Charting the Future of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) in the Earth Sciences and Related Fields

Aug 7, 2011

Community Workshop Announcement:

CHARTING THE FUTURE OF TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING (TLS) IN THE EARTH SCIENCES AND RELATED FIELDS

This workshop will be held at the Millennium Harvest House Hotel in Boulder, Colorado on October 17-19, 2011.

Workshop registration is now open. To register and apply for support please visit: http://www.unavco.org/community/meetings-events/2011/tls/tls.html

Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), a.k.a. terrestrial LiDAR, is part of a suite of new geodetic imaging technologies that are becoming increasingly important to the Earth science and related communities for use in myriad research applications. The overarching goals for this workshop are community oriented and include:

  • Engage TLS users across Earth science subdisciplines and related fields such as engineering, ecology, and anthropology.
  • Seed planning that is inspired by recent innovative science applications.
  • Identify future TLS research directions and the appropriate structures, resources and collaborations to support them.
  • Define user requirements to guide community members, facilities and sponsors in planning and seeking resources to provide research-grade data products as efficiently and effectively as possible.

To advance these goals, the following thematic workshop sessions are planned:

  • TLS science applications.
  • TLS data processing and analysis.
  • TLS data and metadata formats and standards.
  • Best structures and practices for community-oriented facilities providing TLS hardware, software, and data.
  • Comprehensive outlook and plan to support future TLS developments and community requirements.

We particularly seek to draw upon the experience and expertise of researchers who are familiar with the current capabilities and challenges of TLS technologies and methodologies and who are interested in advancing these goals. To help represent a broader target audience and to enrich and diversify the workshop's planning, content and deliverables, the Organizing Committee is recruiting community representatives to serve as additional organizing committee members and/or session chairs.

This workshop is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and organized by UNAVCO. Workshop deliverables are meant to be relevant to TLS users at all levels, from individual investigators to large scale initiatives, and will be particularly useful as strategic aids to help NSF supported facilities such as UNAVCO, INTERFACE, OpenTopography and NCALM best meet the needs of the research community now and in the future.

The registration deadline is September 2, 2011.

On behalf of the workshop Organizing Committee, thank you for your interest and we hope to see you in Boulder in October!

David Phillips

WORKSHOP ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

David Phillips, UNAVCO
John Oldow, University of Texas at Dallas
Doug Walker, University of Kansas
Ramon Arrowsmith, Arizona State University
Chuck Meertens, UNAVCO

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David A. Phillips, Ph.D.
Geodetic Imaging Project Manager
UNAVCO
6350 Nautilus Drive, Boulder, CO 80301
Tel: 303-381-7471, Fax: 303-381-7451
phillips@unavco.org
www.unavco.org