News

Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Tallgrass Prairie Center Project

Posted Aug. 10, 2021, 3:10 p.m.

From Summer 2019 to Spring 2021, the GeoTREE center, along with the Iowa Low Altitude Remote Sensing Lab (ILARS), worked with the UNI Tallgrass Prairie Center (TPC) in relation to their Prairie on Farms (POC) and Iowa Roadside Management (IRM) programs. The goal of the project was to collect 360° images of restored native prairie sites around eastern and northeastern Iowa. 360° images and videos were also taken in and around the facilities that the Tallgrass Prairie Center works out of. These images and videos were used to build a number of virtual tours and resources to increase awareness on the benefits of natural prairie land and to educate the public on what the Tallgrass Prairie Center does for the state. The images were also published to Google StreetView.

Example 360° image

Google Earth Tour of IRM project sites

Cedar Trails Partnership 360 Image Project

Posted Aug. 10, 2021, 2:54 p.m.

From May 2020 to April 2021, the GeoTREE center used 360° cameras to take pictures of local trails in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area. These pictures were eventually published to Google StreetView and were also utilized in the creation of a number of virtual tours leveraging Google Earth Studio and Google Earth Voyager. The end result of this project was the publication of over 2000 photos of trails to Google StreetView as well as providing to the public some virtual resources to better understand the scope of the trail systems in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area.

Example 360° photo  

Google Earth Studio flyover of Bike trails in Waterloo-Cedar Falls

Madison, WI Impervious Layer Project

Posted Aug. 10, 2021, 2:44 p.m.

In early summer of 2020 the GeoTREE Center was given funding to create an impervious surface database for the Stormwater Section of the City of Madison, Wisconsin Engineering Division. Using aerial imagery provided by the City of Madison, a database was created containing over 200,000 individual features (houses, buildings, roads, parking lots, etc.). These features were either inherited from the City of Madison or digitized from scratch by a GeoTREE worker. The ultimate goal for this project was to provide the City of Madison an accurate and extensive GIS database to conduct stormwater drainage analysis of the city. 

Map of study area

AAG Virtual Conference Presentation

Posted Sept. 1, 2020, 4:24 p.m.

John DeGroote, GeoTREE Center Director, had a poster presented at the April 2020 American Association of Geographer's virtual conference along with co-authors Dr. Bingqing Liang, GeoTREE Center Application Developer Jonathan Voss and GeoTREE student research assistants Isaac Ubben and Pratik Poudel. 
    AAG 2020 Poster

Ice House museum

Posted Sept. 18, 2019, 12:22 p.m.

In summer of 2019 GeoTREE student research assistant Nathan Huffman worked with the Ice House Museum in Cedar Falls to capture 360° imagery and publish that imagery to Google Street View (example) and to build a virtual tour.