Triennial Report: 2006-2008

Triennial Report Purpose [Page] 2 The Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence [Page] 4 Three Years in Review [Page] 5 SDSU Faculty [Page] 6-11 EROS Faculty [Page] 12-16 Post-Doctoral Researchers [Page] 17-26 GSE Ph.D. program [Page] 27 Ph.D. Students [Page] 28-39 Center Scholars Program [Page] 40 Masters Students [Page] 41 Geospatial Analysts [Page] 42 Administrative Staff [Page] 43 Center Alumni [Page] 44 Research Funding [Page] 45-46 Ph.D. Student Scholarship Grants [Page] 47 Computing Resources [Page] 48 Looking Forward [Page] 49 Appendix I Faculty publications 2006-2008 [Page] 50-58 Appendix II Cool faculty research and locations [Page] 60-65 Appendix III GIScCE birthplace map [Page] 66 Appendix IV Telephone and email contact information [Page] 67-68 Appendix V How to get to the GIScCE [Page] 6

Remote Sensing Applications in Monitoring of Protected Areas

Protected areas (PAs) have been established worldwide for achieving long-term goals in the conservation of nature with the associated ecosystem services and cultural values. Globally, 15% of the world’s terrestrial lands and inland waters, excluding Antarctica, are designated as PAs. About 4.12% of the global ocean and 10.2% of coastal and marine areas under national jurisdiction are set as marine protected areas (MPAs). Protected lands and waters serve as the fundamental building blocks of virtually all national and international conservation strategies, supported by governments and international institutions. Some of the PAs are the only places that contain undisturbed landscape, seascape and ecosystems on the planet Earth. With intensified impacts from climate and environmental change, PAs have become more important to serve as indicators of ecosystem status and functions. Earth’s remaining wilderness areas are becoming increasingly important buffers against changing conditions. The development of remote sensing platforms and sensors and the improvement in science and technology provide crucial support for the monitoring and management of PAs across the world. In this editorial paper, we reviewed research developments using state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies, discussed the challenges of remote sensing applications in the inventory, monitoring, management and governance of PAs and summarized the highlights of the articles published in this Special Issue

Using New and Long-Term Multi-Scale Remotely Sensed Data to Detect Recurrent Fires and Quantify Their Relationship to Land Cover/Use in Indonesian Peatlands

Indonesia has committed to reducing its greenhouse gases emissions by 29% (potentially up to 41% with international assistance) by 2030. Achieving those targets requires many efforts but, in particular, controlling the fire problem in Indonesia’s peatlands is paramount, since it is unlikely to diminish on its own in the coming decades. This study was conducted in Sumatra and Kalimantan peatlands in Indonesia. Four MODIS-derived products (MCD45A1 collection 5.1, MCD64A1 (collection 5.1 and 6), FireCCI51) were initially assessed to explore long-term fire frequency and land use/cover change relationships. The results indicated the product(s) could only detect half of the fires accurately. A further study was conducted using additional moderate spatial resolution data to compare two years of different severity (2014 and 2015) (Landsat, Sentinel 2, Sentinel 1, VIIRS 375 m). The results showed that MODIS BA products poorly discriminated small fires and failed to detect many burned areas due to persistent interference from clouds and smoke that often worsens as fire seasons progress. Although there are unique fire detection capabilities associated with each sensor (MODIS, VIIRS, Landsat, Sentinel 2, Sentinel 1), no single sensor was ideal for accurate detection of peatland fires under all conditions. Multisensor approaches could advance biomass-burning detection in peatlands, improving the accuracy and comprehensive coverage of burned area maps, thereby enabling better estimation of associated fire emissions. Despite missing many burned areas, MODIS BA (MCD64A1 C6) provides the best available data for evaluating longer term (2001-2018) associations between the frequency of fire occurrence and land use/cover change across large areas. Results showed that Sumatra and Kalimantan have both experienced frequent fires since 2001. Although extensive burning was present across the entire landscape, burning in peatlands was ~5- times more frequent and strongly associated with changes of forest to other land use/cover classes. If fire frequencies since 2001 remain unchanged, remnant peat swamp forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan will likely disappear over the next few decades. The findings reported in this dissertation provide critical insights for Indonesian stakeholders that can help them to minimize impacts of environmental change, manage ecological restoration efforts, and improve fire monitoring systems within Indonesia

An assessment of tropical dryland forest ecosystem biomass and climate change impacts in the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region of Southern Africa

The dryland forests of the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region in Southern Africa are highly susceptible to disturbances from an increase in human population, wildlife pressures and the impacts of climate change. In this environment, reliable forest extent and structure estimates are difficult to obtain because of the size and remoteness of KAZA (519,912 km²). Whilst satellite remote sensing is generally well-suited to monitoring forest characteristics, there remain large uncertainties about its application for assessing changes at a regional scale to quantify forest structure and biomass in dry forest environments. This thesis presents research that combines Synthetic Aperture Radar, multispectral satellite imagery and climatological data with an inventory from a ground survey of woodland in Botswana and Namibia in 2019. The research utilised a multi-method approach including parametric and non-parametric algorithms and change detection models to address the following objectives: (1) To assess the feasibility of using openly accessible remote sensing data to estimate the dryland forest above ground biomass (2) to quantify the detail of vegetation dynamics using extensive archives of time series satellite data; (3) to investigate the relationship between fire, soil moisture, and drought on dryland vegetation as a means of characterising spatiotemporal changes in aridity. The results establish that a combination of radar and multispectral imagery produced the best fit to the ground observations for estimating forest above ground biomass. Modelling of the time-series shows that it is possible to identify abrupt changes, longer-term trends and seasonality in forest dynamics. The time series analysis of fire shows that about 75% of the study area burned at least once within the 17-year monitoring period, with the national parks more frequently affected than other protected areas. The results presented show a significant increase in dryness over the past 2 decades, with arid and semi-arid regions encroaching at the expense of dry sub-humid, particularly in the south of the region, notably between 2011-2019

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio