#PANDA3D READING DIGITAL TERRAIN MODEL FULL#

The maple, beech, oak and other trees there take full advantage of the lovely water source the conglomerate provides, so we canвЂ™t even glean the benefits of mapping over sparse and lean xeric oak communities: this is a lush and verdant locale. We donвЂ™t want to do this, of course - this is a cool ecological place because itвЂ™s a cool geological place! It just happens to be a very well vegetated rocky outcrop. Unfortunately, as my geology friends and colleagues like to joke, to map out the conglomerate, we need to вЂњscrape away the pesky green vegetation stuff firstвЂќ. We wanted to map it with a little more fidelity, so we did a flight in August hoping to see and map the rock formations in their glorious detail: Overall orthophoto of Whipps Ledges from August 2019 Digital surface model of the forest over Inset image of Whipps Ledges from August 2019 Inset digital surface model of the forest over ItвЂ™s a favorite NEO climbing location, great habitat, and a beautiful place to explore. One of the conglomerate outcrops in Cleveland Metroparks is Whipps Ledges in Hinckley Reservation. A quick but good overview of the geology of this formation can be found here: A mix of sandstone and proper conglomerate, Sharon is a stone in NEO that provides wonderful plant and animal habitats, and not coincidentally provides a source of coldwater springs, streams, and cool wetland habitats across the region. One of my favorite rock formations in Northeast Ohio is Sharon Conglomerate. More about that in a moment: first letвЂ™s talk a little about the locale: Sharon Conglomerate and Whipps Ledges, Hinckley Reservation Yes, they donвЂ™t work well around vegetation in thickets and forests, and other continuous vegetation covers, but with a few hundred dollar drone, a decent camera, and a bit of field time, you can quickly collect some pretty cool datasets.ДЄs it turns out, sometimes we can collect really great elevation datasets derived from photogrammetry under just the right conditions. It is synoptic, active (and therefore usable day or night), increasingly affordable (but still quite expensive), and works around even thick and tall evergreen vegetation (check out OregonвЂ™s LiDAR specifications as compared with US federal ones, and youвЂ™ll understand that sometimes you have to turn the LiDAR all the way up to 11 to see through vegetation).ДЇor a comparably affordable solution, photogrammetrically derived point clouds and the resultant elevation models like the ones we get from OpenDroneMap are sometimes an acceptable compromise. For a pricey and well-loved solution, LiDAR is the tool of choice. If we want to understand terrain, we have a pricey solution and an inexpensive solution. (Kyle Lanzer/Cleveland Metroparks) LiDAR and photogrammetric point clouds

From the top of Whipps Ledges at Hinckley Reservation on November 16, 2016.

Panda3d reading digital terrain model