It’s a compilation of grid commands to calculate some geomorphometric parameters in one go. To avoid mistyping, different approaches between different projects, time saving, etc.
More description in topomanual.pdf included in file.

Programming environment: Arc AML
Status of work: Public Domain
Reference: Geomorphometry: Concepts, Software, Applications
Data set name: Baranja hill

Attachment:

TOPO.AML_.zip