Introduction to GIS and Aerial Imaging in Fieldwork, July 17-25 2019

In 2019, the FROGBEAR cluster "Religion and Technology", supported by the Chung-hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, was hosted at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA), Jinshan, Taiwan. Oliver Streiter (National University of Kaohsiung), Simon Wiles (Stanford CIDR), and Marcus Bingenheimer (Temple University) offered a hands-on workshop in GIS and Aerial Imaging for the study of religion. We built on previous work surveying the religious landscape of north-east Taiwan to show how GIS data, satellite images, and self-produced aerial photography can be used when researching religious sites.

To the right are the slides and other material for the workshop.

Software to download and install before the course (all free & cross-platform):

• Google Earth Pro
• QGIS
• Shotcut
• A text editor to edit XML, CSV etc. (E.g. Geany, Sublime Text, or Atom, but really any text editor that works for you.)

Useful, but not required software:

• Libre Office or any other application that can open .odp slideshows (Open Office, newer versions of MS Powerpoint, KOffice, etc.).
• Play a bit with this drone flight simulator on your phone before you come: Quadcopter FX Simulator. This will get you a first feel for the controls. There are other, better simulators out there, but this one is free and simple.

Hardware:

• Laptop: the more powerful the better.
• Smartphone: Android phones much preferred, for some exercises we need at least one person in the team with an Android phone.
• Hats, sturdy shoes, sunscreen, sunglasses (we are going to look into the sky a lot).

Optional Readings:

• Gianluca Casagrande, András Sik, Gergely Szabó (eds.). 2018. Small Flying Drones: Applications for Geographic Observation (Intelligent discussion of drone flying for geography observation, Lots of pointers to secondary literature)
• Jon White (ed.). 2019. The Drones Book [8 ed.] (Latest illustrated introduction for beginners)
• Chase Guttman. 2017. The Handbook of Drone Photography: A Complete Guide to the New Art of Do-It-Yourself Aerial Photography. (Focus on Photography)
• Kevin Desmond. 2018. Electric Airplanes and Drones: A History (Another gem by the author of the famous "Innovators in Battery Technology")
• Paine-Kiser. 2012. Aerial Photography and Image Interpretation (If you want to geek-out completely)

Marcus Bingenheimer, June 2019.

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	Morning 9:00-12:00	Afternoon 14:00-17:00	Evening 18:30-19:30
Wed 07/17	Arrival
Thu 07/18	Marcus: Introduction	Oliver: Intro to drone flying	Metadata meeting
Fri 07/19	Marcus: Google Earth in the classroom	Oliver & Mingyang: Flying drones	Free
Sat 07/20	Marcus: Intro to QGIS	Oliver & Mingyang: Flying drones	Banquet
Sun 07/21	No Program
Mon 07/22	Oliver & Mingyang: Flying drones	Simon: Video editing with Shotcut	Free
Tue 07/23	Oliver & Mingyang: Flying drones	Simon: Video editing with Shotcut	Video editing & Metadata
Wed 07/24	Teams prepare their presentations	Team Presentations 30-40min/team	Outing to Jiufen 九份