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[Austin Stanforth] My research involves combining analytical data
with remote sensing imaging To assess mitigation and vulnerability
practices. The infestation on the Eastern
Hemlock is therefore a great link between my research
interests and my interests in the great outdoors, hiking,
and camping.
[Jiaying He] After a large earthquake in China in 2008, researchers
who helped with rescue efforts inspired me to study
remote sensing and GIS technologies.
[Lauren Craft] I grew up in northern Alabama right at the foothills of the
Appalachians. The diversity of this region led to my
interest in modeling and predicting ecological and natural
disasters.
[Xiyu Li] My love for nature leads to my interests in exploring the
relationships between natural phenomena and protecting
our living environment.
[Pornampai Narenpitak] I was greatly affected when a
tsunami hit my country in 2004. The destructions could have been
mitigated if a better monitoring and warning system had
been in place. This led to my interest in meteorological
Eastern Hemlocks provide better habitats within the Great
Smoky Mountains for many plant and animal species. But
the trees have been invaded by an exotic insect called the
hemlock woolly adelgid, which feeds off the trees nutrient
supply causing them to lose their needles and eventually die.
The adelgid has caused severe Hemlock decline and is threatening
the forest ecosystem.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park experiences some of the
highest measured air pollution of any national park in the U.S.
Studies have shown that that pollutants such as ozone can
stress the hemlock stands and make the trees more susceptible
to hemlock woolly adelgid. The are also trying to understand
the relationships between the hemlock decline and air quality
within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Satellites can record a wide spectrum of wavelengths for a
variety of applications. For example, red and near infrared
can be used to look at the health of vegetation.
In this study, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was used,
or NDVI, to compare the health of Eastern Hemlock between 2001 and
2010. This helps identify areas impacted by the infestation.
In order to study air quality in the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, we used ground level data from the EPA�s Air Quality System
Repository. Observation of air quality data is very essential to our
understanding of how it affects forest health. And for this term,
we are focusing on ozone concentration.
Ground level ozone records at monitoring stations in the Great
Smoky Mountains were interpolated to show the spatial distribution
of ozone concentration. Trend analyses were conducted using time
series of these maps. Then, regression analyses were performed to
explore the relationship between hemlock health and ozone
concentration variation.
Using Landsat 5TM imaging we identified areas of substantial Hemlock
defoliation. Change detection using image differencing of the NDVI
from 2001, 2006, 2010.
Using these results, we created maps showing the growth and decline
over ten years. Static maps were then provided to the end-users to
assess the areas they needed to focus their mitigation practices.
[Christian Matthews] The vegetation index change detection approach
and methodology would not only allow the National Park Service to more
accurately identify the infestation locations and more efficiently and
precisely combat the problem it would also provide us the opportunity
to monitor the efficiency of our mitigation practices and prepare for any
future infestation by providing a means of early detection.
NASA�s Landsat archives contain nearly 40 years of data and
continuously collect more every day. The availability of this data
in the past and future will allow end-users to have continued use
of the methodologies created during this project.