|
 Background
Geomatics is the science and technology of gathering, analyzing, interpreting, distributing, and using
geographic information. It
integrates more specific disciplines and technologies including geodesy, surveying
and mapping, positioning and navigation, photogrammetry and remote sensing, cartography and geographic
information systems (GIS). It is considered as a core technology in the 21st century for spatial decision making,
geocomputation, and location-based services (LBS). It contributes significantly to the
emerging markets and
applications ranging from spatial data infrastructure, digital earth, e-government, mobile commerce, to
emergency management. The worldwide geomatics industry is forecast to grow at 15-20% rate that is
extremely competitive to
other sectors. The
Waterloo Laboratory for GeoSpatial Technology and Remote
Sensing (GeoSTARS Lab) is established to advance the research
and development in photogrammetry, remote
sensing, and GIS and their integration and applications, to contribute to the sustainability
of the
human and
physical environments.
Mission
The mission of the GeoSTARS Lab is to pursue innovative research at the intersection of the broad areas of
photogrammetry, remote sensing, GIS, spatial statistics, and their integration and applications to topographic
mapping, urban sprawl monitoring, intelligent transportation, digital cities and watersheds, emergence
responses, disaster management, moving object tracking, resources inventory, environmental assessment,
energy exploration, and climate change. Our research focus is placed on working with spatial data collected
from digital cameras, laser scanners (LiDAR), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) onboard satellites, aircrafts
including helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and terrestrial platforms to derive spatial and
semantic information.
Research Streams
The GeoSTARS Lab is involved in the following three main research streams:
1. Remote Sensing and Mapping Science
• High-resolution satellite mapping
• Airborne and terrestrial mobile mapping
• Remote sensing of renewable energy potential
• Earth observation for global change
• Remote sensing of inland and coastal waters
2. Geospatial Intelligence
• Knowledge or semantic data mining
• Multi-source and multi-intelligence data fusion
• Automatic feature extraction, target recognition and tracking
• Scene registration, understanding, and change detection
• Modeling and characterization of critical infrastructure
3. Geographical Information Science
• Internet GIS and web mapping
• Geospatial sensor network
• Terrain analysis in hydrogeography
• Integration of GIS with environmental modeling
• Multi-dimensional, large geospatial dataset visualization
Collaborations and partnerships
The mutual beneficial relationship is a key to our R&D success. We are very interested in developing long-term
collaboration and partnerships with other research communities, government and private sectors both
nationally and internationally.
Technology Transfer and Commericalization
GeoSTARS Lab is committed to developing innovative geospatial information technologies. Technology transfer
and commercialization is
part of its R&D strategy and commitment.
|
