OEMC project use case: Global topographic and hydrological services based on open topographic data
- Creators
- OpenGeoHub Foundation
Description
Currently there are at least 3–4 global elevation products available / generated and maintained by different organizations (for a complete list see OpenTopography.org). Users are currently looking for an ensemble version of a global terrain model (the elevation of terrain / land surface), which can be produced using ICESat-2 and GEDI points with highly precise ground elevation points. Our results for Continental Europe show that machine learning can be used to remove canopy and buildings, although some post-processing is still needed to create hydrologically correct DTMs. We will next build such a system for the whole world (compare with FABDEM) and then also derive some key terrain variables that can be used for various projects.
Stakeholder needs:
- A single consistent and complete ensemble estimate of world topography at the finest publicly available resolution (1 arc second),
- A scalable automation of parameterization that provides the wide user community of environmental research with an up-to-date ensemble DTM product and its parameterization.
Planned implementation
- Generate a one arc-second (30 m) global terrain model,
- Generate DTM land surface, regional, hydrological parameters,
- Publish the result in a peer-review journal and link to the open dataset,
Implementation steps include:
- Form a working group within the International Society for Geomorphometry,
- Data collection of existing DEM data and LiDAR dataset (ICESat-2, GEDI, etc…),
- Model training and prediction to produce Ensemble DTM,
- Compare and benchmark generating various high resolution DTM parameters at global scale,
Recorded talks (ordered chronologically):
- "Accessing Big Vector Data on the Cloud using Arrow Parquet" by Yu-Feng Ho & Johannes Heisig, Open-Geo-Hack 2024;
- "Yu-Feng Ho: Using GRASS, SAGA and Whiteboxtool to map global land relief parameterization" by Yu-Feng Ho, Open Earth Monitor — Global Workshop 2024;