Add-On Workshops

This workshop provides an in-depth look at the 2nd Edition of the ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards published in 2024 to categorize positional accuracy of products derived from digital aerial cameras, manned and unmanned aerial systems, and all types of lidar including terrestrial, mobile, and airborne. The workshop will explain the basis for each accuracy measure adopted in the standards and will highlight important features of the six Best Practices Addendums.

Airborne bathymetric lidar is one of the most exciting and rapidly-advancing technologies in the geospatial sector. Its uses range from safety of marine navigation (i.e., hydrographic surveying and nautical charting), to sediment transport modeling, benthic habitat mapping and monitoring, marine ecological assessments, flood inundation modeling, river morphology, coastal engineering, and more. This workshop is designed for geospatial professionals, students, and even those new to the field who are interested in learning more about lidar bathymetry. We will start with a brief history and theory of bathymetric lidar, including terminology, system components, and acquisition principles. We will then cover operational concepts, including mission planning, data processing and workflows, calibration, QA/QC, and accuracy assessment. We will conclude with a view of the future of airborne bathymetric lidar, including emerging trends and anticipated advances over the next decade.

The ASPRS Lidar Division is releasing supplemental requirements and guidelines for lidar data processing and characterization of lidar data products, including quantifying horizontal point density measurement and reporting, best practices for down sampling of lidar point cloud, modernizing the concept of quality levels for lidar elevation data, horizontal accuracy assessment of airborne lidar data, and vegetated ground model confidence to supersede vegetated vertical accuracy. This workshop will present the theoretical basis for these new requirements, and will also demonstrate practical guidelines for implementing, measuring, and reporting.

Lidar is becoming the backbone of the geospatial mapping production methods. Whether onboard a crewed or uncrewed aircraft, Lidar productivity and accuracy surpassed any current methods used to produce terrain data. Participants in the workshop will gain knowledge on current and emerging lidar technologies including lidar, Geiger, and Single Photon lidar; data quality, accuracy and accuracy standards, including ASPRS and USGS Lidar Base Specifications.

The workshop will focus in depth on Addendum VI of the 2024 ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards: Best Practices and Guidelines for Mapping with Oblique Imagery. As oblique imagery continues to gain traction in applications such as urban planning, infrastructure management, and environmental monitoring, practitioners will play a pivotal role implementing an operational framework that ensures consistency, quality, and interoperability. This workshop will provide real world examples of the large oblique imagery projects with with applications of the guidelines and will explore the effects of oblique imagery accuracy on digital twin standards.

This workshop covers the common knowledge areas comprising a large portion of exam content for ASPRS Certification. It is valuable preparation for those who have never taken an ASPRS exam, as well as for those who have expertise in a particular specialty, such as lidar or UAS, but feel less prepared for the general knowledge component of the exam. This workshop will also explain the certification application process and the importance of certification in career development.

This workshop teaches the fundamentals of creating controlled map products and 3D models from UAS-mounted camera systems. Participants will learn to successfully design projects in accordance with ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards, including flight planning, ground control placement, camera calibration, block adjustment, product generation, quality control, and accuracy assessment. These concepts will be taught with a software-agnostic approach that is applicable to any commercially available package. Topics covered in this workshop are representative of those included on the ASPRS Certified Technologist and Certified Mapping Scientist examinations.

The workshop will focus on Addendum II of the 2024 ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards: Best Practices and Guidelines for Field Surveying of Ground Control and Checkpoints. It will address practitioner concerns regarding the collection methodologies for field survey data, as well as in-office processing and quality control. The workshop will provide attendees with detailed explanations for collection, processing, and reporting to ensure that ground control and checkpoints intended for use with aerial survey meet the published requirements, and will also address the current best practices for determining GNSS survey accuracy in compliance with these standards.

This two-hour workshop introduces participants to the fundamentals of hyperspectral imagery and the practical steps required to turn dense spectral measurements into useful information. Through instructor-led demonstrations and guided examples, participants will explore how hyperspectral data are acquired from satellite, airborne, and drone platforms; visualize bands and spectral signatures; apply traditional spectral analysis techniques; and learn about common challenges and best practices.  No advanced GIS or prior hyperspectral experience is required.  This workshop will be a lecture/demo with follow-on exercises in ArcGIS.  Laptops are not required for this workshop

This workshop teaches the fundamentals of creating controlled map products and 3D models from UAS-mounted lidar systems. Participants will learn to successfully design projects in accordance with ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards, including flight planning, ground control placement, lidar system calibration, point cloud processing, product generation, quality control, and accuracy assessment. These concepts will be taught with a software-agnostic approach that is applicable to any commercially available package. Topics covered in this workshop are representative of those included on the ASPRS Certified Technologist and Certified Mapping Scientist examinations.

The workshop will provide an in-depth update on the implementation of NSRS Modernization, including practical approaches for transitioning from legacy reference systems to the new datums. The focus of the workshop will be demonstrating best practices and tools that are being made available by government agencies and commercial vendors to support the modernization effort.

The tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of 3D gaussian splatting (3DGS), and its key differences from traditional point cloud and mesh presentations in geospatial data processing, applications and accuracy considerations. The session features a deep dive into the fundamental differences when processing aerial/drone and Satellite images, followed by practical aspects in data processing pipelines involving both traditional results and 3DGS at the geospatial scale. The tutorial will help participates develop a deeper understanding in this technology and its use in modern geospatial data processing workflow.