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The University of Western Ontario
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Instructor: |
Dr. Irena Creed |
The @ has been substituted in the above email addresses to hinder spammers.
Course Structure:
One 2 hour lecture and one 2 hour tutorial
Calendar Description:
Examination of environmental model that use Geographic Information Systems
and/or remote sensing techniques. Modelling of watershed systems, focusing on the energy, water, and
biogeochemical cycles. Prediction of environmental
and/or ecological change on watershed systems.
Course Prequisites:
Third or fourth year status at the University including Geography 201 a/b,
Geography 280a/b and at least one of Geography 208a/b, Geography 213a/b,
Geography 214a/b, or Geography 216a/b, or equivalent.
Course
Objectives:
Geomorphometry, the quantitative analysis of the morphology of
landscapes, has the goal of linking pattern to process to develop
generalizations about environmental processes within landscapes. Recent advances in technology, including geographic
information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), and ground,
airborne, and satellite terrain mapping have provided opportunities to
numerically represent the morphology of landscapes. The course (1) integrates
data acquisition with data analysis, data interpretation, and data
visualization to quantify morphometric
characteristics and then (2) relates these characteristics to environmental
and/or ecological processes that are active within a landscape. No single
textbook is appropriate for this course – lectures are based on chapters
from several textbooks and from scientific papers. Students are provided the theory of digital
terrain analysis in the lectures, and through structured laboratory tutorials
and assignments are provided a “hands-on” opportunity to apply the
theory to specific landscapes. Once the
necessary “skills” are developed in the first part of the course,
students are provided a project where they serve as a “client”
involving members of the community.
Course Timetable:
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DATE |
LECTURES (Monday) |
LABORATORIES (Tuesday) |
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Part 1: Skills Lecture 3 Digital Terrain Analysis (DTA) Lecture 4 DTA and Hydro-Geomorpho-Ecology Lecture 4 |
Laboratory 1 |
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Part 2: Projects |
Independent Projects |
Course Evaluation:
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10% |
Exercise 1 |
Tuesday October 5 Answer Key |
Exercises must be submitted to the Instructor at the
beginning of the laboratory (i.e., Tuesday,
Projects must be submitted to the Instructor or to her
mailbox by
The exam will include a combination of definitions, short-answer and long-answer
questions. Short-answer questions will focus on explanations of concepts, while
long-answer questions will focus on major theories. The exam will be based mainly
on the lecture and assigned readings; however, some questions will draw on
material from the laboratories.
Course Policy:
Exercises must be submitted to the instructor at the beginning of the laboratory (i.e., Tuesday, 11:00 AM) two weeks after they are assigned.
Projects must be submitted to the Instructor or to her mailbox by 4 pm on Friday December 10th. To facilitate the prompt return of
the assignments (usually within a week), the exercises must be submitted on the due date. A penalty of 10% per day (including weekends) will
be deducted from the assigned grade for late submissions. Once the assignments are graded and returned, a grade of 0 will be assigned.
Each
student MUST bring a course dedicated ZIP disk or USB memory key to each of the course tutorials,
starting September 21!
Required
Lecture 1
THEORY: Hengl, T., Bruber, S. and Shrestha, D.P., 2003. Digital Terrain Analysis in ILWIS. Lecture notes, International Institute for Geo-Information Science & Earth observation (ITC), Enschede, Netherlands, pp. 56
Acquisition of Elevation Data: GPS PRIMER
Acquisition of Elevation Data: LIDAR PRIMER
Acquisition of Elevation Data: RADAR PRIMER
Lecture 2
Quinn, P, Beven, K, Chevallier, P, Planchon, O. 1991. The prediction of hillslope flwo paths for distributed hydrological modeling using Digital Terrain Models. Hydrological Processes 5(1): 59-79.
Tarboton, DG. 1997. A new method for the determination of flow directions and upslope areas in grid digital elevation models: WRR, 33(2): 309-319
Garbrecht, J and Martz, LW. 1997. The assignment of drainage direction over flat surfaces in raster digital elevation models. Journal of Hydrology, 193(1-4): 204-213.
Lindsay, JB and Creed, IF (in press). Removal of artifact depressions from digital elevation models: Towards a minimum impact approach
Lindsay, JB and Creed, IF (submitted). Distinguishing Actual and Artefact Depressions in Digital Elevation Data: Approaches and Issues.
Project
How to write a report II
How to give a presentation
Spatial Statistics Presentation
Final