The history of North Stradbroke Island's wetlands: defining natural climate variability in south-east Queensland and improving ecosystem management. South-east Queensland has among the fastest growing populations in Australia. It has also experienced severe drought lasting more than a decade. These combined pressures have led to the expenditure of more than $9 Billion on water resource development. However, it is not known whether the current drought is part of a natural cycle (or, importantly, ....The history of North Stradbroke Island's wetlands: defining natural climate variability in south-east Queensland and improving ecosystem management. South-east Queensland has among the fastest growing populations in Australia. It has also experienced severe drought lasting more than a decade. These combined pressures have led to the expenditure of more than $9 Billion on water resource development. However, it is not known whether the current drought is part of a natural cycle (or, importantly, if it represents the worst extremes in such a cycle). We will determine whether this is the case and, in doing so, contribute to national and international debates about the role of human-induced vs natural climate change.Read moreRead less
Automated Vector Extraction from Airborne Laser Scan Data. This project considers the problem of automatically extracting and vectorising the outlines of objects from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data. The industry partner, AAM GeoScan, is a leading user of ALS systems in Australia, and has a need to develop automated solutions to this problem. ALS data is typically a dense cloud of 3D point data which represents the local terrain, as well as any trees, buildings or vehicles which may be in t ....Automated Vector Extraction from Airborne Laser Scan Data. This project considers the problem of automatically extracting and vectorising the outlines of objects from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data. The industry partner, AAM GeoScan, is a leading user of ALS systems in Australia, and has a need to develop automated solutions to this problem. ALS data is typically a dense cloud of 3D point data which represents the local terrain, as well as any trees, buildings or vehicles which may be in the field of view. Spatial data is a very important resource, widely used in many types of urban and rural planning operations. Planning software packages require vectorised descriptions of building outlines and other spatial data, however this is not presently available from raw ALS data. The project will investigate this problem and develop new and effective means for producing it automatically from raw ALS data. Expected outcomes include a successful research masters studentship, the development of novel solutions to the problem which are directly applicable to the industry partner's core business, peer reviewed publications, and an strengthened link between the universities and the industry partner.Read moreRead less