Current Research Funding:
Land Cover Mapping of Greater and Lesser Antilles Islands
Currently I am involved in a collaborative
effort with researchers from Johnson Space Center, University of South Florida,
and Goddard Space Center to establish the first mosaicked classification of
a reef community-type map with a land cover map of coastal areas.
In this effort we are using Landsat 7 imagery as well as some higher
resolution IKONOS imagery. I am the coastal land cover mapping part of
this effort. The purpose in completing
a product such as this is to give scientists, researchers, policy makers,
and government agencies a base map which can provide information accurately
describing where certain reef community-types are in relation to certain land
cover types. The importance in associating
such information is, for example, if a certain area is steep, has a loose
soil type, is classified as agriculture, and coral reef communities are located
near the shoreline which accommodates this agriculture. It is important to draw attention to such places
because any sort of reef health degradation could be associated with bad agricultural
practices such as the use of many pesticides. In a map format these locations are easy to
identify.
People can also use this type of map to establish if land cover change has taken place. Researchers can utilize this map as a baseline from which to start assessing change by conducting time series analyses using multi-date imagery, beginning with the information in this map.
Cuba Research
I am also working on linking land cover change with socioeconomic and political change in Cuba. I have received funding (from the Cuban Research Institute - CRI) for a graduate student and myself to travel to Cuba to complete a ground-truthing exercise. This ground-truthing will help validate the land cover change map created. Interviews with local people will also supplement this project.
Other Research Interests:
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I am very interested in exploring various ways of classifying
remote sensing imagery. One of the
methods I would like to explore in much more depth is classifying imagery with
neural network classification techniques, or fuzzy techniques. I believe there is much promise in utilizing
fuzzy techniques that allow the classifier to “learn” and make decisions based
on certain parameters set by the user.