Third Workshop on “3D Field Methods in Geosciences”

The third workshop on 3D methods in geological applications was jointly organized by the University of Göttingen, the Geological Service of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW, German federal state), and the 3D Geo Research Group at Heidelberg University. The workshop is an event of the initiative “3D Field Methods in Geosciences”, which provides a platform to connect all people working on the development and/or application of 3D methods in the field of earth science.

Range of topics in the initiative
Range of topics in the initiative (Source: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3d-initiative/533728.html)

This year’s workshop took place at our GIScience department and focused on workflows from data acquisition to analysis of 3D geological outcrop data. Great interest and lively discussion were initiated by presentations on

  • The correction of LiDAR backscatter information (Bernhard Höfle, 3D Geo)
  • The mobile positioning system Pilot 3D (Daniel Schröder, DMT)
  • Geological structures in point clouds (Mathias Knaak, Geological Service NRW)
  • 3D field survey in structural geology (Bianca Wagner, Applied Geology at University of Göttingen)
  • Current UAV 3D scan projects and novel methods of visualization (Philipp Matschoß, 3FACES)
  • Digital geological mapping in Austria (Markus Palzer-Khomenko, Austrian Geological Association)

A field trip to an active outcrop in Nußloch (Heidelberg Cement) offered the opportunity to test two terrestrial laser scanning systems for high-precision 3D data acquisition. The trip was organized by Till Drews and Georg Miernik of the Institute of Earth Sciences at Heidelberg University and gave valuable insights into the local geological situation as well as the practical realization of geological field work with 3D positioning systems. The acquired data was used on the subsequent workshop day to demonstrate a range-dependent laser return intensity correction.
In the last block of the workshop, the participants sat together in working groups to discuss current issues of 3D methods in geology. The outcome of these discussions form the basis for future work and objectives of the initiative.
All in all, it was a successful workshop in the third year of the initiative, which (again) brought together a number of people of various backgrounds to discuss their approaches, challenges and ideas on 3D methods in geological applications.
We are looking forward to our next meeting in 2019!