Jonathan Osborn

University of Tasmania · School of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences

Digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) has emerged as a potentially cost-effective alternative to airborne laser scanning (ALS) for forest inventory methods that employ point cloud data. Forest inventory derived from DAP using area-based methods has been shown to achieve accuracy similar to that of ALS data. At the tree level, individual tree detectio...

Typical soil organic carbon (SOC) measurements do not account for the higher SOC concentration adjacent to, inside and under the trunks of large trees, or for the root volume which displaces soil and thereby reduces spatial density of SOC. Any net difference between these two omissions could have a significant impact on carbon accounts for the conv...

Recent advances and commercialisation of unmanned aerial vehicle/red blue green (RGB) camera systems and digital photogrammetric techniques now provide a cheap and flexible alternative to higher-cost airborne platforms for routine monitoring of canopy health in timber plantations. Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry produces very dense three-dimen...

Ontology-driven Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis (O-GEOBIA) contributes to the identification of meaningful objects. In fusing data from multiple sensors, the number of feature variables is increased and object identification becomes a challenging task. We propose a methodological contribution that extends feature variable characterisation. T...

Forest inventory operations have greatly benefitted from remotely sensed data particularly airborne laser scanning (ALS) which has become a popular technology choice for large-area forest inventories. For remote regions, for fragmented estates or for single stand-level inventories ALS may be unsuitable because of the high cost of data acquisition....

Extensive research and operational trials over the past 20 years have led to the operational implementation of airborne laser scanning (ALS)-based forest inventory becoming increasingly common. More recently, digital aerial photography (AP), processed using Structure from Motion Multiview Stereopsis (SfM-MVS) photogrammetry, is emerging as an alter...

Accurate mapping of timber resources in commercial forestry is essential to support planning and management operations of forest growers. Over the last two decades, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems have been successfully deployed for the collection of point-cloud data for accurate modelling of forest attributes that are traditionally obt...

The importance of remote sensing image analysis is ever increasing due to its ability to supply meaningful geographic information that informs local and global problems, such as measuring urban sprawl, mapping vegetation communities, monitoring the impacts of global climate change, and managing natural resources and urban planning. In this process...

There is high uncertainty in the contribution of land-use change to anthropogenic climate change, especially pertaining to below-ground carbon loss resulting from conversion of primary-to-secondary forest. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and coarse roots are concentrated close to tree trunks, a region usually unmeasured during soil carbon sampling. Soil...

In Geographic Object-based Image Analysis (GEOBIA), identification of image objects is normally achieved using rule-based classification techniques supported by appropriate domain knowledge. However, GEOBIA currently lacks a systematic method to formalise the domain knowledge required for image object identification. Ontology provides a representat...

Airborne LiDAR data is now commonly acquired by the Australian plantation sector in order to generate accurate digital terrain models and canopy height models at high spatial resolution for resource assessment estimates. However, these airborne surveys are relatively expensive and there is a desire to identify more affordable options for collecting...

In unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetric surveys, the camera can be pre-calibrated or can be calibrated " on-the-job " using structure-from-motion and a self-calibrating bundle adjustment. This study investigates the impact on mapping accuracy of UAV photogrammetric survey blocks, the bundle adjustment and the 3D reconstruction process unde...

The physical roughness of a surface changes when freshwater biofilms colonize and grow on it and this has significant implications for surfaces enclosing water conveying systems such as pipelines and canals. Plates with surfaces initially artificially roughened with varying grit size were deployed in an open channel system and biofilms were allowed...

The detrimental effect of biofilms on skin friction for near wall flows is well known. The diatom genera Gomphonema and Tabellaria dominated the biofilm mat in the freshwater open channels of the Tarraleah Hydropower Scheme in Tasmania, Australia. A multi-faceted approach was adopted to investigate the drag penalty for biofouled 1.0 m x 0.6 m test...

The three-dimensional morphology and surface area of organisms such as reef-building corals is central to their biology. Consequently, being able to detect and measure this aspect of corals is critical to understanding their interactions with the surrounding environment. This study explores six different methods of three-dimensional shape and surfa...

Schooling behaviour of Antarctic krill was induced repeatedly over a period of one year in the Australian Antarctic Division research aquarium. The details of the laboratory setup suitable for krill to school are described. Light intensity and food condition were found to affect krill swimming patterns and schooling behaviour. Krill swam in polaris...

If universities are to meet federal targets for mass participation in higher education, they must find new strategies for engaging both prospective and current students. Both prospective and current students need to see the relevance of their studies to a future career, and to understand how the knowledge and skills they gain at university will tra...

Recent advances in digital photogrammetry have enabled a new approach to high resolution mapping of tooth surfaces. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy and the precision of a new system using automatic digital stereo-photogrammetry combined with an experimental casting material and to measure tooth surface loss in a non-carious cervica...

Change detection of tooth surface loss in the cervical region of a tooth replica has been performed using a fixed-base stereoscopic camera, consisting of two SLR digital cameras with lenses of fixed focal length. Commercial digital photogrammetric and calibration software was used to perform a convergent multi-station calibration with an artefact c...

Digital photogrammetry provides an opportunity to automate the measurement of tree heights. A sufficiently dense canopy model with tree height data at nearly 100% sampling rates has the potential to improve significantly the reliability of strategic and operational forest inventory. This study investigates the utility of digital photogrammetric tec...

Commercial digital photogrammetric software has been applied to convergent stereoscopic photography of human tooth replicas prepared to exhibit optical texture resulting in successful generation of 3D coordinate data. Tooth replicas were imaged using a semi-metric 35 mm camera and f = 100 m macro lens on extension bellows. Model precision was withi...

Constructing realistic energy budgets for Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, is hampered by the lack of data on the metabolic costs associated with swimming. In this study respiration rates and pleopod beating rates were measured at six current speeds. Pleopod beating rates increased linearly with current speed, reaching a maximum of 6 beats s–1 a...

In 2004, the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology at the University of Tasmania undertook a project to evaluate students' information literacy skills and to get a picture of how and where information literacy is taught in the faculty. This paper outlines how relationship-building between the Science Library and faculty led to the project,...

Graduate destination survey data from the University of Tasmania (UTas 2005a) underscore the reality that a large proportion — at one extreme 79.4% from the Bachelor of Science in 2003 — of students undertaking undergraduate degrees in the sciences do not enter the workforce upon graduation. Science degrees lead to further study at Honours, Masters...

A program is underway at the University of Tasmania investigating ways to control biological growths in hydraulic conduits. The broad aim of this research is to minimise the effects of biological growths to optimize conduit performance and maintenance procedures, and increase the economic return from existing hydraulic infrastructure. This paper pr...

Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, normally live in social aggregations (schools) but rarely aggregate in laboratory tanks. In order to study the effect of stress on solitary living we tethered krill to wooden skewers and measured heart rate both when they were held isolated from conspecifics and when they were held at normal schooling distances (...

Science graduates need to be effective communicators: they need to be able to write concisely and clearly in an appropriate format, and they must be confident at oral presentations. Increasingly employers are seeking evidence of the development of such key generic skills during a degree program. Moreover, there is increasing evidence that improveme...

Movement of the external ear canal, associated with jaw motion, relative to the concha region of the pinna has been studied. Pairs of open-jaw and closed-jaw impressions were taken of 14 ears from 10 subjects. Three-dimensional coordinate data were obtained from the concha and the anterior surface of the canal using a reflex microscope. Proprietary...

When feeding on mysid swarms (Paramesopodopsis rufa), juvenile Australian salmon (Arripis trutta) had higher rates of successful attacks when foraging in a group of six fish (55% total advances) than when foraging alone (39% total advances). Six schooling fish had lower approach rates than solitary fish (25% and 37% of total advances, respectively)...

Using video and image analysis techniques we analysed the response of swarms of the mysid Paramesopodopsis rufa to food and predatory attack. After food was added to the tank, mysid aggregations initially (up to 45 s) increased in volume. Subsequently volume decreased significantly until it was smaller than the initial level. After a period of ~12...

This paper has been prepared at the request of the New Technology Management Standing Committee of the Institution of Surveyors, Australia and reports the results of a recent survey of the research activities of surveying and geomatics departments in Australian universities. Current activity in various research categories is compared using measures...

Some limitations of the existing Australian surveying education system are discussed and a summary of essential improvements is presented.The relevance of the term “surveying” to describe the range of vocations available to university graduates is questioned. The term “geodetic science” is proposed as a generic title for professionals working in ea...

Sponge communities form an important component of marine ecosystems. However, very little is known on the distribution of sponge species, and variations in sponge communities within south eastern Australia. This problem is compounded by inherent difficulties in sponge taxonomy. Previous studies have shown that sponge morphological diversity is a go...

The integration of a high-speed digital video camera with motion analysis software makes possible a wide range of measurement applications, which previously could only be undertaken with considerable difficulty. A system purchased by the Motion Analysis Group at the University of Tasmania has been applied to a range of measurement and monitoring ta...