GIScience Colloquium Talk on Terrestrial laser scanning for Geomorphometry

we cordially invite everybody interested to our next open GIScience colloquium talk

on Mon, June 19, 2.15 pm,

at the Department of Geography, Heidelberg University, Im Neuenheimer Feld 348, Lecture Hall, Room 015.

The presentation will be given by Dr. Daniel Wujanz (Technische Universität Berlin).

The topic is:

Terrestrial laser scanning for Geomorphometry – Some remarks on pitfalls and widespread opinions

Ever since its emergence, terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) have proved to be a valuable addition to the toolbox of Geodesists, Geographers and Geologists, especially for the sake of monitoring geometric changes over time. Even though TLS stands in the scientific spotlight for about two decades, vital questions are still not answered to a satisfactory degree. An obvious issue is linked to the detectability of deformations which directly influences all geomorphometric measures that are computed based on the acquired datasets. The detectability of geometric changes is, amongst others, directly correlated to the precision of the applied sensor as well as all required post-processing steps. These steps involve the so called registration into a reference coordinate system as well as the actual quantification of deformation. In this talk, a close look will be taken at the entire processing chain of deformation measurement and their individual influence onto the final outcome. At first, the focus will be set on some popular misconceptions regarding the precision of terrestrial laser scanners followed by some thoughts on referencing point clouds. Finally, a brief review on algorithms for quantification of deformation will be given.