News

2nd GATHERS Summer school - Netherlands

17-10-2023

The highly anticipated GATHERS Summer School 2023, hosted by the Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing at Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), has officially concluded. Running from August 28th to September 1st, this event brought together an international cohort of young enthusiasts eager to delve into the realms of geodetic and imaging techniques for Earths surface monitoring and seismic risk assessment.

Building upon the success of the first edition held in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2022, the GATHERS Summer School in Delft, the Netherlands, continued its mission to educate and inspire the next generation of geoscientists. The week-long program combined theoretical and practical knowledge, focusing on three primary Earth observation methods central to the GATHERS project:

● Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR)
● Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)
● Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) seismology

Leading experts from prestigious institutions around the world, including TU Delft, Sapienza University of Rome, Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien), and Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences (UPWr), shared their expertise with the participants. The intensive curriculum covered theoretical foundations and practical applications of these techniques, with a special emphasis on studying surface changes resulting from extensive anthropogenic activities like resource extraction.



As part of the social program, attendees enjoyed a guided tour of the historical center of Delft, which added a cultural dimension to their educational experience. The guide of this unique tour, one of the professors at TU Delft, not only shared historical insights but also intertwined them with geodetic knowledge. Participants learned about local historical figures associated with geodesy, measurements related to determining water levels in reference to sea level, and the pioneering surveys that contributed to the establishment of the European Vertical Reference Frame (EVRF).



Additionally, the program included a visit to SKYGEO, a company specializing in InSAR data processing. SKYGEOs staff provided insights into the practical applications of InSAR, demonstrating how this information is utilized not only in academia but also in various industries.



As an additional component of the summer school, field exercises took place on the test farm in Zegfeld. Participants had the opportunity to see a GNSS reference station integrated with a SAR mirror and, in practice, to apply geodetic measurement techniques such as geometric levelling, ground-based and aerial laser scanning measurements. The culmination of the trip to Zegfeld was a brief visit to the historical centre of Amsterdam.



The school is funded by the GATHERS project, through the European Unions Horizon 2020 TWINNING programme. The participation in the school does not require a fee. The successful accomplishment is granted the trainees 2 ECTS points.

Synopsis of the first edition of the GATHERS Summer school that was held Wroclaw, Poland in 2022 can be viewed here (http://www.gathers.eu/1st-summer-school-retrospect/).

The 3rd GATHERS school edition is planned for February 2024 and will be held in Rome, featuring an advanced level program that expands the topics from the previous editions. Registration is now open (http://www.gathers.eu/trainings-events/registration/).