Presentation material for the webinar organised by LabMGF at Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Politecnico di Milano on the occasion of Open Data Day 2024. The webinar held on March 5th, was organised in 2 modules. The first one was dedicated to the monitoring activity of the Belvedere glacier (Italy) as part of a research project started in 2015. The main focus is the adoption of geomatics techniques (mostly photogrammetry) for the 3D reconstruction of the surface area of the glacier, tracking in time, through periodic in-situ surveys, its evolution. The obtained 3D and 2D geodata (point clouds, orthophotos and digital surface models) are publicly available as open data on a dedicated Zenodo repository. In the second module of the webinar, two practical sessions are provided with guided tutorial on how to process Belvedere open data with popular open source software like QGIS and CloudCompare.

1. Mapping climate change in 4D:
Belvedere glacier’s open geo data
for education and research
Mon, March 4
LabMGF
The Research Project

2. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
INTRODUCING OUR LAB
The Laboratory of Geodetic and Photogrammetric Measurements is a research
laboratory set up at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
(DICA) at Politecnico di Milano.
Our research focuses on developing geodetic and photogrammetric techniques
for civil and environmental applications.
HELLO! CIAO!
HOLA! SALUT!
HALLO!
HEI!

3. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
INTRODUCING OUR LAB
ACTIVITIES
High-precision static and
kinematic positioning
TOOLS
Monitoring of buildings and
infrastructures, territory and
crustal deformations
3D modelling and mapping
of land, structures and
infrastructures
Testing and proofing of
cartography and
geographical databases
Total
station
Laser
scanner
GPS/GNSS
UAV
RGS/NIR
Cameras
Research &
teachings
Service of
consultancy to
other organization
WORK

4. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
OTHER LabMGF PROJECTS
CULTURAL HERITAGE CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURES MONITORING

5. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
LabMGF WEB PAGE
SCAN
ME !

6. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
OUR TEAM MEMBERS
LabMGF scientific
supervisor Professor Professor Professor Professor Professor Technician
LORENZO
ROSSI
RICCARDO
BARZAGHI
LIVIO
PINTO
MIRKO
REGUZZONI
GIOVANNA
SONA
CARLO DE
GAETANI
VINCENZA
TORNATORE

7. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
OUR TEAM MEMBERS
PhD student PhD student Research fellow PhD student
FEDERICA GASPARI
FRANCESCO IOLI FEDERICO BARBIERI REBECCA FASCIA

8. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
THE BELVEDERE GLACIER
• Located at the east face of Monte Rosa (Italy)
• Debris-covered glacier
• Glacier surface: ∼1.8 km2
• Altitudes: 1800 m a.s.l. -> 2250 m a.s.l.

9. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
WE ARE DOCUMENTING A DYING GLACIER…

10. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
BELVEDERE SUMMER SCHOOL
The main objective
of the Summer
School is to provide
students with practical
experience in the field of
topographic land monitoring in
mountain environments.
2016
2018
2023
1st edition on
September
Moved to July
last edition

11. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
BELVEDERE SUMMER SCHOOL
It is not only about surveying,
But also about fun and friendship!

12. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
THE BELVEDERE MONITORING CAMPAIGN
2015
2023
• Annual in situ-surveys
• GNSS measurements
of targets materialized
on rocks and boulders
• UAV flights over the
whole glacier
• Photogrammetric
processing to derive 3D
model, DSM and
orthophoto
• Volume variations and
surface velocity
GNSS
measurements
Volume estimation Surface velocity
2017
2016
2019
2018
2021
2020
2022
3D reconstruction
UAV flights

13. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
BACK TO THE PAST: HISTORICAL IMAGES
1977
2001
1991
2001
2001 1991
• Historical images acquired by CGR
SpA with analogical metric cameras
mounted onboard planes
• Digitalized with photogrammetric
scanners
• Processed with modern
photogrammetric techniques to
derive dense 3D models
Thanks to CGR SpA for providing us the digitalized images!
2009

14. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
GNSS MEASUREMENTS

15. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
GNSS MEASUREMENTS

16. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
PHOTOGRAMMETRIC 3D RECONSTRUCTION
• 3D point cloud
• DSM
• Orthophoto
• Mesh and textures

17. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
3D POINT CLOUD

18. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
DSM AND ORTHOPHOTO

19. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
2015-2016
[Ioli et al., 2022]
2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020
ANNUAL SURFACE VELOCITY

20. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
ANNUAL VOLUME REDUCTION

21. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Annual ice volume loss
from 2015 to 2023, in
millions of m3
For each year, the ice volume
loss was computed with
respect of the previous year
by DEM of Difference of
rasterized point clouds.
The computations were
carried out in CloudCompare
ANNUAL VOLUME VARIATIONS

22. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
GCPs measurements
DSMs & Orthophotos
Point clouds
work in progress…
SCAN
ME !
zenodo.org/records/10727095
work in progress…
OPEN DATA

23. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
OPEN DATA – REPOSITORY STRUCTURE
Year 1
…
…
Year 2
Metadata
DSM
Orthophoto
Point Cloud
Year N
…
…

24. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
OPEN DATA – METADATA
Metadata are saved in a
json file per each year,
with information about:
• The instrumentation used
for acquiring the data
• Main flight parameters
• Some statistics on the
photogrammetric block
(e.g., CP accuracy)
• Technical information of
each dataset contained in
the zip folder of the
current year (e.g., CRS,
resolution, bounding box)
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
4

25. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
labmgf.dica.polimi.it
/pujob/belvedere/
POTREE WEB PLATFORM
SCAN
ME !

26. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Camera DSLR Canon Eos 2000D
Arduino Microcontroller for camera triggering
Raspberry Pi Zero for sending images to a remote server and for system control
Hand-made by the Kuoleva Jäätikkö group of Alta Scuola Politecnica 2020/21
STEREO CAMERAS FOR SHORT-TERM MONITORING

27. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
STEREO CAMERAS SETUP

28. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
DAILY GLACIER RETREAT (MAY-NOV 2022)
AA’ BB’

29. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
ICE VOLUME LOSS (May – Nov 2022)

30. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
DAILY SURFACE VELOCITIES (May-Nov 2022)
[Dematteis et al., 2022]
DIC by external library
LAMMA (open source)
P1
P2

31. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
SHORT-TERM RELATION WITH AIR TEMPERATURE

32. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
SCAN
ME !
zenodo.org/records/8164639
OPEN DATA

33. Mapping climate change in 4D:
Belvedere glacier’s open geo data
for education and research
Mon, March 4
Mapping climate change in 4D:
Belvedere glacier’s open geo data
for education and research
Mon, March 4
Federica Gaspari
Module II - QGIS

34. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
• About GIS and QGIS
• QGIS and the Belvedere project
• Vector data management
• Raster data management
SUMMARY

35. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
A GIS (Geographic Information System) is a digital
information system that allows the acquisition,
storage, analysis, visualization and exchange of
geographical information in the form of geo-
referenced data.
QGIS is a Free and Open Source GIS. It is constantly updated: every 4
months a new version is released. It has the great advantage for those
working with older versions that it can also handle projects made with
newer versions.
Data exploration
Elaboration and analysis
Data visualisation
Main functionalities
WHAT IS A GIS?

36. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Vector (GCPs measurements) Raster (DSMs & Orthophotos) Point clouds
Internal Database Open Data
QGIS & THE BELVEDERE PROJECT

37. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Map Canvas
Attribute Table
Layers list
Toolbar
QGIS GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE

38. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Right-click on vector layer → Open Attribute Table
VECTOR DATA

39. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Right-click on vector layer → Filter…
1. Define the filter expression based on the attributes
“survey_year” and “is_fixed”
2. Test if the syntax of the expression is correct
3. Click OK to confirm the operation
Filtering 2022 measurements of moving points
1
2
3
VECTOR DATA

40. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Right-click on vector layer → Properties → Labels
Label the 2022 measurement layer
VECTOR DATA

41. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Style the 2022 measurement layer
Right-click on vector layer → Properties → Symbology
VECTOR DATA

42. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Continue with an advanced styling for effective velocity visualization…
VECTOR DATA

43. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Orthophotos
2023
2021 2022
RASTER DATA

44. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Orthophotos
Hiding no data pixels: Right-click on the layer → Properties -> Transparency
1
1. Click “Add values from display”
2. Click on the map canvas and click on an area with
black pixels: this will automatically fill a new row of
the table
3. Apply
Copy the transparency settings
Right click on the layer → Styles → Copy style
Replicate transparency settings
Right click on the layer → Styles → Paste style
2
3
RASTER DATA

45. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Vectorize visible homologous points
Layer > Create Layer > New Shapefile Layer
After creating the layer, activate the editing mode
(1) and then start adding new points (2). Then left-
click on the map in correspondence of the points
you’d like to digitize.
1 2
RASTER DATA

46. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Vectorize visible tie points
Look for rocks visible in all the orthophotos
2023
2021 2022
RASTER DATA

47. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Measure distances of homologous points
Activate snapping tool: View>Toolbar>Check Snapping Toolbar then Click on
the magnet icon
Activate the “Measure line” tool and sequentially right-click on the points
RASTER DATA

48. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Digital Surface Models
2023
2021 2022
RASTER DATA

49. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
DEM
Right-click on the layer → Properties → Symbology
1
1. Select “Singleband pseudocolor”
2. Select the desired interpolation and color ramp
settings
3. Apply
Copy the symbology settings
Right click on the layer → Styles → Copy style
Replicate symbology settings
Right click on the layer → Styles → Paste style
2
3
RASTER DATA

50. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Contour lines
Raster menu→ Extraction → Contour
RASTER DATA

51. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Slope
Raster menu→ Analysis → Slope
RASTER DATA

52. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Hillshade
Raster menu→ Analysis → Hillshade
RASTER DATA

53. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Belvedere Summer
School Teaching
Resources: GIS Module
SCAN
ME !
ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCES

54. Mapping climate change in 4D:
Belvedere glacier’s open geo data
for education and research
Mon, March 4
Module II - CloudCompare
Mapping climate change in 4D:
Belvedere glacier’s open geo data
for education and research
Mon, March 4
Federico Barbieri

55. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
• CloudCompare is a free open-source software.
• It allows to handle 3D point clouds and triangular meshes and to
perform comparisons between two dense 3D point clouds. It also
includes many advanced algorithms that allow (among other things)
resampling, registration, cloud segmentation, and statistic computations.
• The software can be downloaded from https://www.danielgm.net/cc/
• CloudCompare Manual
CLOUDCOMPARE

56. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
1.Menus
2.Main toolbar
3.Scalar fields toolbar
4.Plugins toolbar
5.View toolbar
6.Database tree
7.Properties view
8.Default 3D views
9.Console
6
5
1
7
6
4
3
2
9
8
GRAPHIC USER INTERFACE (GUI)

57. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
POINT CLOUD IMPORT

58. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Cloud or mesh name
Box dimensions and
coordiantes of box
centre
Cloud numerosity
Modify points’
dimensions in the
visualization options
Parameters of the
rotation that can be
applied to a cloud
Allows to choose which
color to display the cloud
with:
1) No color
2) RGB
1)If available, scalar field (es.
intensity, density, elaboration
results)
POINT CLOUD PROPERTIES

59. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Select a cloud
1. Random
2. Space
3. Octree
Space method: indicate
the minimum space to be
mantained between points
Original cloud’s numerosity
POINT CLOUD SUBSAMPLING

60. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Cloud numerosity after
subsampling
The cloud numerosity ↓
to ↑ of the chosen space
POINT CLOUD SUBSAMPLING

61. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Tools → Distances → Cloud/Cloud Dist.
It allows calculation, separately in the 3 coordinates, of the distance between clouds
understood as the distance of each point of a cloud from the nearest point of the
reference cloud.
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DISTANCE

62. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DISTANCE

63. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Active Scalar Field
Color Scalebar activation
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DISTANCE

64. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Scalar Field
histogram
Scalar Field statistics
CLOUD-TO-CLOUD DISTANCE

65. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
It is possible to define the
volume of a single cloud
with respect to a constant
plane or the volume
between two different
clouds using the tool →
Compute 2.5D volume.
Distance Map
Tool → Volume → Compute 2.5D volume
VOLUME COMPUTATION

66. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
Ceil/After
Distance between the
clouds
Ground/Before
The smaller the grid step the better is
the approximation
For good results:
• Macthing cells must be high
(>80%) in case of two clouds
comparison
• Average neighbors per cell must
be as close as possible to 8.0
It is possible to copy the Results
table and export the Relative height
values
VOLUME COMPUTATION

67. Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module I
Mapping climate change in 4D: Belvedere glacier’s open geo data for education and research – Module II
If the clouds or mashes, or products of our processing are very large in terms
of memory, it is recommended to save each element separately
Select all the project components to
be saved
PROJECT SAVING