SILVER SPRING, MD – To understand how technology that provides high-quality topographic data can help urban planners, the Planning Board will host a University of Maryland expert at its 2009 Growing Smarter Speaker Series on Thursday, November 12.
Scientists use Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to visualize landscape patterns and analyze topographic features. Aircraft-mounted LiDAR instruments take high-resolution scans of the landscape, providing high-quality aerial views. Precise data – said to have six-inch accuracy – is collected with lasers that gather 2,000 to 5,000 pulses per second.
Dr. Andrew Miller, associate professor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Systems at University of Maryland-Baltimore County and the founder of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), will discuss how LiDAR can be used as a tool in monitoring and assessing conditions in urban streams.
Miller is the latest of a series of monthly speakers to present before the Board this year. His experience applying the technology to urban stream monitoring will help the Board and its planning staff consider new ways to measure environmental quality.
Miller’s research and teaching interests focus on stream hydrology and geomorphology, floods and their impacts on the landscape, and the effect of urban development on channels, riparian zones, and watershed hydrology. He has been working with applications of LiDAR since 2003.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) uses LiDAR for shoreline monitoring. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a version it says is an ultra-precise measuring tool. EPA scientists led by Dr. Taylor Jarnagin have done extensive work on testing LiDAR applications for analyzing landscape change in Montgomery County’s Clarksburg Special Protection Area, and as part of his presentation Miller will showcase some of that work.
Continuing education credits are pending for AICP members.
Who:
Montgomery County Planning Board
What:
Andrew Miller presenting “LiDAR remote sensing data as a tool for studying streams in urbanizing watersheds”
When:
7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 12
Where:
Park and Planning Headquarters auditorium
8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring