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At least 91 records · Page 5

A GIS approach to conducting biogeochemical research in wetlands

A project was initiated to develop an environmental data base to address spatial aspects of both biogeochemical cycling and resource management in wetlands. Specific goals are to make regional methane flux estimates and site specific water level predictions based on man controlled water releases within a wetland study area. The project will contribute to the understanding of the Earth's biosphere through its examination of the spatial variability of methane emissions. Although wetlands are thought to be one of the primary sources for release of methane to the atmosphere, little is known about the spatial variability of methane flux. Only through a spatial analysis of methane flux rates and the environmental factors which influence such rates can reliable regional and global methane emissions be calculated. Data will be correlated and studied from Landsat 4 instruments, from a ground survey of water level recorders, precipitation recorders, evaporation pans, and supplemental gauges, and from flood gate water release; and regional methane flux estimates will be made.

Brannon, David P.↗

GIS, GPS, political history, and geo-demography of the Aramamisi Yanomamo expansion

This year a joint US-Venezuelan research project was initiated to locate, identify, and begin long term research on the ecology of the Siapa Basin and the cultural adaptations of Yanomamo communities to this habit, a poorly mapped region of southern Venezuela. During two separate field trips, representing over 500 hours of flying time, local informants were asked to guide a helicopter to villages and other areas of anthropological interest. The location of each place was established with a GPS instrument. Both the Trimble Navigation TransPak and Magellan Nav 1000 Pro were used on these trips. A brief summary of the results and preliminary comparisons of both instruments will be presented.

Chagnon, Napoleon A.↗

Land-use in Amazonia and the Cerrado of Brazil: State of Knowledge and GIS Database

We have assembled datasets to strengthen the LargeScale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA). These datasets can now be accessed through the Woods Hole Research Center homepage (www.whrc.org), and will soon be linked to the Pre-LBA homepages of the Brazilian Space Research Institute's Center for Weather and Climate Prediction (Instituto de Pesquisas Espaciais, Centro de Previsao de Tempo e Estudos Climaticos, INPE/CPTEC) and through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL/DMC). Some of the datasets that we are making available involved new field research and/or the digitization of data available in Brazilian government agencies. For example, during the grant period we conducted interviews at 1,100 sawmills across Amazonia to determine their production of sawn timber, and their harvest intensities. These data provide the basis for the first quantitative assessment of the area of forest affected each year by selective logging (Nepstad et al, submitted to Nature). We digitized the locations of all of the rural households in the State of Para that have been mapped by the Brazilian malaria combat agency (SUCAM). We also mapped and digitized areas of deforestation in the state of Tocantins, which is comprised largely of savanna (cerrado), an ecosystem that has been routinely excluded from deforestation mapping exercises.

Nepstad, Daniel C.↗

Pilot Program for the Development of Classification and Accuracy Assessment Methods and Improved Accessibility for Landsat and Related GIS Data and Technology Transfer of These Methods to State and Local Governments

This project has a single, comprehensive objective that is manifested in many tangible products and impacts throughout the state and the mid-south region. The primary objective or mission of this project is to expose the broadest possible cross-section of public sector decision makers responsible for developing and maintaining policy at the state, local and national levels, private sector professionals and students to the power, flexibility and utility of sensor based imagery and the mapping and interpretive products that are derived from these digital geodata. In accomplishing this mission this project has worked to provide hands-on exposure and training to primary and secondary teachers; developed and distributed instructional materials to students across the state; created an on-line archive of satellite images and related geographic data; implemented a service that enables users throughout the region and around the world to develop customized mapping products suitable for visualization and/or decision support from the comfort of their classroom or office via an internet connection to our facility; extended the use of sensor based imagery in natural resource management and commercial applications through a range of pilot research initiatives, demonstrations, presentations and professional papers.

Limp, W. Fredrick↗

Remote Sensing, GIS, and Vector-Borne Disease

The concept of global climate change encompasses more than merely an alteration in temperature; it also includes spatial and temporal covariations in precipitation and humidity, and more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events. The impact of these variations, which can occur at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, could have a direct impact on disease transmission through their environmental consequences for pathogen, vector, and host survival, as well as indirectly through human demographic and behavioral responses. New and future sensor systems will allow scientists to investigate the relationships between climate change and environmental risk factors at multiple spatial, temporal and spectral scales. Higher spatial resolution will provide better opportunities for mapping urban features previously only possible with high resolution aerial photography. These opportunities include housing quality (e.g., Chagas'disease, leishmaniasis) and urban mosquito habitats (e.g., dengue fever, filariasis, LaCrosse encephalitis). There are or will be many new sensors that have higher spectral resolution, enabling scientists to acquire more information about parameters such as soil moisture, soil type, better vegetation discrimination, and ocean color, to name a few. Although soil moisture content is now detectable using Landsat, the new thermal, shortwave infrared, and radar sensors will be able to provide this information at a variety of scales not achievable using Landsat. Soil moisture could become a key component in transmission risk models for Lyme disease (tick survival), helminthiases (worm habitat), malaria (vector-breeding habitat), and schistosomiasis (snail habitat).

Beck, Louisa R.↗

Biomass Burning Emissions in the Cerrado of Brazil Computed with Remote Sensing Data and GIS

Biomass burnin is a common force in much of the developing tropical world where it has wide-ranging environmental impacts. Fire is a component of tropical deforestation and is 0 p often used to clear broad expanses of land for shifting agriculture and cattle ranching. Frequent burning in the tropical savannas is a distinct problem from that of primary forest. In Brazil, most of the burning occurs in the cerrado which occupies approximately 1,800,000 km2, primarily on the great plateau in central Brazil. Wildland and agricultural fires are dramatic sources of regional air pollution in central Brazil. Biomass burning is an important source of a large number of trace gases including greenhouse gases and other chemically active species. Knowledge of trace gas emissions from biomass burning in Brazil is limited by a number of factors, most notably relative emission factors for gases from specific fire types/fuels and accurate estimates of temporal and spatial distribution and extent of fire activity. Estimates of trace gas emissions during September 1992 will be presented that incorporates a digital map of vegetation classes, pyrogenic emission factors calculated from ground and aircraft missions, and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) fire products derived from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data. The regional emissions calculated from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) AVHRR estimates of fire activity will provide an independent estimate for comparison with results obtained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Transport and Atmospheric Chemistry Near the Equator - Atlantic (TRACE-A) experiments.

Guild, Liane S.↗

Monitoring the Ancient Countryside: Remote Sensing and GIS at the Chora of Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraine)

In 1998 the University of Texas Institute of Classical Archaeology, in collaboration with the University of Texas Center for Space Research and the National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos (Ukraine), began a collaborative project, funded by NASA's Solid Earth and Natural Hazards program, to investigate the use of remotely sensed data for the study and protection of the ancient a cultural territory, or chora, of Chersonesos in Crimea, Ukraine.

Trelogan, Jessica↗

Supporting the Growing Needs of the GIS Industry

Visual Learning Systems, Inc. (VLS), of Missoula, Montana, has developed a commercial software application called Feature Analyst. Feature Analyst was conceived under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with NASA's Stennis Space Center, and through the Montana State University TechLink Center, an organization funded by NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense to link regional companies with Federal laboratories for joint research and technology transfer. The software provides a paradigm shift to automated feature extraction, as it utilizes spectral, spatial, temporal, and ancillary information to model the feature extraction process; presents the ability to remove clutter; incorporates advanced machine learning techniques to supply unparalleled levels of accuracy; and includes an exceedingly simple interface for feature extraction.

Source record↗

EGIS - An Environmental GIS Developed for NASA Field Center Applications

As the principal center for Environmental Geographic Information Systems (EGIS), the John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC), located in Hancock County, Mississippi, has been assigned technical support requirements to design and to implement a basic EGIS data base for all NASA Field Centers. The intent of this Phase I effort is to produce a baseline EGIS data base incorporating newly available remotely sensed data as well as existing environmental data. A example application of the use of the data base at Stennis Space Center will be to illustrate baseline environmental conditions for consideration with proposed propulsion test stand development and operation. To effectively answer questions related to environmental issues at each center, organization of the data layers and sources will include the following categories: Cadastral/Geodetic; Geopolitical; Hydrography; Infrastructure; Physical Geography; Socioeconomic; Remote Sensing Imagery; Associated Metadata. As part of a Phase II effort, site-specific data and applications will be implemented and added to the data base at each Field Center. This poster illustrates the framework of the design and implementation of a basic EGIS data base. Shown are example data sources, hardware and software, and data base delivery and installation. The poster also depicts future recommendations for a centrally located server to house each of the NASA Field Center data bases. The server will allow real-time data base updates with additional layers and models for each center. Expansion of the EGIS data base will continue to grow as site-specific applications are developed addressing the ongoing evolution of environmental concerns at all NASA Field Centers.

Smoot, James↗

Use of Remote Sensing and GIS in Search for Lewis and Clark's Rock Fort Camp Site of The Dalles, Oregon

It is assumed that researchers can go to the journals of the expedition to find the precise locations of specific campsites. Of the core group of 33 people on the expedition, scholars know that at least 9 individuals kept journals. The location of three of those journals is unknown, and they may have been destroyed. However, a close examination for the six available journals demonstrates that not everyone described campside locations the same way, which adds to the confusion.

Karsmizki, Ken↗

Modeling Bird Migration in Changing Habitats: Space-based Ornithology using Satellites and GIS

Understanding bird migration and avian biodiversity is one of the most compelling and challenging problems of modern biology with major implications for human health and conservation biology. Migration and conservation efforts cross national boundaries and are subject to numerous international agreements and treaties presenting challenges in both geographic space and time. Space based technology, coupled with geographic information systems, yields new opportunities to shed light on the distribution and movement of organisms on the planet and their sensitivity to human disturbances and environmental changes. At NASA, we are creating ecological forecasting tools for science and application users to address the consequences of loss of wetlands, flooding, drought or other natural disasters such as hurricanes on avian biodiversity and bird migration. In our work, we use individual organism biophysical models and drive these models with satellite observations and numerical weather predictions of the spatio-temporal gradients in climate and habitat. Geographic information system technology comprises one component of our overall simulation framework, especially for characterizing the changing habitats and conditions encountered by en-route migratory birds. Simulation provides a tool for studying bird migration across multiple scales and can be linked to mechanistic processes describing the time and energy budget states of migrating birds. Such models yield an understanding of how a migratory flyway and its component habitats function as a whole and link stop-over ecology with biological conservation and management. We present examples of our simulation of shorebirds, principally, pectoral sandpipers, along the central flyways of the United States and Canada from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska.

Smith, James A.↗

Analysis of Association Between Remotely Sensed (RS) Data and Soil Transmitted Helminthes Infection Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS): Boaco, Nicaragua

Soil-transmitted helminths are intestinal nematodes that can infect all members of a population but specially school-age children living in poverty. Infection can be significantly reversed with anthelmintic drug treatments and sanitation improvement. Implementation of effective public health programs requires reliable and updated information to identify areas at higher risk and to calculate amount of drug required. Geo-referenced in situ prevalence data will be overlaid over an ecological map derived from RS data using ARC Map 9.3 (ESRI). Prevalence data and RS data matching at the same geographical location will be analyzed for correlation and those variables from RS data that better correlate with prevalence will be included in a multivariate regression model. Temperature, vegetation, and distance to bodies of water will be inferred using data from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Landsat TM and ETM+. Elevation will be estimated with data from The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Prevalence and intensity of infections are determined by parasitological survey (Kato Katz) of children enrolled in rural schools in Boaco, Nicaragua, in the communities of El Roblar, Cumaica Norte, Malacatoya 1, and Malacatoya 2). This study will demonstrate the importance of an integrated GIS/RS approach to define sampling clusters without the need for any ground-based survey. Such information is invaluable to identify areas of high risk and to geographically target control programs that maximize cost-effectiveness and sanitation efforts.

MorenoMadrinan, Max J.↗