Thursday, January 8, 2015

Upcoming: UNIGIS online u_Lecture January 27th: A Joint presentation of MSc research by Heidi El-Hosaini and Emma Lewison, UNIGIS uk

The seminar comprises two short presentations by recent MSc graduates of the UNIGIS programme in the UK. 
Join us for this webinar on Jan 27, 2015 at 5:00 PM GMT. Register now! 


Heidi El-Hosaini, Freelance GIS Consultant
Locating and positioning solar panels in a 3D city model - a case study of Newcastle, UK

The recent advent of high quality, realistic 3D city models is creating new possibilities for 3D visualisations and analyses to be realised. These models present considerable potential to support urban planning processes and their range of applications is rapidly expanding. The analysis of solar irradiance and photovoltaic (PV) potential at an urban level is one field that can greatly benefit from their use. This project demonstrates potential applications of a 3D city model of Newcastle (UK) for solar panel locating and positioning. A 3D geometric validation program is created to validate the city model’s surfaces according to a defined set of axioms. A 3D photovoltaic (PV) assessment tool is developed that can be used for multi-criteria analyses to locate suitable surfaces for PV installations. This accounts for the 3D surface area, slope and aspect of surfaces, as well as monthly and annual clear-sky solar irradiance estimates and respective monthly and annual PV estimates.

Emma Lewison, GIS and Data Manager at the Forestry Commission
Analysing British wildlife distributions using a mobile GIS app for data capture


The effect of climate change and increasing human populations on ecosystems is an ongoing area of study. With Smartphone ownership globally on the increase, an Android Smartphone app was developed which enables users to collect wildlife sightings data whilst on the move. The whole development process was completed using free and open source programmes. The app allowed species, counts and user confidence data to be collected whilst automatically creating the GPS data of the sighting location. The captured data was then analysed within GIS. This Smartphone app was then qualitatively compared to more traditional wildlife data capture techniques.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.