GIS/MEA 584:
Mapping and Analysis Using UAS

Course logistics

Course website and Moodle

Lectures

• Focus of lectures is on principles, theory, concepts, methods and lectures are mostly software independent.
• Lecture slides and video are available at each topic's web page - you can access them through Schedule or Moodle
• Topics webpages also include links to addition reading and other resources.

Assignments

• Most topics include hands-on assignment - the links to assignments are provided at each topic's web page - you can access them through Schedule or Moodle
• Following the Schedule, you will submit a brief (2 pages minimum, including images and tables) paper for each topic with the following paragraphs:
  • Introduction: task, problem
  • Methods: general description of methods and concepts
  • Results: present the results, including maps, graphs, tables with comments
  • Discussion: was there anything unexpected or problematic in the results? Were there any issues related to the methdology or software? Include suggestions for improvements here.
  • Conclusion: 1-2 sentences on what you have learned
• Submit your report through Moodle in pdf formatt, use naming convention LastnameFirstname_HW#.pdf.

Software

• GRASS GIS 7.8.5 (you can use these instructions to install it)
• Agisoft Metashape (provided at NCSU) - you can work on the demo version; installation files for Windows, Linux and Mac on Agisoft website Other resources:
  • open source software OpenDroneMap and MicMac (documentation can be found here, not used in this course)
  • LibLAS and LAStools for managing the .las files in GRASS
  • NCSU Virtual Computing Lab (VCL)
    • Go to Reservations - New reservation
    • Choose MS Windows instance ArcGIS Desktop 10.5.1, which has also GRASS GIS 7.2.1, or Linux instance Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Base

  Data

  • General resources
    • North Carolina dataset (formatted as GRASS location)
  • UAS data
  • boundaries of all COAs obtained by NGAT in North Carolina (google maps, shp)
  • Study site (Lake Wheeler): COA boundaries (shp, kml), GCP coordinates (txt, kml), also included in the GRASS location (see processed data)
  • Survey data: down-sampled pictures and log from the flight 06/20/2015
  sample pictures and log from the flight 09/22/2016, all pictures and log (full flight) from the flight 09/22/2016
  • Processed data:
  • Mid Pines dataset (formatted as GRASS location): LakeWheeler_NCspm with timeseries of DSMs from 2015 flights
  • Smaller sample point cloud: 2015_06_sample_points_NCsmp.las
  • Mid Pines point clouds(limited extent)

    Optional (very large files: 1GB+)

  • Mid Pines point clouds from 2015 flights in las, obj and txt formats
  • Point clouds for the gully area at Midpines (high density, from 2015 flights)
  • Lidar data
  • Classified lidar point cloud in LAS format for Mid_Pines
  • Secref and Mid Pines interpolated DEM/DSM (use r.unpack)
  • Orthophotography
  • Orthophotos as GRASS GIS packed rasters, use r.unpack from within the LakeWheeler_NCspm location to import them, run it with -o to override projection (it is just a different EPSG for HARN versus NAD83 datum, the difference is negligible)