Airborne Laser Swath Mapping (ALSM) allows for the measurement of surface topographic features with decimeter-level accuracies and meter to sub-meter spatial resolution. High resolution, georeferenced, digital elevation models (DEMs) processed from raw ALSM data (point clouds of laser postings in xyz space) are critical for observing a multitude of geomorphic features at scales appropriate to the fundamental processes that govern their topographic expression. Examples include, fault structures, hill slopes, river channels, coastal features, glaciers, volcanic edifices and vegetative canopy structure. DEMs developed from ALSM can be used to model and therefore better understand the dynamics of these landforms and the underlying processes that form them. The technique also has obvious applications in civil engineering.
This grant provides five years of continued support for the management and operation of the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM). A collaborative effort between the University of Florida (UF) and the University of California - Berkeley (UC-B), NCALM provides project planning services, ALSM flight and ground crew operations, technical support for data analysis, and access to computational resources and software to make available to the broader geosciences community, high accuracy, high spatial resolution digital topographic data. NCALM makes available to the science community, an Optech GEMINI 167 kHz and 33 kHz ALSM systems owned by UF that can be flown on a UF twin engine Cessna 337 aircraft equipped with GPS equipment and an inertial measurement system. These systems can also be flown on leased aircraft for international projects or projects that dictate high altitude flights. NCALM staff are also involved in: 1) development of new laser ranging technologies including MHz photon counting ALSM operating at wavelengths that allow for water penetration for coastal bathymetry; 2) developing methods and software for multi-sensor data collection and fusion; 3) training students in ALSM techniques and applications through the UF graduate program in Geosensing Engineering; 4) administering a competitive seed grant program for student investigators; and 5) community outreach through ALSM workshops and organization of ALSM science sessions at national meetings. NCALM is managed by PIs at UF and UC-B and is advised by a steering committee (SC). The SC provides guidance and review on the following: 1) scheduling and prioritizing projects; 2) cost effective management of the Center; 3) information dissemination; 4) opportunities and necessities for technological upgrades; and 5) contact and coordination with major programs (EarthScope, CUASHI, Margins, etc.) and agencies (NASA, FEMA, USGS).
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In 2003, the National Center f or Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), funded by NSF, was founded through a collaborative effort by the University of Florida (UF) and the University of California – Berkeley (UCB) to provide research quality airborne laser swath mapping (ALSM, aka LiDAR: Light Detection And Ranging) observations to the national research community, to advance the technology, and to provide education and training for students to meet the rapidly growing needs of industry, government agencies, and academia. With NSF support, NCALM relocated f rom UF to the University of Houston (UH) as a part of a new initiative at the Cullen College of Engineering in January 2010. The facilities, instruments, staff and research associated with NCALM provided UH an opportunity to develop a Geosensing Systems Engineering (GSE) graduate research program second to none in the world, and to lead the development and application of remote sensing technology with potentially major impacts nationwide on environmental studies, homeland security, response to natural disasters, oil and gas exploration, and to advance several branches of geosciences. The implications are significant for those engineering and science specialties that require or benefit from accurate detailed topographical geo-spatial information. Technologies such as GPS and LiDAR, which not long ago were viewed as only of interest in geomatics, now produce information in a form that is used by engineers and scientists who have little or no knowledge of geomatics or engineering. Emerging technologies such as terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), hyperspectral imaging (HI), Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR), and airborne digital imaging, will provide even more opportunities for multi-disciplinary research in the future. RESEARCH AREA OVERVIEW Technological advances in geosensing and remote sensing make it possible to delineate the physical features of the surface of the Earth on spatial scales as f ine as a few decimeters horizontally and a few centimeters vertically. As a result, long standing scientific questions about such surficial processes as erosion, faulting, volcanism, and plate motion are placed within the reach of earth scientists and engineers. Information on surface relief, drainage patterns and vegetation, critical to understanding the evolution of ecologically sensitive areas, can be collected over hundreds of square kilometers in periods of days. Information collected by such technology can be used to address a wide variety of engineering issues such as developing and managing natural resources, mitigating the impacts of such natural disasters as floods, hurricanes, tornados, landslides and sinkholes, and building and maintaining transportation infrastructures. The attendant order of magnitude drop in operating costs allows academic researchers access to these powerful technologies, setting off a remarkable growth in studies of Earth’s topography, bridging such traditional specialties as geodesy, geophysics, hydrology, biology, archaeology and engineering. Since its establishment NCALM has collected and processed or, is in the process of collecting and processing, research quality airborne LiDAR data for 69 researchers, at 51 institutions and agencies, in 23 states and 6 f oreign nations, totaling more than 30,000 square kilometers. At least 259 scientific publications have been identified that include information and results derived from observations collected by NCALM. Additionally NCALM has collected and processed SEED projects f or 83 graduate students and 7 University Professors in 22 States including Hawaii. A total of 78 Advisors from 55 Universities are involved in the SEED research projects. Data has been collected in a total of 27 States for NSF PIs and graduate students. NCALM and FACILITIES: Approximately 6,000 square feet of space in Bldg 4 at Energy Research Park (ERP), a few miles from the UH main campus, was renovated for NCALM and the center moved its operation into it in May 2014 (Figure 1). GSE GRADUATE PROGRAM Two new cross-disciplinary named graduate degrees have been created at UH. 1. MS in Geosensing Systems Engineering and Sciences, and 2. Ph.D. in Geosensing Systems Engineering and Sciences The MS degree was approved by the State of Texas in 2012 and became a part of the UH graduate degree programs January 1, 2013. The PhD degree was approved by the UH Board of Regents in Spring 2014 and was subsequently submitted to the State of Texas. It is expected to be approved within the next 6 months. These degrees are supported by a total of 7 faculty members in three departments. A total of 14 new or appropriate existing graduate courses have been created for the GSE graduate program. New courses are added as the new faculty are added to the program. GRADUATE STUDENTS In the short span of four years since NCALM’s relocation to UH since 2010, the GSE graduate research program has had a total of 32 enrollment (21 PhD and 11 MS), out of which 4 have graduated with MS degrees (Figure 2).
