VGC 2023 - Unveiling the dynamic Earth with digital methods: 5th Virtual Geoscience Conference: Book of Abstracts

Conference proceedings of the 5th Virtual Geoscience Conference, 21-22 September 2023, held in Dresden. The VGC is a multidisciplinary forum for researchers in geoscience, geomatics and related disciplines to share their latest developments and applications.:Short Courses 9 Workshops Stream 1 10 Workshop Stream 2 11 Workshop Stream 3 12 Session 1 – Point Cloud Processing: Workflows, Geometry & Semantics 14 Session 2 – Visualisation, communication & Teaching 27 Session 3 – Applying Machine Learning in Geosciences 36 Session 4 – Digital Outcrop Characterisation & Analysis 49 Session 5 – Airborne & Remote Mapping 58 Session 6 – Recent Developments in Geomorphic Process and Hazard Monitoring 69 Session 7 – Applications in Hydrology & Ecology 82 Poster Contributions 9

Ethics and Civil Drones: European Policies and Proposals for the Industry

This open access book disseminates some of the results of the European H2020 AiRT Project (Technology transfer of RPAs for the creative industry). In particular, it presents findings related to mitigating safety and security concerns when civil drones are piloted by the service sector (mainly, the creative industry). European policies regarding drones generally focus on outdoor drones, but they are also used indoors. Moreover, a number of European countries have fragmented regulations on drone use, and as a result, European institutions are attempting address these issues. This work is based on a detailed study of the European policies, a comparative analysis of the regulation in various European countries, an analysis of the drone sector in Europe, and primary data from members of the creative industry. The authors created focus groups in Spain, the UK and Belgium in order to discuss with the creative industry the concerns on safety and security when using civil drones for their work. Based on these results, the book offers advice to the European industry, as well as new insights for academics and policymakers

Ethics and Civil Drones: European Policies and Proposals for the Industry

Codes of conduct; European policies; Civil drones; Safety and security; Creative industr

Miehittämättömien ilma-alusten soveltuvuus kunnallisen ympäristövalvonnan työkaluksi

Kuntien ympäristöviranomaiset ovat velvoitettuja suorittamaan ympäristövalvontaa. Miehittämättömät ilma-alukset (droonit) voivat helpottaa ympäristövalvontaa mutta niiden soveltuvuutta kunnallisen ympäristövalvonnan työkaluksi ei ole tutkittu. Tässä työssä tarkasteltiin, miten kunnat ovat käyttäneet drooneja, ja testattiin droonien soveltuvuutta ympäristövalvontaan ja tarkastustyöhön roskittumisen seurantaa esimerkkinä käyttäen. Tutkimuksen ensimmäisessä osassa Suomen kuntien ympäristöviranomaisille, Ruotsin kunnille ja Eurocities WG Waste -ryhmään kuuluville kunnille (n = 512) lähetettiin kysely, jossa kysyttiin droonien käyttösovelluksia, käytön tiheyttä, onnistumisastetta, epäonnistumisten syitä ja tulevaisuuden suunnitelmia. Kyselyn tulokset analysoitiin kuvailevan tilastoanalyysin avulla. Tutkimuksen toisessa osassa droonia käytettiin roskamonitorointitutkimuksessa neljässä kohteessa Helsingissä. Otetuista droonikuvista laskettiin visuaalisen havainnoinnin avulla roskat kategorioittain ja lehdet. Droonikuvahavainnoinnin tarkkuutta arvioitiin vertaamalla havaittujen roskien lukumäärää maastossa tehtyyn roskien laskentaan. Yhdessä kohteessa droonikuvahavainnointia teki myös kontrolliryhmä. Sen tarkoitus oli mitata tulosten vääristymää, joka syntyy, kun sama yksilö suorittaa sekä maastotutkimukset että laskennat kuvista. Tulosten tilastolliseen analysointiin käytettiin Wilcoxonin merkittyjen sijalukujen testiä ja Cronbachin α -reliabiliteettitestiä. Kyselyn osallistumisprosentti oli alhainen, 3,7 % (n = 19). Käytettyjen sovellusten kirjo oli laaja ja painottui sovelluksiin, joissa droonia oletettavasti ohjataan manuaalisesti. Käyttö oli erittäin onnistunutta. Tärkeimmät epäonnistumisen syyt olivat säätekijät sekä tietotaidon puute. Droonit olivat osa valtaosan tulevaisuudensuunnitelmia. Roskamonitorointitutkimuksessa suoritettujen droonikuvahavainnointien tarkkuus maastotutkimukseen verrattuna oli 90,5 % vain roskat ja 87,5 % myös lehdet huomioiden, eivätkä droonikuvahavainnoinnit ja maastotutkimukset erinneet toisistaan tilastollisella merkitsevyydellä. Etenkin lehdet osoittautuivat haastaviksi havaita kuvista. Kontrolliryhmän havainnointitarkkuus verrattuna maastotutkimukseen oli 67,9 % vain roskat ja 49,0 % myös lehdet huomioiden, jolloin kontrolliryhmän ja maastotutkimuksen tulokset erosivat tilastollisella merkitsevyydellä (p = 0,028). Kontrolliryhmän sisäinen reliabiliteetti oli suhteellisen korkea, α = 0,776 ilman lehtiä ja α = 0,805 lehtien kanssa. Tulosten perusteella droonit ovat tarpeeksi tarkkoja ja sovelluksiltaan monipuolisia sopiakseen kunnallisten ympäristöviranomaisten valvonta- ja tarkastustyökaluiksi. Drooneilla on kyky täydentää maastokäyntien havaintoja tai tietyin edellytyksin jopa korvata ne itsenäisenä havainnointimetodina. Sovellusten ja havainnonititapojen kehitystyölle sekä jatkotutkimukselle droonien käytöstä kunnissa on lisätarvetta.Municipal environmental authorities are required to conduct environmental monitoring. Unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, may be helpful in environmental monitoring but their applicability as a tool for municipal environmental monitoring has not been studied. In this thesis it was studied, how municipalities have been utilizing UAVs. Additionally, UAVs applicability for environmental monitoring and inspection work was tested using a litter monitoring experiment as an example. In the first part of the study, a questionnaire was sent to municipal environmental authorities in Finland, to municipalities in Sweden and to those participating in Eurocities WG Waste group (n = 512), covering the used applications, their utilization frequencies and successfulness, reasons for failures and future plans. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. In the second part of the study, a UAV was utilized in a litter monitoring experiment on four sites in Helsinki. Litter by category and leaves were counted based on visual observations from UAV imagery. The accuracy of UAV imagery detection was assessed by comparing its and ground assessment (GA) results. On one site, a control group also carried out UAV imagery detections in order to assess the magnitude of bias or offset occurring when both the GA and the litter detection from UAV imagery are conducted by a single individual. The Wilcoxon signed rank and Cronbach’s α reliability tests were used for statistical analysis of the results. Response rate of the questionnaire was low, 3.7% (n = 19). The pool of used applications was extensive and covered a variety of monitoring and inspecting targets with emphasis on the presumably manually piloted applications. Utilization was very successful. The most important reasons for failures were poor weather followed by lack of information and expertise. UAVs were included in the future plans of most participants for municipal environmental monitoring purposes. The UAV imagery detection accuracies of litter and leaves compared to the GA results were high, 90.5% for litter and 87.5% for litter and leaves, and no statistically significant differences existed between the assessment results. Especially leaves proved challenging to detect from UAV imagery. The control group’s detection accuracies were 67.9% without and 49.0% with leaves, and with leaves the results differed with statistical significance (p = 0.028). The internal reliability of the control group was relatively high, α = 0.776 without and α = 0.805 with leaves. UAVs are deemed sufficiently accurate and versatile as monitoring and inspecting tools for municipal environmental authorities. They have the capability to complement ground assessments or, with certain prerequisites, even function as an independent monitoring method. Further application and detection method development and research on municipal UAV utilization are needed

Mapping Crisis

The digital age has thrown questions of representation, participation and humanitarianism back to the fore, as machine learning, algorithms and big data centres take over the process of mapping the subjugated and subaltern. Since the rise of Google Earth in 2005, there has been an explosion in the use of mapping tools to quantify and assess the needs of those in crisis, including those affected by climate change and the wider neo-liberal agenda. Yet, while there has been a huge upsurge in the data produced around these issues, the representation of people remains questionable. Some have argued that representation has diminished in humanitarian crises as people are increasingly reduced to data points. In turn, this data has become ever more difficult to analyse without vast computing power, leading to a dependency on the old colonial powers to refine the data collected from people in crisis, before selling it back to them. This book brings together critical perspectives on the role that mapping people, knowledges and data now plays in humanitarian work, both in cartographic terms and through data visualisations, and questions whether, as we map crises, it is the map itself that is in crisis

Mapping Crisis: Participation, Datafication, and Humanitarianism in the Age of Digital Mapping

This book brings together critical perspectives on the role that mapping people, knowledges and data now plays in humanitarian work, both in cartographic terms and through data visualisations. Since the rise of Google Earth in 2005, there has been an explosion in the use of mapping tools to quantify and assess the needs of the poor, including those affected by climate change and the wider neo-liberal agenda. Yet, while there has been a huge upsurge in the data produced around these issues, the representation of people remains questionable. Some have argued that representation has diminished in humanitarian crises as people are increasingly reduced to data points. In turn, this data becomes ever more difficult to analyse without vast computing power, leading to a dependency on the old colonial powers to refine the data of the poor, before selling it back to them. These issues are not entirely new, and questions around representation, participation and humanitarianism can be traced back beyond the speeches of Truman, but the digital age throws these issues back to the fore, as machine learning, algorithms and big data centres take over the process of mapping the subjugated and subaltern. This book questions whether, as we map crises, it is the map itself that is in crisis

Technoethics and Human Rights: The Metaethical Implications of Crisismapping and the Right to Privacy in Post-Disaster, Post-Conflict Scenarios

Do invasive digital approaches to disaster response come at too high of a cost to privacy, such that we should seek alternative methods or regulations? This paper examines the tension between the right to privacy and crisismapping, a new technological advancement in emergency response. After mapping the critical international institutions and stakeholders, the paper grounds interests to effective triage and to digital privacy in international human rights law. A thought experiment is offered to show our conflicting intuitions when privacy is weighed against critical safety interests, and multiple procedures are evaluated as means to reconcile these interests and determine the extent of the right to privacy. Ultimately, the paper calls for an expanded inquiry by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, who has the power to engage multiple stakeholders for a fair and inclusive new approach. Privacy costs are too fundamental for emergency response to proceed without proper scrutiny

The Politics of Coalition Burden-Sharing: The Case of the War in Afghanistan

Why do states join military coalitions? After joining wartime coalitions, why do states contribute differently to support the coalitions? What influences the decision process and the burden-sharing outcome of coalition countries? This dissertation investigates these questions by reviewing the contributions of Britain, Germany, and Pakistan to the U.S.-led War in Afghanistan from October 2001 to December 2010. Conventional wisdom focuses on neo-realist and strategic culture theories to analyze a country's coalition behavior. The neo-realist theory of international relations suggests a systemic level explanation, and argues that the distribution of power in the international system determines the coalition behavior of states. Strategic culture theorists reject systemic level explanations, and argue that neo-realism cannot explain why states, under the same international system, behave differently. They embrace a domestic level analysis, which emphasizes national strategic decision makers, their belief systems, and the organizational culture of the military—in short a 'national style' of coalition behavior. This study demonstrates that both neo-realism and strategic culture fail to offer sufficient explanations for analyzing and predicting the coalition behavior of states. Taking a middle ground, it proposes a neo-classical realist model of coalition burden-sharing. It argues that international systemic incentives and constraints are channeled through domestic political and culture-induced processes to produce unique burden-sharing behaviors for states. My theoretical model examines the effect of three systemic variables - alliance dependence, balance of threat, and collective action; and three domestic level variables - domestic political regime, public opinion, and military capability - in explaining the politics of coalition burden-sharing. I test the model in the cases of Britain, Germany, and Pakistan. My research provides empirical support for the integrated burden-sharing model. It shows that among the coalition countries in Afghanistan, Britain pursued a policy of 'punching above the weight.' The British forces in Afghanistan's Helmand province were overstretched, with few troops and few resources. By contrast, the German forces in Kunduz had mostly pursued a risk-averse strategy. This was due to the imposition of national caveats or restricted rules of engagement, which constrained the ability of the German forces to participate in offensive military operations against the Taliban insurgents. Pakistan joined and supported the war in Afghanistan by severing diplomatic relations with the Taliban; and deploying up to 150,000 troops along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Despite providing critical logistical support, and conducting numerous military offensives against Al Qaeda and Taliban militias in its tribal areas, Pakistan was widely labeled as an uncertain partner with conflicted goals. This was due to Pakistan's overt contribution to the war on terrorism, and its covert support for various Afghan-focused insurgent groups. This dissertation concludes with a brief discussion on the theoretical and policy implications of coalition burden-sharing

Space Age Urbanism: A Master Plan for Spaceport America

This project imagines that by the year 2050, thousands of passengers will walk through the terminal gate of Spaceport America in order to board a hyper or supersonic flight. But currently there are no existing commercial flights and accommodations within a 25 mile radius to Spaceport America. Alternatively, this project attempts to provide future developers with the tools needed for space age developments. Thus, this project seeks to serve as a driver for a new type of architecture called space-age urbanism, where the architecture aims to re-establish the American excitement found in the 1960\u27s.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/arch_grad_capstones/1016/thumbnail.jp