@article{SmithRheinwaltBookhagen2019,
  author    = {Smith, Taylor and Rheinwalt, Aljoscha and Bookhagen, Bodo},
  title     = {Determining the optimal grid resolution for topographic analysis on an airborne lidar dataset},
  series = {Earth Surface Dynamics},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {Earth Surface Dynamics},
  publisher = {Copernicus Publ.},
  address   = {G{\"o}ttingen},
  issn      = {2196-6311},
  doi       = {10.5194/esurf-7-475-2019},
  pages     = {475 -- 489},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Digital elevation models (DEMs) are a gridded representation of the surface of the Earth and typically contain uncertainties due to data collection and processing. Slope and aspect estimates on a DEM contain errors and uncertainties inherited from the representation of a continuous surface as a grid (referred to as truncation error; TE) and from any DEM uncertainty. We analyze in detail the impacts of TE and propagated elevation uncertainty (PEU) on slope and aspect. Using synthetic data as a control, we define functions to quantify both TE and PEU for arbitrary grids. We then develop a quality metric which captures the combined impact of both TE and PEU on the calculation of topographic metrics. Our quality metric allows us to examine the spatial patterns of error and uncertainty in topographic metrics and to compare calculations on DEMs of different sizes and accuracies. Using lidar data with point density of ∼10 pts m-2 covering Santa Cruz Island in southern California, we are able to generate DEMs and uncertainty estimates at several grid resolutions. Slope (aspect) errors on the 1 m dataset are on average 0.3∘ (0.9∘) from TE and 5.5∘ (14.5∘) from PEU. We calculate an optimal DEM resolution for our SCI lidar dataset of 4 m that minimizes the error bounds on topographic metric calculations due to the combined influence of TE and PEU for both slope and aspect calculations over the entire SCI. Average slope (aspect) errors from the 4 m DEM are 0.25∘ (0.75∘) from TE and 5∘ (12.5∘) from PEU. While the smallest grid resolution possible from the high-density SCI lidar is not necessarily optimal for calculating topographic metrics, high point-density data are essential for measuring DEM uncertainty across a range of resolutions.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KaiserGrosseBoikeetal.2021,
  author    = {Kaiser, Soraya and Grosse, Guido and Boike, Julia and Langer, Moritz},
  title     = {Monitoring the transformation of Arctic landscapes},
  series = {Remote sensing / Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {Remote sensing / Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)},
  number    = {14},
  publisher = {MDPI},
  address   = {Basel},
  issn      = {2072-4292},
  doi       = {10.3390/rs13142802},
  pages     = {19},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Water bodies are a highly abundant feature of Arctic permafrost ecosystems and strongly influence their hydrology, ecology and biogeochemical cycling. While very high resolution satellite images enable detailed mapping of these water bodies, the increasing availability and abundance of this imagery calls for fast, reliable and automatized monitoring. This technical work presents a largely automated and scalable workflow that removes image noise, detects water bodies, removes potential misclassifications from infrastructural features, derives lake shoreline geometries and retrieves their movement rate and direction on the basis of ortho-ready very high resolution satellite imagery from Arctic permafrost lowlands. We applied this workflow to typical Arctic lake areas on the Alaska North Slope and achieved a successful and fast detection of water bodies. We derived representative values for shoreline movement rates ranging from 0.40-0.56 m yr(-1) for lake sizes of 0.10 ha-23.04 ha. The approach also gives an insight into seasonal water level changes. Based on an extensive quantification of error sources, we discuss how the results of the automated workflow can be further enhanced by incorporating additional information on weather conditions and image metadata and by improving the input database. The workflow is suitable for the seasonal to annual monitoring of lake changes on a sub-meter scale in the study areas in northern Alaska and can readily be scaled for application across larger regions within certain accuracy limitations.},
  language  = {en}
}