Geospatial Forum

Studio: Note this 2-hour studio runs from 2-4 p.m. ET

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Speaker: Robert Dzur, Senior Vice President and Systems Manager, Spatial Data, Bohannan Huston, Inc.

Hosted by: Dr. Vaclav Petras, CGA Faculty Fellow and Senior Researcher

Summary: In this interactive studio, participants will apply an object detection model to identify remnant buildings in LiDAR-derived digital elevation models. Originally trained on a New Mexico airborne LiDAR dataset of high desert and urban landscapes, participants will apply the model to a subset of North Carolina Phase 3 2015 LiDAR data near Siler City. A set of Jupyter Notebooks are used to facilitate raster data preparation, point cloud reprojection, filtering and colorization for visualization. Methods and tools covered include object detection using YOLOv8 (You Only Look Once), point cloud visualization in Entwine, feature extraction using GRASS GIS, and displaying raster, vector and point cloud data outputs in QGIS. This hands-on studio can appeal to anyone interested in object recognition, point cloud processing, data accessibility and interpretation.

About the speaker: Robert Dzur is a Senior Vice President and Systems Manager of Spatial Data at Bohannan Huston, Inc. (BHI) where for the last 20 years he has led a variety of GIS, remote sensing, photogrammetric and LiDAR mapping projects. His current professional interests include high precision geospatial dataset development, historical mapping projects, and open-source technologies, and he is proficient in commercial and open-source GIS environments such as GRASS GIS, PDAL, and Entwine. Rob did his undergraduate work in Spanish at the University of Arkansas where he also completed his M.A. in Geography. Before joining BHI, Rob worked at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (Univ. of Arkansas) and then spent 4 years in Bolivia as an international technical consultant for the World Bank, managing cadastral mapping projects.

Lecture

Speaker: Prof. Kofi Boone, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, NC State College of Design

Introduction by: Tania Allen, CGA Faculty Fellow and Associate Prof. of Media Arts, Design and Technology

Summary: This forum talk offers perspectives on the roles of geospatial analysis in the development of Environmental Justice research methods. As environmental planning and design strategies increasingly engage issues of equity and justice, there are interdisciplinary opportunities to supplement existing methods with spatial scenario development and citizen science to increase the impact of equity and justice forward work.

About the speaker: Kofi Boone, FASLA is a Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar at NC State University. He is the founder of the Just Communities Lab. Kofi is a Detroit native and a graduate of the University of Michigan. His work is in the overlap between landscape architecture and environmental justice with specializations in democratic design and interpreting cultural landscapes. He is the winner of student and professional ASLA awards including the Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal. He is Past President of the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and serves on the board of the Land Loss Prevention Project. Kofi is co-editor of Empty Pedestals: Countering Confederate Narratives Through Public Design (LSU Press, 2024).

Lecture

Speaker: Dr. Georgina Sanchez, Research Scholar and Faculty Fellow, Center for Geospatial Analytics, NC State

Introduction by: Dr. Ross Meentemeyer, center director and Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Geospatial Analytics

Summary: Geospatial modeling provides a means to explore and visualize growth trajectories that align with the evolving needs of our world. It allows us to evaluate tradeoffs between competing social and ecological needs while considering future uncertainties. In this talk, we’ll challenge the status quo by exploring alternative strategies for local and regional adaptation to the increasing threats of sea level rise and flooding.

About the speaker: Dr. Georgina Sanchez is a Research Scholar and Faculty Fellow with the Center for Geospatial Analytics at NC State University. Georgina’s interdisciplinary approach to research bridges land and climate change science, hydrology, and geospatial analytics to address complex sustainability challenges. Georgina’s research also involves participatory modeling techniques and principles of knowledge co-production that engage communities, stakeholders and/or end-users in development of strategies to tackle natural resource challenges. She holds a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Resources from NCSU, a M.S in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University, and a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Costa Rica.

Lecture

Speaker: Dr. Sparkle Malone, Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Carbon Capture, Yale University

Hosted by: Dr. Mirela Tulbure, CGA Faculty Fellow and Professor of Forestry and Environmental Resources

Summary: In ecological systems, nonlinearities emerge from complex interactions and feedback loops across multiple scales. Capturing resilient and emergent patterns is challenging, yet essential for thriving under uncertain conditions. As global change accelerates, the adaptive management of complex systems necessitates advancements in and integration of ecology, physical and analytical research infrastructure, and machine learning. Currently, our understanding of the environmental factors influencing exchange rates of greenhouse gases (CO₂, H₂O, and CH₄) between Earth’s surface and atmosphere is limited, particularly regarding spatial and temporal variability. Intricate feedbacks between biological processes, climate, and land cover changes further complicate our understanding of these rates across diverse ecosystems.

In this forum, Dr. Malone will discuss how 1) leveraging existing infrastructure and data streams from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), AmeriFlux, and FLUXNET, and 2) integrating network science and machine learning can overcome biases in data collection and measuring functional relationships between flux observations (responses) and their environmental drivers (meteorological and land surface) in order to elucidate spatio-temporal variability of flux responses across ecosystems. Flux data can be improved by accounting for surface heterogeneity and evolving sample characteristics over time. This research represents a convergence of physical and analytical infrastructure to deepen our understanding of ecosystems’ effects on the atmosphere.

About the speaker: Dr. Sparkle L. Malone obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama in 2014, where she studied the carbon fluxes in subtropical wetland ecosystems. She then went on to work for the USDA Forest Service at Rocky Mountain Research Station (2014-2017) and Florida International University (2017- 2022). At FIU she established the Malone Disturbance Ecology lab where her primary research focus was to improve our understanding of how climate and disturbance regimes influence spatial and temporal variability in ecosystem structure and function. Using remote sensing and eddy covariance data and models, she explores questions related to ecosystem condition, sustainability, and vulnerability to climate extremes. In the fall of 2022, she joined the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture.

Studio: Note this event is in 1214 Jordan Addition from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m.

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Speaker: Dr. Emil Cherrington, Ecosystem & Carbon Management thematic lead for the SERVIR Science Coordination Office at NASA, and a Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Earth System Science Center.

Hosted by the Geospatial Graduate Student Organization and part of GIS Week at NC State.

Summary: This two-part studio activity will focus on the use of open data from the NASA / USGS Landsat series of satellites for mapping land cover change, and the use of spaceborne LiDAR data from the GEDI instrument for estimating vegetation height. This activity will focus on the use of the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, in conjunction with the LandTrendr algorithm (Kennedy et al. 2010, Kennedy et al. 2018), and a regression-based vegetation height upscaling technique developed by Ujaval Gandhi of the company Spatial Thoughts. While the specific geographic focus of the studio activity will be Mesoamerica, participants will be able to adjust the study domains to their respective areas of interest.

About the speaker: Emil Cherrington is a Research Scientist at the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and serves as the Regional Science Coordination Lead for West Africa for the SERVIR program of NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He has almost nineteen years of professional experience working with geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, with his work focusing on the use of such technologies for land cover change detection, ecosystem monitoring, disaster response, and integrated water resource management. He holds a joint Ph.D. in forest ecology (with an emphasis in remote sensing) from AgroParisTech (France) and the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), under the auspices of a fellowship from the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus program. He holds a master’s degree in forest resources from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources (where he was an Organization of American States Fellow) and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Loyola University Maryland.

Lecture: Note this event is in 1220 Jordan Addition.

Speaker: Dr. Emil Cherrington, Ecosystem & Carbon Management thematic lead for the SERVIR Science Coordination Office at NASA, and a Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Earth System Science Center.

Speaker: Dr. Emil Cherrington, Ecosystem & Carbon Management thematic lead for the SERVIR Science Coordination Office at NASA, and a Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Earth System Science Center.

Hosted by the Geospatial Graduate Student Organization and part of GIS Week at NC State.

Summary: Established almost twenty years ago in early 2005, the SERVIR program is a joint initiative of NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and leading geospatial organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, focusing on how development challenges can be addressed using Earth observation and geospatial data. This talk will focus on Dr. Cherrington’s literal and figurative journeys with SERVIR, since his joining the program in 2006. He will also share his thoughts on future trends, particularly regarding geospatial artificial intelligence (geo AI).

About the speaker: Emil Cherrington is a Research Scientist at the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and serves as the Regional Science Coordination Lead for West Africa for the SERVIR program of NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). He has almost nineteen years of professional experience working with geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing, with his work focusing on the use of such technologies for land cover change detection, ecosystem monitoring, disaster response, and integrated water resource management. He holds a joint Ph.D. in forest ecology (with an emphasis in remote sensing) from AgroParisTech (France) and the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), under the auspices of a fellowship from the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus program. He holds a master’s degree in forest resources from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources (where he was an Organization of American States Fellow) and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Loyola University Maryland.

Symposium: Note this event is in Hunt Library’s Teaching and Visualization Lab, Room 4505, 3:00 – 4:15 p.m. ET.

The MGIST Digital Symposium is an opportunity for our graduating professional master’s students to present their Capstone projects to the geospatial community at NC State and beyond. This includes student peers, alumni, faculty and staff from across the university, and our community and industry partners. This is a tremendous professional development and networking opportunity for our students.

The technology in Hunt Library will allow students to present digital posters of their Capstone projects on a large, immersive projection screen in a social atmosphere with networking and open discussion. The event is capped off with an award to the winner of the poster competition!

Schedule:

3:00pm: MGIST Symposium Opening Remarks (Dr. Eric Money)
3:00pm – 3:50pm: Digital Poster Session and refreshments
3:50pm – 4:00pm: Symposium Close and Poster Award Announcement (Dr. Eric Money)

Symposium Preview Website:

You can preview the posters on our symposium website . 

Voting for Best Poster:

The best poster will be awarded a gift card at the end of the symposium. You may vote ONCE virtually using the above website and ONCE in-person if you attend the live event. Virtual voting closes at Noon on Thursday, DEC 12.