As part of the practical field training and the small research group “Erg Chebbi”, 16 students will explore physical geography and 3D GIScience in an impressive aeolian sand dune environment in Morocco from 5 October to 15 October. The Erg Chebbi is one of the smallest Ergs in the Sahara and is situated within the large sedimentary Tafilalt basin in southeast Morocco.
The field training is also embedded in a PhD project which investigates the dynamic evolution of aeolian star dunes in the Erg Chebbi using a multi-sensor approach: With the help of terrestrial LiDAR, remote sensing, sediment analysis, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground penetrating radar (GPR), the students will capture multi-source datasets for the analysis of surface and subsurface characteristics of star dunes.
Prof. Olaf Bubenzer, Prof. Bernhard Höfle, Dipl.-Geogr. Manuel Herzog and Katharina Anders M.Sc. will supervise the field training and, thus, combine physical geography and 3D geospatial data processing.
Part of the group together with the measurement equipment have already arrived in Morocco by car and ship and are now waiting for the rest of the group to arrive on Friday.
We will keep you updated about the field trip with further posts – stay tuned!