Trend Analysis of Las Vegas Land Cover and Temperature Using Remote Sensing

The Las Vegas urban area expanded rapidly during the last two decades. In order to understand the impacts on the environment, it is imperative that the rate and type of urban expansion is determined. Remote sensing is an efficient and effective way to study spatial change in urban areas and Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA) is a valuable technique to retrieve subpixel landcover information from remote sensing images. In this research, urban growth trends in Las Vegas are studied over the 1990 to 2010 period using images from Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP). The SMA model of TM pixels is calibrated using high resolution NAIP classified image. The trends of land cover change are related to the land surface temperature trends derived from TM thermal infrared images. The results show that the rate of change of various land covers followed a linear trend in Las Vegas. The largest increase occurred in residential buildings followed by roads and commercial buildings. Some increase in vegetation cover in the form of tree cover and open spaces (grass) is also seen and there is a gradual decrease in barren land and bladed ground. Trend analysis of temperature shows a reduction over the new development areas with increased vegetation cover especially, in the form of golf courses and parks. This research provides a useful insight about the role of vegetation in ameliorating temperature rise in arid urban areas

Linking Information with Knowledge for Enhanced Learning

Learning in classroom needs continuous engagement and triggering of curiosity. A non-stop delivery of information without context becomes “blah-blah-blah”. There is a need to create a link at every step of the way in learning.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1043/thumbnail.jp

Fostering Student Engagement: Four Strategies

In response to studies demonstrating that poor teaching was the cause of many students leaving math, science, and engineering programs, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) developed the ExCEEd(Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) Teaching Workshop. Several faculty from the UNLV Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Construction have attended the highly intensive five-day workshop. To evaluate the impact on student engagement, four basic instructional strategies from the ExCEEdworkshop, applicable to all fields, were tested and assessed during the Fall 2018 semester: Questioning techniques, physical models, instructor involvement, and group work.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1066/thumbnail.jp

Study of Potential Integrated Management of Water Resources in Las Vegas Valley

Water resource management under short term system perturbations such as storms and longer-term systemic changes caused by climate change such as droughts is a challenge when multiple agencies are involved. To address this challenge this research focuses on water management under changing climate conditions and population growth through understanding the agency water jurisdictions, management strategies, and modes of operation in Las Vegas Valley. A framework for integrated management through sharing data and models is presented that combines drinking water supply, flood control, and waste water treatment. This framework can be adopted to improve coordination among different water management agencies

Visualization Facility at UNLV GIS and Remote Core Lab

Outline About GIS/RS Lab Visualization Facility Research Areas Summar

Microwave backscatter modeling of erg surfaces in the Sahara Desert

The Sahara Desert includes large expanses of sand dunes called ergs. These dunes are formed and constantly reshaped by prevailing winds. Previous study shows that Saharan ergs exhibit significant radar backscatter (σ°) modulation with azimuth angle (f). We use σ° measurements observed at various incidence angles and f from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), the SeaWinds scatterometer, the ERS scatterometer (ESCAT), and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission\u27s Precipitation Radar to model the σ° response from sand dunes. Observations reveal a characteristic relationship between the backscatter modulation and the dune type, i.e., the number and orientation of the dune slopes. Sand dunes are modeled as a composite of tilted rough facets, which are characterized by a probability distribution of tilt with a mean value, and small ripples on the facet surface. The small ripples are modeled as cosinusoidal surface waves that contribute to the return signal at Bragg angles only. Longitudinal and transverse dunes are modeled with rough facets having Gaussian tilt distributions. The model results in a σ° response similar to NSCAT and ESCAT observations over areas of known dune types in the Sahara. The response is high at look angles equal to the mean tilts of the rough facets and is lower elsewhere. This analysis provides a unique insight into scattering by large-scale sand bedforms

Modeling microwave emissions of erg surfaces in the Sahara Desert

Sand seas (ergs) of the Sahara are the most dynamic parts of the desert. Aeolian erosion, transportation, and deposition continue to reshape the surface of the ergs. The large-scale features (dunes) of these bedforms reflect the characteristics of the sand and the long-term wind. Radiometric emissions from the ergs have strong dependence on the surface geometry. We model the erg surface as composed of tilted rough facets. Each facet is characterized by a tilt distribution dependent upon the surface roughness of the facet. The radiometric temperature (T(b)) of ergs is then the weighted sum of the T(b) from all the facets. We use dual-polarization T(b) measurements at 19 and 37 GHz from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager aboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager to analyze the radiometric response of erg surfaces and compare them to the model results. The azimuth angle (φ) modulation of T(b) is caused by the surface geometrical characteristics. It is found that longitudinal and transverse dune fields are differentiable based on their polarization difference (ΔT(b)) φ-modulation, which reflects type and orientation of dune facets. ΔT(b) measurements at 19 and 37 GHz provide consistent results. The magnitude of ΔT(b) at 37 GHz is lower than at 19 GHz due to higher attenuation. The analysis of ΔT(b) over dry sand provides a unique insight into radiometric emission over ergs

Report of Faculty Experiences When Team Teaching in Higher Education

This article continues the project of current authors (Malak & Gambescia, 2023) who learned about the personalities, leadership styles, and pedagogical preferences of higher education instructors that have collaborated on lessons, by expanding the analysis to the experiences of team teaching in the areas of best, worse, and overall experiences in the teaching/learning process. Thirty-five faculty who had team taught in the past completed an online survey responding to 16 questions related to their team-teaching experience, using a Likert Scale rating and several open-ending questions. Respondents found that the most benefit from the experience was in collaborating with the other faculty member as opposed to benefits to the student. Furthermore, in this collaboration faculty found satisfaction in the planning and building of components in the teaching/learning process to provide a quality course versus activities related to students such as building better relationships and activities related to assessing students’ work. External influences and benefits to self that were not related to the other faculty member or student interaction were not evident. Given these results, we believe that a significant characteristic of any faculty member involved in team teaching is knowing how to lead and knowing how to follow

Team Teaching in Higher Education: Personalities, Leadership Styles, and Preferences

Objective: This study aims to find out more about a) certain personality types, leadership styles, and teaching philosophies of those who have participated in team teaching, as well as b) their preferences for team teaching. These preliminary results ought to be helpful to faculty who may be asked to consider team teaching with a colleague(s), and results may help academic administrators assign and match faculty to team teach courses in their program offerings.Background: Given that few faculty have had the opportunity to team teach relative to the numerous courses they offer solo, there is a lack of focus, faculty development opportunities, and research on this subject. This does not, however, diminish the value of this method of delivering courses in higher education. Faculty may explore collaborative teaching in a number of ways, such as inviting a colleague to provide a one-time guest lecture, distributing assignments according to the collaborators' specialized knowledge, or working together on every part of the course.Methods: Using previously developed Myers-Briggs personality type finders and leadership style research tools, the participants' leadership and personality types were identified (Malak et al., 2022). People's experiences with teaching and preferences for leading vs. following were mapped using both qualitative (self-report) and quantitative (survey) approaches.Results: Sixty-three percent of the respondents identified as utilizing either servant leadership or coaching/mentoring. The majority of "E" type personalities like to "Lead," especially in a team-teaching atmosphere, according to this study's findings. The traditional team-teaching method was adopted by 49% of the participants, while 26% used cooperative learning, 11% used integrated learning, 9% used parallel learning, and the remaining 6% used monitoring learning. It is important to highlight that more than 60% of the subjects who had "E" qualities had backgrounds in nursing, public health, health administration, or health care.Conclusions: In summary, the faculty survey data reveal an overall profile of the faculty who have team taught in higher education as an extrovert with a penchant for judging; who prefers to lead rather than follow; uses a coaching/mentoring or servant leadership style; and prefers high level cooperation with a colleague(s) in the full range of teaching/learning activities

Development of visualization facility at the GIS and Remote Sensing Core Lab, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Visualization using advanced computational and graphic equipment has become a standard way of present day research. Availability of low cost and fast processing units, high resolution displays with graphic processing units, and specialized software has brought complex visualization capabilities to an office desktop. Nevertheless, when dealing with large datasets such as, global climate, geospatial, and social data the office desktop falls short and calls for a centralized visualization facility with high end computing and graphics equipment. Visualization Facility at GIS and Remote Sensing Core Lab would be a useful and important addition to the UNLV IT infrastructure. It would provide multiple audio and video facilities for facilitating research, decision support, and collaboration. The video system would consist of a wide screen display capable to 3D and picture in picture visualization; and a tiled display wall. The audio system would consist of microphones and speakers. The backend management system will provide capability to route data from multiple sources to the video and audio systems. The sources would include local sources as well as remote sources from video teleconferencing. UNLV Visualization Facility would provide an integration of visualization tools and expertise to provide researchers, decision makers, and policy makers with turn-key solutions to everyday visualization needs. This facility would be to provide the UNLV researchers ability to visualize concepts and data on a multi-screen/multi-projection system with the option to interactively study behaviors of models, data, and systems