Research Soaring to New Heights on the Tails of NASA Satellites

Andrea Albright, a graduate student in the Cullen College of Engineering’s geosensing systems engineering and sciences program, won a 2018 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. She is among 69 U.S. fellows chosen from more than 3,600 applicants.

Mexico and Central America Airborne Lidar Collection Campaign for Small- and Medium-Sized Projects

The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) is announcing a call for expressions of interest from researchers with small- to medium-sized projects and budgets in Mexico and Central America for Spring 2019 (March–May), including but not limited to archaeology, geology, and ecology. In the past two years, NCALM has received several inquiries from individual researchers with small projects in Mexico and Central America. The size of these projects, and their associated budgets, make them economically and practically unfeasible if considered individually. However, if several small projects within a given country or region are grouped together, in such a way that the mobilization costs can be proportionately distributed among the multiple projects, we believe it is possible to survey the small projects and bring large benefits to the broader community.

Currently, NCALM has received expressions of interest for small areas in central and south Belize, the Campeche/Tabasco/Chiapas, Mexico, border with Peten, Guatemala, near San Salvador, El Salvador, and the Caribbean coast of Honduras. We are looking for additional projects to complement these sites. The smallest individual project budget that NCALM will consider is $10,000 (USD), which can potentially yield data collections of 10 km2, depending on collection density, distance to airports, and other neighboring projects. The exact coverage will be determined based on analysis of the these and other factors. If you have interest in participating in a community collection campaign, please send a short description of your project, including potential budget and a KMZ with an outline of your area(s) of interest. (The size and shape will be iteratively refined jointly after adjusting for budget, research objectives, and neighboring projects.)

Please contact us if you require more information about this community campaign, and please forward this announcement to other researchers that may have an interest in such data collection. The more projects we can organize together, the larger the areas we will be able to collect for individual projects. NCALM aims to begin data collection in March–May 2019. We will begin requesting permits to fly and collect data for the respective countries near the end of 2018.

For more information, contact NCALM Director Ramesh L. Shrestha at rshrest2 [at] central.uh.edu (subject: Mexico%20and%20Central%20America%20Lidar%20Campaign) (budgets) and Juan Carlos Fernandez Diaz at jfernan4 [at] central.uh.edu (subject: Mexico%20and%20Central%20America%20Lidar%20Campaign) (scheduling, logistics, permitting).

Clarifying notes:

NCALM is not providing the budget or funds to perform mapping, but rather organizing a campaign to optimize the funds researchers currently have, or can obtain, for their small- or medium-sized projects. If you are interested in pursuing cooperative work, please send NCALM a response that includes a KMZ(s) of your study area, a one-to-two paragraph description of you research objectives, and a budget of your potentially available funds. NCALM will work with PIs to develop a plan to allow data collection in their focus area(s). Additionally, please provide NCALM with information regarding contacts that you have in the foreign country (and locale) of interest and current work permits that you have obtained. Depending on the country, NCALM is required to have varying permits to perform flights or work in specific areas.

Deadlines:

NCALM is requesting a preliminary commitment by Friday, November 2, 2018, so we can begin the paperwork and preparation of export licenses and permits to the various countries. A final commitment and confirmation of funds will be requested by Friday, March 1, 2019, so the mapping campaign can be executed during March–May 2019.

The Geosensing Systems Engineering & Sciences (GSES) graduate research program in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston, in conjunction with the NSF National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), is seeking qualified applicants (with backgrounds in engineering, geomatics, geosciences, physics, astronomy, computer sciences, or geography) interested in: Design, development, and testing of lidar, digital image, and hyperspectral sensors; Research applications of lidar observations, including when combined with digital imagery or hyperspectral measurements; Study of satellite altimetry for applications in hydrology, glaciology, geodynamics, and sea levels; Applications of terrestrial laser scanning, airborne lidar, and GPS in natural hazards studies and mitigation; and Applications of airborne remote sensing techniques in geomorphology, climate/weather studies, hydrology, and tectonics. Please visit: ncalm.cive.uh.edu/gses/geosensing, for more information.

The application process and forms can be found on the Civil & Environmental Engineering website. Interested students can contact Dr. Craig Glennie at: clglennie [at] uh.edu (subject: Ph.D.%20Student%20Opportunity) .

Deadline: September 1st, 2018

2017 Student Seed Proposal Winners Selected

NCALM maps multiple project areas each year for graduate student PIs whose research would be enhanced by airborne lidar data and visible imagery. Students must write and submit a two page proposal to be considered for an award (details at: ncalm.cive.uh.edu/seed/about). The applications are reviewed by the NCALM Steering Committee, who then select winners based on intellectual merit and broader impact. Seed proposals that explore change detection by exploiting previously flown lidar coverage were encouraged this year.

NCALM would like to announce that the 2017 seed proposal winners have been awarded. There were 59 submissions, and eight projects were selected. Congratulations to the following students (and their advisors):

Madison Douglas (Michael Lamb) California Institute of TechnologyUsing meandering channels in Death Valley to determine the role of bank cohesion for unvegetated rivers on Earth and Mars

Scott Feehan (Scott McCoy) University of Nevada, RenoQuantifying the geomorphic effectiveness of paleo-outburst floods in the Truckee River Canyon

Kyle Hemes (Dennis Baldocchi) University of California, BerkeleyEcosystem structure as a driver of climatic, habitat, and hydrological services in heterogeneous restored wetlands

Colleen Murphy (Noah Finnegan) University of California, Santa CruzAlteration of groundwater flow due to slow landslide failure

Alexander Neely (Roman DiBiase) Pennsylvania State UniversityQuantifying rock strength controls on landscape morphology in the Guadalupe Mountains, NM/TX

Robert Sare (George Hilley) Stanford UniversityPoint classification using multispectral lidar and SfM for earthquake and volcano hazards applications

William Struble (Josh Roering) University of OregonControl of steepland landscape morphology by debris flows in the Idaho Batholith

Michael Vadman (Sean Bemis) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State UniversityGenerating a decadal time-series of displacements near Parkfield, California, from 1929 to the present using change detection on lidar and historical aerial photographs