Digital spatial acquisition methods are becoming commonplace in many disciplines within the geosciences, as technology drives hardware and software innovations that facilitate the derivation of 3D topographic models. Laser scanning and, more recently, the resurgence of photogrammetry, exemplify this trend. In addition, as new imaging sensors (e.g. multi- and hyperspectral, thermal and ground-based radar) are developed to contribute to specific geoscience problems, the need to integrate and co-visualise different 3D, 2D, spatial and non-spatial datasets becomes important for analysis and communication of results. Digital 3D modelling contributes to quantitative and qualitative analysis, including measurement and characterisation of topographic parameters, interpretation, through to highly visual datasets that can be used for presentation purposes. An ongoing barrier to new users of lidar and photogrammetric models is often the availability of software for interpretation, co-visualisat ion and analysis, allowing these new dataset types to add a fundamental contribution to solving existing geoscience problems.

In this short course, we focus on interpretation, co-visualisation and dissemination of 3D datasets in geoscience applications, based on the novel software LIME. A brief background on the various acquisition techniques and considerations will be discussed, with examples from outcrop geology that include integration with different imaging and geophysical data types. We will work through practical scenarios, and participants are free to use their own laptops to explore a sample 3D dataset during the session. The target audience is expected to be PhD students, early career researchers and others with an interest in making use of digital 3D modelling in their own scientific research.