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Nominations for Geomorphometry 2011

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: Automated analysis of elevation data in R+SAGA/GRASS

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:

Fig: Room 25H86/92

Daily programme:


DAY 1 29.08.2009

0900-1030

Introduction to the workshop
Introduction to SAGA/GRASS; history and main functionality; the role of open source software; (T. Hengl, C.H. Grohmman)

1030-1100Coffee break
1100-1300Installation of necessary packages (R, SAGA, GRASS, Google Earth)
 Introduction to the case study: “Fishcamp”
 Computer exercises in SAGA: loading data, running SAGA commands from R and scripting, interpretation of results (T. Hengl, C.H. Grohmman)
1300-1400Lunch
1400-1600Computer exercises (individual)
1545-1615Coffee break
1615-1730Solving computer exercises (with assistance)
 Q & A’s / final discussion (T. Hengl)
2030-23:00Dinner at the campus (optional)

DAY 2 30.08.2009

0930-1030

Introduction to GRASS GIS: main functionality and operations; GRASS syntax (C.H. Grohmman)

1030-1100Coffee break
1100-1300

Computer exercises in GRASS: loading data, running GRASS commands from R and scripting, interpretation of results (demonstration)

 (C.H. Grohmman, T. Hengl)
1300-1400Lunch
1400-1530Computer exercises (individual)
1530-1545Coffee break
1615-1730Solving computer exercises (C.H. Grohmman)
 Q & A’s / SAGA verus GRASS questionairre (T. Hengl)
2000-lateDinner in the city (optional)

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.

TOPO parameters

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

Openess

Short title: openness.lsc

Inputs: A DEM (uses the Baranja Hill DEM25m.asc as an example).
Outputs: A raster of ‘openness’ that describes how exposed a surface is at each location. The measure is an angle where values close to 0 are very sheltered and 180 is an exposed plane.

Purpose and use:

Script to calculate ‘openness’ as defined by Yokoyama, Shirasawa and Pike (2002). It is designed to demonstrate how LandScript can be used to calculate new geomorphometric parameters using map algebra. To use this script, start LandSerf 2.3 or above and then open the LandScript editor (menu: Edit->LandSctipt Editor).

Programming environment: Landserf
Status of work: Public Domain
Reference: On the uncertainty of stream networks derived from elevation data: the error propagation approach
Data set name: Baranja hill

Attachment:

openness.lsc_.zip

Landslide probabilities

Short title: landprob

Inputs: DEM in metric projection, Source Landslide areas, H/L value as stopping parameter.
Outputs: pq_limi and all other parameters as described in Gruber et al., 2008 article in the Geomorphometry book.

Purpose and use:

Computes Landslide probabilities — generate landslide probabilities areas using a DEM according to Gruber et al 2008. &r landslide1 <sourcearea\_dem> {h/l stopping value}

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

Attachment:

landslide_probabilities.zip

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