MEETING NOTES

OVERVIEW OF THE BASIC SCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING INITIATIVE

9/25/97

Presentation from the BSRSI Group

 

Attending: Peggy, Jason, David, Walter, (PhD: Brant, Tom), Brian, Randy, Carrie

 

Overview of the Basic Science and Remote Sensing Initiative Skole

MSU strong university wide push on research.

Formulation of strategic blueprint

Use Skole's lab and research program as initial nucleus

Major themes land use and cover change from global to regional/local

cross scale and cross disciplinary

PATTERN PROCESS approach -- see the patterns but do not know cause or effect. Simulation models to observe patterns and link to effects.

landscape change on biogenic chemstry and biodiversity

farm level, home level institution///global market

FLORIDA KEYS in MIDDLE OF WINTER

report on workshops -- social meaning of techno growth, phenomenon of regrowth

role of the external -- national policies andi nternational or global institutions

20 experts -- 3 days try to raise critical issues

Emphasis (niche) on high resolution sensors (Landsat 7, SAR, commercial satellites)

10 meters to 30 meters

less than one meter (spinoffs from spy satellites)

U of Md 250 meters or higher resolution

Geography department, Ken Corey was chair before here...

Landsat 7 to be launched in May -- Pathfinder and Science Team 15 landsat satellites to map deforestation in the tropics. JPL radar in Pasadena. Japanese satellite JERS. Earth remote sensing satellite

U of M and ERIM new initiatives expertise in radar satellites

exising contract with Raytheon (owner of Space Imaging to be launched in May of '98) hoping to leverge for free data (otherwise $6000 for ten by ten kilometer image)

Take satellite data and link to field based case studies and empirical and process models -- diagnostic and prognostic

Proposal to NASA to develop centers of excellence in remote sensing for integrated environmental assessment. Equipment grant -- $400,000 to buy new equipment. Initiative on research, link to teaching and to center for remote sensing (Dick Group). As a center for applications and outreach. State government, local resources. 3way approach outreach, academic, research.

Regional change and global change. Must be well armed with rationale to everyday people -- taxpayers/stakeholders. Global change does filter down.

Draw on expertise of geography department -- economic geographers. Communities and how decision making occurs by farmers in third world.

Info systems and technology. Fertile area for research. New media, outreach in general. Take advantage of Internet 2. Problems at high levels but work them out. New web sites, new approaches to developing, linked to CommTech.

R&D site: what geographers call spatial cognition of problems, social response and relations == links to social science and geography, other theoretical side.

Raytheon purchase order, direct link. Continue strong university partnerships and relationships.

Relationship to Policy -- context of conventional climate change -- diplomatic challenge. Scientists more and more being asked to participate. Integrative Assessment -- environmental problems at local and global scales across range of components from economic to biophysical to social. IPSR -- a place where that kind of work should go on. Ag experiment station.

Strong international program Land Use and international change --

zoology sharing faculty position

FIVE ELEMENTS (we are the fifth element)

1.) Measuring tropical deforestation -- focussed heavily on getting the measurements right -- doing over large areas. Main project is Landsat. Thousands of satellite teams put together wall to wall mosaics for whole of ecuatorial tropics mid 70s mid 80s mid 90s cooperation from all over the world. Assemble and analyze, out comes detailed maps.

(Landsat Pathfinder -- why deforestation is not just a scientific issue -- party david not invited to -- famous people -- benefit called don't bungle the jungle Brooklyn Academy of Music -- infiltrated into popular culture. John Denver wants to know how he can help.) Rate of malaria -- in Amazon increased dramatically between 75 and 86 from 4 cases per thousand to over 25 cases -- when amazon deforestation began. 421000 amazon, rest of brasil much less. Malaria capital of the world. Unequivocal name epidemiologists. New people getting into the game --where are new diseases going -- emerging diseases -- AIDS, EBOLA, asking question if habitat change is responsible. Serious implications of clearing rainforests.

Rate of change 20,000 to 80,000 square miles cleared -- have to have this information, real data. Landsat data never used, just sitting in warehouses. Look into archive and assemble large numbers of satellite data. A fourth lower than the highest estimates. Controversy settled once and for all. A football field a second. Look at 2 minute countdown another football field of rainforest is burned.

National Geographic Society. Clay Eating MacCaws in the Amazon using their deforestation map. Outreach to geographic. Stepwise process for assembling data. Info Management -- this cartoon shows process also document on web site. Map showing where deforested areas are. Taken 30 meter resolution and aggregated that. Walter developed map over 5 years. Detailed high res information laid on -- threw out every detail and line look like a Rorshack. Color code renditions of raw data -- CTL THINK OF OTHER WAYS OF DISPLAYING COMPLEX INFORMATION. Most of light being reflected from the surface is in infrared region (invisible light) usually shown as red on maps. Red areas are forest, blue/whiteish are clearing. Pink areas where fields have been cleared or abandoned and secondary growth. Not just unidirectional. Forests being cleared, fields formed, abandoned, recleared. The pink areas of regrowth carbon dioxide sink. Carbon budget like a checkbook budget -- debits and credits. Ocean absorbs, emissions and uptakes balanced budget. One of the biggest puzzles of the day -- if we can;t balance the carbon budget, we do not know how our planet works. Coutnerpoint to the previous picture -- 30% of cleared areas are in regrowth. Going around world to look for other places like that. Southeast Asia, Amazon.

Also notice, red areas landscape is chopped up/fragmented in interesting ways. Large patch 10 kilometers on the side. Remnant forest, fragments of forests. Forests lightly fragmented. Preserve area... Not only the rate of deforestation but also the pattern. Theory of island biogeography. Number of species to size of fragment. Tropical areas where density of species is sparse. Couple of hectares replicated over and over here but in tropics. 200 species in one hectare, one over 200 different species. Quantifying pattern of deforestation.

Habitat deforestation -- spatial patterns went back, how much of habitat is effected? Spatial statistics. The rate of deforestation is lower, effect on habitat was far worse. Got called bozos by Rush Limbaugh.

Walter -- Costa Rica (Zoologists) what, when and where of landscape fragmentation -- impact on bird population. coffee plantations fragmenting land. high intensity coffee (more modern) less chemicals, no shade -- coffee is a bush -- (train). Collecting data on the ground -- netted birds, take pictures, pictures on the ground of local landscape. How many trees there were. (This would be vivid.) In the field next summer. CTL be sure to capture video.

2.) Taking Observations and understand effects through analysis and modeling.

Biodiversity and BioGeoChemistry

How deforestation puts greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Also understand loss of biodiversity through loss of habitat. Progress thwarted because of lack of good hard data.

3.) Census type activities -- analysis and modeling of the underlying human dimension. What are social and economic drives? Political scientists, demographers, sociologists. Using satellite data to make measurements, dropping down to hundreds of key informant interviews -- why did they do this... Difficult and complicated, interdisciplinary. Just ask what this was... That's been the tradition. Nobody knows what happened. Geographers call it narrative. Debate about how important it is. Anthropologists and ethnographers for a long time... Hard core scientists say it is not useful. Billy Kerner strong on developing the narrative. Indigenous cultures being lost -- acculturated/ assimilated or exterminated.

sociodiversity, ethnography. amazon gold miners and indians has been very violent and nasty. one component of raytheon know in advance when the gold miners will descend. Huge crisis years ago indians massacred.

Charles Woods demographer, Latin American Studies at U of Florida -- Steven Vannessan was Flordia now Emory -- collect other kinds of data such as socioeconomic from national census. Look for relationships to deforestation. Linked to going into the field in several locations (4 in Amazon) to do key informant views. One, regression analysis worry about spuriousness.

4.) Evalution and Development of New Space Born Technologies --

LandSat 7, advanced R&D

David member of Landsat 7 team, more engineering, models and acquisition strategies -- really really good database. Require complete global coverage four times a year, wall to wall cloud free 30 meter resolution. Do for planet Earth what NASA has been doing for Venus. Push hard for a Landsat station here at MSU. Not require processing stream. Get much more data. Cost constraints aquire 200 scenes per day Level zero, only process 25 to level one -- with our own ground station we can acquire on our own and process them all. Aquisition antenna. Analog processing stream. Fred Postem, ERIM -- 2 years away,

5.) Info management systems and technologies. We need new info systems to do our work and to do it better. Process large amounts of data. Outreach component. Wide community of users -- policy makers,

Sort Through Millions of Scenes available worldwide -- ground stations have their own archives -- scattered in different archives and formats -- meta-data. Need to insure contiguous in space and time -- seasonality and time and date. Build a computer system to get data from ground systems around the world INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. Run in Windows environment with Arc-INFO on SGI, not readily transportable. Also, recode so it works on the web. Agreement with a company to develop this. Proposal to NASA for funding. Same proposal as Rainforest Report Card. Image on screen integrates all data. Took info management system a step forward to organize. Tracks all data through every step, tracks every package but not as good as fed ex. Input panel where enter everything. ____ tracking, store all parameters including analysts name. Once data set is compiled, another system manages the archive. Set up query to show what we have in our archives and its status, track over time, time and effort analysis.

NIIT -- consortium of private companies formed National Info Infrastructure Tech -- See is we could take info management and distribute over the network -- Earth Data Systems Demonstration, 3 or 4 years ago. Demonstrated could display info in DC even though processed in Boston. The whole NIIT has changed persona and now focus soley on Internet network. Went on to medical and accounting and sales. There are some problems.

Approached by Raytheon to build a proposal for RFP from Brasilian Government -- system for the vigilance of the amazon (monitoring) respondents from many companies... Proopsals that included ways to monitor using landsat data. 1.4 billion dollar content. Advertising on Nova -- Did you know Raytheon was chosen to help preserve the rainforest -- defense companies need other outlets for their engineering -- civilian applications. Amana appliances, beachcraft airplanes. Part of de-emphasizing defense. Green Technology -- for sustainable development.

The color of money is green. This project will create 20,000 new jobs. Weather radar, satellite remote sensing, airborn activities, remote weather and meterological for brasilian weather forecasting. Brasilia, Manous, Beline, one other -- each have this system.

(DIAGRAM BEGS to be MULTIMEDIA...) Contract started July 27.

Think more about how develop new media for outreach.

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

human dimensions. world bank, economic models. committee on satellites -- all space agencies... Global forest monitoring program. Focus on one thing. Assessments on a regular basis.

 

The Laboratory Environment Chomentowski

 

Overview of the Research Skole

 

Some examples of Research Skole

 

Some examples of Information Technology Projects Skole

 

Outreach and Media Components of the Initiative Shea

Outreach so far has been a hands off approach -- couple hundred requests -- 75% info about parts of Brasil, Southeast Asia -- refer them to appropriate scientific groups or to data centers for what we do not have. Panic situations need pictures for report in the next 6 hours. Need to move to a more hands on approach -- have something more quickly give to people. Email requests only 1% of requests. Is only 1% interested, do they get all they need, or do they not turn to email? (FORM). Brochures geneal overview of research project. Customize info to their needs. Research overview -- smaller, more customized, forms, focus on brochures -- advertising/promotion. [maybe create your own brochure on the web. Configurable... Post cards... Explaining in pedagogical way -- slide show..]

CD-ROMs for young people, Lansing area. NSF CD-ROM for 8th graders -- pdf approach to distributing information -- examples sites email the pages how pdf, together or separate.

New Media R and D efforts, Collaborative Potentials Good

 

Was to be a segue to us...

CD-ROM, DVD-ROM...

CD-ROM registration

 

 

Discussion Good/Russell

critical moment analysis

focus group debriefing

recall and learning (VI)

cultural sensitivity... exposure, get out to population. acceptance, legitimization. applies to public and scientists. portability, the VAN,

malaria. pragmatic how does it impact you. one or the other.

ozone -- does it impact me.

 

awareness

exposure

knowledge change

attitude change

behavior change

 

FUTURE MEETINGS:

CTL how to go from nothing to a finished product

1.) way to describe what we do. how science is done, what results are. like what we have but done better

2) define what the big ideas are. habitability, evironmental bridge, apolocalpse, why science is important. why informed public polity is important. why this is interesting. significance transcends -- do a session on trying to hone what we want to say. What the big ideas are. Explain why significant, immerse in look and feel why are doing this. show cd to NASA programmers. What research is all about, what agenecies, how acquire satellite data, stitch, rather boring and mundane -- working groups why spending so much time and money

then a shorter one -- talk technology.. what about the pdf approach?

big picture