2025-09-04, 15:30–17:00 (Europe/Amsterdam), Expert Room 3
Lecture on geomorphometry and elevation modelling, alternated by hands-on exercises in Julia on downloading, visualizing and analyzing elevation models.
We discuss (global) elevation modelling, including recent advances, and follow up with a hands-on session in Julia, where we will use Rasters.jl and Geomorphometry.jl to download, analyze and visualize a subset of a global elevation model. These operations include hydrological functions such as flow accumulation methods, and the differences between several common algorithms. The importance of the correct coordinate reference systems and cellsize of a raster will be demonstrated.
Key (geospatial) concepts in Julia will be introduced, including the performance gains made possible with Julia, although prior exposure (can be by watching previous lectures) is expected. An introduction lecture to Julia will be given beforehand.
Maarten Pronk is a researcher at Deltares and an external PhD candidate at the Delft University of Technology. He holds a cum laude MSc in Geomatics and a BSc in Architecture, both from the Delft University of Technology (NL). His research concerns elevation modelling, especially in lowlands prone to coastal flooding. He aims to combine his interests in remote sensing and software engineering for societal impact. He promotes open and reproducible research and is the author of several open-source software packages for handling geospatial data, written in the Julia programming language. His work often involves handling trillions of elevation measurements, requiring a careful selection and design of both spatial storage formats and processing algorithms. Currently, he works on applying data from ICESat-2, a LiDAR satellite, on global elevation models.