简介

My research uses remote sensing and geospatial analysis to examine the connections between vegetation and the physical environment. I have a particular interest in wildfire, a disturbance that has major impacts on Western U.S. ecosystems and on the carbon cycle. My students and I use remote sensing to map vegetation species and measure vegetation characteristics related to fire danger, drought, insect damage, seasonal cycles, and invasive species. We seek to understand how climate variables impact fire danger and fire occurrence. We have several ongoing projects that use multispectral or hyperspectral data to quantify land cover/land use change. We are also using multiple types of remotely sensed data, including lidar, to model firefighter safety zones and determine fire evacuation triggers.