In this thesis, we have presented a systematic analysis of the change of cloud properties due to variation in aerosol concentration over Indian region using satellite observations, and Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) simulations. The Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) based Microwave Imager (TMI) estimates (2A12) have been used to compare and contrast the characteristics of cloud liquid water and ice over the Indian land region and the surrounding oceans, during the pre-monsoon (May) and monsoon (June–September) seasons. Based on the spatial homogeneity of rainfall, we have selected five regions for our study (three over ocean, two over land). In general, we find that the mean cloud liquid water and cloud ice content of land and oceanic regions are different, with the ocean regions showing higher amount of CLW. A comparison across the ocean regions suggests that the cloud liquid water over the or graphically influenced Arabian Sea (close to the Indian west coast) behaves differently from the cloud liquid water over a trapped ocean (Bay of Bengal) or an open ocean (Equatorial Indian Ocean). Specifically, the Arabian Sea region shows higher liquid water for a lower range of rainfall, whereas the Bay of Bengal and the Equatorial Indian Ocean show higher liquid water for a higher range of rainfall. Apart from geographic differences, we also documented seasonal differences by comparing cloud liquid water profiles between monsoon and pre-monsoon periods, as well as between early and peak phases of the monsoon. We find that the cloud liquid water during the lean periods of rainfall (May or June) is higher than during the peak and late monsoon season (July-September) for raining clouds over central India. However, this is not true over the ocean. As active and break phases are important signatures of the monsoon progression, we also analyzed the differences in cloud liquid water during various phases of the monsoon, namely, active, break, active-to-break (a2b) and break-to-active (b2a) transition phases. We find that the cloud liquid water content during the b2a transition phase is significantly higher than that during the a2b transition phase over central India. We speculate that this could be attributed to higher amount of aerosol loading over this region during the break phase. We lend credence to this aerosol-liquid water/rain association by comparing the central Indian cloud liquid water with Southeast Asia (where the aerosol loading is significantly smaller) and find that in the latter region, there are no significant differences in cloud liquid water during the different phases of their monsoon. The second part of our study involves evaluating the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) to simulate the observed variation of cloud liquid water and rain efficiency. We have used no chemistry option, and the model was run with constant aerosol concentration. The model simulations (at 4.5 km resolution) are done for the month of June–July 2004 since this period was particularly favorable for the study of an active–break cycle of the monsoon. We first evaluate the sensitivity of the model to different parameterizations (microphysical, boundary layer, land surface) on the simulation of rain over central India and Bay of Bengal. This is done to identify an “optimal” combination of parameterizations which reproduces the best correlation with observed rain over these regions. In this default configuration (control run), where the aerosol concentration is kept constant throughout the simulation period, the model is not able to reproduce the observed variations of cloud liquid water during the different phases of an active-break cycle. To this end, we proceeded to modify the model by developing an aerosol-rain relation, using Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) and TRMM 3B42 data that realistically captures the variation of aerosol with rain. It is worth highlighting here that our goal was to primarily isolate the indirect effect of aerosols in determining the observed changes in cloud liquid water (CLW) during the active-break phases of the Indian monsoon, without getting into the complexity of a full chemistry model such as that incorporated in WRF-Chem. Moreover, the proposed modification (modified run) is necessitated by the lack of realistic emission estimates over the Indian region as well as the presence of inherent biases in monsoon simulation in WRF. The main differences we find between the modified and control simulations is in the mean as well as spatial variability of CLW. We find that the proposed modification (i.e., rate of change of aerosol concentration as a function of rain rate) leads to a realistic variation in the CLW during the active-break cycle of Indian monsoon. Specifically, the peak value of CLW in the b2a (a2b) phase is larger (smaller) in the modified as compared to the control run. These results indicate a stronger change in CLW amount in the upper levels between the two transition phases in the modified scheme as compared to the control simulation. More significantly, we also observe a change in sign at the lower levels of the atmosphere, i.e., from a strong positive difference in the control run to a negative difference in the modified simulation, similar to that observed. Additionally, we investigated the impact of the proposed modification, via CLW changes, on cloud coverage, size of clouds and their spatial variability. We find that the transformation of optically thin clouds to thick clouds during the break phase was associated with larger cloud size in modified compared to the control simulation. Moreover, the higher rate of decay of the spatial variability of CLW with grid resolution, using the modified scheme, suggests that clusters of larger clouds are more in the modified compared to control simulation. Taken together, the interactive aerosol loading proposed in this thesis yields model simulations that better mimic the observed CLW variability between the transition phases.

This thesis is about using airborne laser scanning data for making maps for Orienteering. In this thesis were used altimetry data DMR 4G and DMR 5G. These data are provided by ČUZK. The control measuring was made in choosen area to verify the accuracy. In this thesis is described procedure of data collection and their treatment. The results of this thesis are two illustrations of the orienteering maps.

The aim of the thesis was to evaluate facial dysmorphism in Williams (WBS), Noonan (NS) and DiGeorge syndrome (DGS) patients and also to evaluate changes in the morphology of the face during growth. In total 57 3D facial scans of patients of all ages were analysed, including 12 WBS, 20 NS, 25 DGS and 31 scans of control subjects. The evaluation has been carried out using methods of geometric morphometry, namely by coherent point drift - dense correspondence analysis, superprojection of mean faces, per vertex t-test and principal component analysis. Statistically significant differences in the facial morphology were shown for all the syndromes vs. control. Observed dysmorphies in WBS (narrow forehead, bitemporal narrowing, periorbital fullness, bulbous and anteverted nasal tip, malar flattening, protrusion of both lips, pointed chin) mostly confirmed existing knowledge of the typical phenotype. The morphology in WBS is thus strongly specific and manifested in most of the patients. During ontogeny, the dysmorphic features associated with increased facial convexity become pronounced, while the other typical features remain relatively stable. In contrast to the control, the retrusion of the chin occurs during the development. Observed dysmorphic traits in NS (less prominent supraorbital ridges,...

The last decade has seen great advances within the field of artificial intelligence. One of the most noteworthy areas is that of deep learning, which is nowadays used in everything from self driving cars to automated cancer screening. During the same time, the amount of spatial data encompassing not only two but three dimensions has also grown and whole cities and countries are being scanned. Combining these two technological advances enables the creation of detailed maps with a multitude of applications, civilian as well as military.This thesis aims at combining two data sources covering most of Sweden; laser data from LiDAR scans and surface model from aerial images, with deep learning to create maps of the terrain. The target is to learn a simplified version of orienteering maps as these are created with high precision by experienced map makers, and are a representation of how easy or hard it would be to traverse a given area on foot. The performance on different types of terrain are measured and it is found that open land and larger bodies of water is identified at a high rate, while trails are hard to recognize.It is further researched how the different densities found in the source data affect the performance of the models, and found that some terrain types, trails for instance, benefit from higher density data, Other features of the terrain, like roads and buildings are predicted with higher accuracy by lower density data.Finally, the certainty of the predictions is discussed and visualised by measuring the average entropy of predictions in an area. These visualisations highlight that although the predictions are far from perfect, the models are more certain about their predictions when they are correct than when they are not.

<p>Emerging mobile mapping systems include a wide range of platforms, for instance, manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), terrestrial systems like trucks, tractors, robots, and backpacks, that can carry multiple sensors including LiDAR scanners, cameras, and georeferencing units. Such systems can maneuver in the field to quickly collect high-resolution data, capturing detailed information over an area of interest. With the increased volume and distinct characteristics of the data collected, practical quality control procedures that assess the agreement within/among datasets acquired by various sensors/systems at different times are crucial for accurate, robust interpretation. Moreover, the ability to derive semantic information from acquired data is the key to leveraging the complementary information captured by mobile mapping systems for diverse applications. This dissertation addresses these challenges for different systems (airborne and terrestrial), environments (urban and rural), and applications (agriculture, archaeology, hydraulics/hydrology, and transportation).</p> <p>In this dissertation, quality control procedures that utilize features automatically identified and extracted from acquired data are developed to evaluate the relative accuracy between multiple datasets. The proposed procedures do not rely on manually deployed ground control points or targets and can handle challenging environments such as coastal areas or agricultural fields. Moreover, considering the varying characteristics of acquired data, this dissertation improves several data processing/analysis techniques essential for meeting the needs of various applications. An existing ground filtering algorithm is modified to deal with variation in point density; digital surface model (DSM) smoothing and seamline control techniques are proposed for improving the orthophoto quality in agricultural fields. Finally, this dissertation derives semantic information for diverse applications, including 1) shoreline retreat quantification, 2) automated row/alley detection for plant phenotyping, 3) enhancement of orthophoto quality for tassel/panicle detection, and 4) point cloud semantic segmentation for mapping transportation corridors. The proposed approaches are tested using multiple datasets from UAV and wheel-based mobile mapping systems. Experimental results verify that the proposed approaches can effectively assess the data quality and provide reliable interpretation. This dissertation highlights the potential of modern mobile mapping systems to map challenging environments for a variety of applications.</p>

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Urban planning and management require up-to-date information about urban land cover. Producing such geospatial information is time consuming as it is usually done manually. The classification of such information from satellite imagery is challenging owing to the difficulties associated with distinguishing urban features having similar spectral properties. Therefore, this study evaluates the combination of a digital surface model (DSM) derived from LiDAR data and very high-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite imagery for classifying urban land cover in Cape Town. The value of the DSM was assessed by comparing a land cover product obtained from the GeoEye-1 image to a map produced using both the GeoEye-1 image and the DSM. A systematic segmentation procedure for the two classifications scenarios preceded a supervised (using a support vector machine, K nearest neighbour and classification and regression algorithm tree classifiers) and rule-based classification. The various approaches were evaluated using a combination of methods. When including the DSM in the supervised and rule-based classifications, the overall accuracy and kappa vary between 80% to 83% and 0.74 to 0.77 respectively. When the DSM is excluded, the overall accuracy ranges between 49 to 64% whereas kappa ranges between 0.32 to 0.53 for the two classification approaches. The accuracies obtained are always about 20% higher when the DSM is included. The normalised DSM (nDSM) enabled accurate discrimination of elevated (e.g. buildings) and non-elevated (e.g. paved surfaces) urban features having similar spectral characteristics. The nDSM of at least one-metre resolution and one metre vertical accuracy influenced the accuracy of the results by correctly differentiating elevated from non-elevated. The rule-based approach was more effective than the supervised classification, particularly for extracting water bodies (dams and swimming pools) and bridges. Consequently, a rule-based approach using very high spatial resolution (EHSR) satellite imagery and a LiDAR-derived DSM is recommended for mapping urban land cover. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Stedelike beplanning- en bestuur vereis dat inligting oor grondbedekking (land cover) op datum moet wees. Die vervaardiging van hierdie georuimtelike inligting is tydrowend omdat dit gewoonlik met die hand gedoen word. Die onttrekking van sulke inligting vanuit satellietbeelde bied ʼn groot uitdaging omdat stedelike voorwerpe met soortgelyke spektrale eienskappe moeilik is om van mekaar te onderskei. Hierdie studie evalueer die kombinasie van ʼn digitale oppervlak model (DOM) afkomstig van LiDAR-data en ʼn baie hoë resolusie GeoEye-1-satellietbeeld om stedelike grondbedekking in Kaapstad te klassifiseer. Die waarde van die DOM word bepaal deur ʼn grondbesettingsproduk wat vanuit ʼn GeoEye-1-beeld verkry is te vergelyk met ʼn grondbesettingsproduk wat verkry is deur beide die GeoEye-1-beeld en die DOM te gebruik. Sistematiese segmentasie word op die twee benaderings uitgeoefen en dit word gevolg deur ʼn gekontroleerde klassifikasie (steunvektormasjiene, k-naaste aangrensende waarde en klassifikasie en regressie algoritme) en ʼn reël-gebaseerde algoritme. Hierdie verskeie benaderings is geëvalueer met behulp van ʼn kombinasie van kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe metodes. Toe die DOM in die gekontroleerde en reël-gebaseerde klassifikasie ingesluit is, het die algehele akkuraatheid en kappa tussen 80% en 83%, en 74% en 77% gewissel. Toe die DOM uitgesluit is, het die algehele akkuraatheid en kappa tussen 49% en 64%, en 32% en 53% vir die twee klassifikasiebenaderings gewissel. Die behaalde akkurraatheidswaardes is altyd 20% hoër as die DOM ingesluit word. Dit is hoofsaaklik omdat die DOM akkurate onderskeiding tussen hoë (bv. geboue) en plat (bv. geplaveide oppervlaktes) stedelike bakens met gelyksoortige spektrale eienskappe in staat stel. Die kwaliteit van die DOM beïnvloed die akkuraatheid van die resultate. ʼn DOM van ten minste een meter resolusie, met een meter of beter vertikale akkuraatheid, word benodig om te verseker dat geboue en ander beboude bakens korrek van mekaar onderskei kan word. Die reël-gebaseerde benadering was meer effektief as die gekontroleerde klassifikasie, veral om waterliggame (damme en swembaddens) en brûe te identifiseer. Gevolglik word ʼn reël-gebaseerde benadering met die hoë resolusie satellietbeelde en ʼn LiDAR-afgeleide DOM aanbeveel om stedelike grondbesetting te karteer.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A identificação de danos estruturais é uma questão de fundamental importância na engenharia, visto que uma estrutura está sujeita a processos de deterioração e a ocorrência de danos durante a sua vida útil. A presença de danos compromete o desempenho e a integridade estrutural, podendo colocar vidas humanas em risco e resultam em perdas econômicas consideráveis. Técnicas de identificação de danos estruturais e monitoramento de estruturas fundamentadas no ajuste de um Modelo de Elementos Finitos (MEF) são constantes na literatura especializada. No entanto, a obtenção de um problema geralmente mal posto e o elevado custo computacional, inerente a essas técnicas, limitam ou até mesmo inviabilizam a sua aplicabilidade em estruturas que demandam um modelo de ordem elevada. Para contornar essas dificuldades, na formulação do problema de identificação de danos, pode-se utilizar o Modelo de Superfície de Reposta (MSR) em substituição a um MEF da estrutura. No presente trabalho, a identificação de danos estruturais considera o ajuste de um MSR da estrutura, objetivando-se a minimização de uma função de erro definida a partir das frequências naturais experimentais e das correspondentes frequências previstas pelo MSR. Estuda-se o problema de identificação de danos estruturais em uma viga de Euler-Bernoulli simplesmente apoiada, considerando as frequências naturais na formulação do problema inverso. O comportamento de uma viga de Euler-Bernoulli simplesmente apoiada na presença de danos é analisado, com intuito de se verificar as regiões onde a identificação dos mesmos pode apresentar maior dificuldade. No processo de identificação de danos, do presente trabalho, são avaliados os tipos de superfícies de resposta, após uma escolha apropriada do tipo de superfície de resposta a ser utilizado, determina-se a superfície de resposta considerando os dados experimentais selecionados a partir do projeto ótimo de experimentos. A utilização do método Evolução Diferencial (ED) no problema inverso de identificação de danos é considerado inerente aos resultados numéricos obtidos, a estratégia adotada mostrou-se capaz de localizar e quantificar os danos com elevada acurácia, mostrando a potencialidade do modelo de identificação de danos proposto. / The identification of structural damage is an issue of fundamental importance in engineering, since a structure is subject to deterioration processes and to the occurrence of damage throughout its useful lifetime. The presence of damage compromises the performance and structural integrity, may put human lives at risk and may result in considerable economic losses. Damage identification and structural health monitoring techniques built on Finite Element Model (FEM) updating are constant in the specialized literature. However, the problem generally rank deficient and the high computational cost, inherent to these techniques, limit or even render their applicability in structures that require a high order model. To circumvent these difficulties, in the formulation of the damage identification problem, one may use a Response Surface Model (RSM) in place of a FEM of the structure. In the present work, the identification of structural damage considers the update of a RSM of the structure, with the aim at minimizing an error function defined from the experimental natural frequencies and the corresponding natural frequencies prescribed by a RSM. The problem of structural damage identification in a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam is studied, taking into account the natural frequencies in the inverse problem formulation. The behavior of a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam, in the presence of damage, is analyzed, in order to verify the identification of regions where the damage identification may present greater difficulties. In the damage identification process, in the present work, after a suitable choice of the type of the response surface model, the surface model is derived considering the experimental data selected from an optimal design of experiments. The use of the Differential Evolution (DE) method in the inverse problem of damage identification is considered. Considering the numerical results obtained, the strategy adopted proved to be able to locate and quantify the damage with high accuracy, showing the capability of the proposed damage identification model.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A identificação de danos estruturais é uma questão de fundamental importância na engenharia, visto que uma estrutura está sujeita a processos de deterioração e a ocorrência de danos durante a sua vida útil. A presença de danos compromete o desempenho e a integridade estrutural, podendo colocar vidas humanas em risco e resultam em perdas econômicas consideráveis. Técnicas de identificação de danos estruturais e monitoramento de estruturas fundamentadas no ajuste de um Modelo de Elementos Finitos (MEF) são constantes na literatura especializada. No entanto, a obtenção de um problema geralmente mal posto e o elevado custo computacional, inerente a essas técnicas, limitam ou até mesmo inviabilizam a sua aplicabilidade em estruturas que demandam um modelo de ordem elevada. Para contornar essas dificuldades, na formulação do problema de identificação de danos, pode-se utilizar o Modelo de Superfície de Reposta (MSR) em substituição a um MEF da estrutura. No presente trabalho, a identificação de danos estruturais considera o ajuste de um MSR da estrutura, objetivando-se a minimização de uma função de erro definida a partir das frequências naturais experimentais e das correspondentes frequências previstas pelo MSR. Estuda-se o problema de identificação de danos estruturais em uma viga de Euler-Bernoulli simplesmente apoiada, considerando as frequências naturais na formulação do problema inverso. O comportamento de uma viga de Euler-Bernoulli simplesmente apoiada na presença de danos é analisado, com intuito de se verificar as regiões onde a identificação dos mesmos pode apresentar maior dificuldade. No processo de identificação de danos, do presente trabalho, são avaliados os tipos de superfícies de resposta, após uma escolha apropriada do tipo de superfície de resposta a ser utilizado, determina-se a superfície de resposta considerando os dados experimentais selecionados a partir do projeto ótimo de experimentos. A utilização do método Evolução Diferencial (ED) no problema inverso de identificação de danos é considerado inerente aos resultados numéricos obtidos, a estratégia adotada mostrou-se capaz de localizar e quantificar os danos com elevada acurácia, mostrando a potencialidade do modelo de identificação de danos proposto. / The identification of structural damage is an issue of fundamental importance in engineering, since a structure is subject to deterioration processes and to the occurrence of damage throughout its useful lifetime. The presence of damage compromises the performance and structural integrity, may put human lives at risk and may result in considerable economic losses. Damage identification and structural health monitoring techniques built on Finite Element Model (FEM) updating are constant in the specialized literature. However, the problem generally rank deficient and the high computational cost, inherent to these techniques, limit or even render their applicability in structures that require a high order model. To circumvent these difficulties, in the formulation of the damage identification problem, one may use a Response Surface Model (RSM) in place of a FEM of the structure. In the present work, the identification of structural damage considers the update of a RSM of the structure, with the aim at minimizing an error function defined from the experimental natural frequencies and the corresponding natural frequencies prescribed by a RSM. The problem of structural damage identification in a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam is studied, taking into account the natural frequencies in the inverse problem formulation. The behavior of a simply supported Euler-Bernoulli beam, in the presence of damage, is analyzed, in order to verify the identification of regions where the damage identification may present greater difficulties. In the damage identification process, in the present work, after a suitable choice of the type of the response surface model, the surface model is derived considering the experimental data selected from an optimal design of experiments. The use of the Differential Evolution (DE) method in the inverse problem of damage identification is considered. Considering the numerical results obtained, the strategy adopted proved to be able to locate and quantify the damage with high accuracy, showing the capability of the proposed damage identification model.

Afin de définir une conception optimale d’un système électromécanique, celui-ci doit intégrer des contraintes toujours plus drastiques et de nombreux phénomènes physiques issus de : l’électromagnétique, l’aérothermique, l’électronique, la mécanique et l’acoustique. L’originalité de cette thèse est de proposer une modélisation multi-physique pour la conception reposant sur des modèles à constantes localisées : solution intermédiaire entre la modélisation analytique et numérique. Ces différents modèles permettront l’étude et la conception sous contraintes d’une machine synchrone à aimants permanents dédiée pour la traction ferroviaire. Les résultats de simulations seront comparés à des résultats éléments finis mais aussi à des essais expérimentaux. Ce modèle multi-physique est entièrement paramétré afin d’être associé à des outils d’optimisation. On utilisera ici une optimisation par essaim de particules pour chercher des compromis entre différents objectifs sous forme de Front de Pareto. Dans ce papier, nous ciblerons les objectifs suivants : le couple d’origine électromagnétique et le bruit d’origine électromagnétique. Finalement une étude de sensibilité valide la robustesse de la conception retenue quand celle-ci est soumise aux contraintes de fabrication. L’objectif étant de poser les bases d’un outil d’aide à la décision pour le choix d’une machine électrique / In order to perform an optimal design of electromechanical system, the designer must take into account ever more stringent constraints and many physical phenomena from electric, magnetic, aeraulic, thermic, electronic, mechanic and acoustic. The originality of this thesis is to put forward a multi-physic design based on lumped models: halfway between analytical and numerical modeling. These models allow sizing a permanent magnet synchronous machine under constraints for rail traction. The results are validated with finite element simulations and experimental analysis. The multi-physic modeling is fully automated, parameterized, in order to combine the model with the optimization tool. We used here particle swarm optimization to search compromises between several objectives (Pareto Front). In this paper, we focus on electromagnetic torque and electromagnetic noise. Finally a sensitive study validates the robustness of selected design when it is subjected to manufacturing constraints. The aim of this work is to propose a decision tool to size electrical machines