The NASA Lab
The NASA Lab centers around the science of remote sensing and land system science/land change science using Earth observations for interdisciplinary research focused on global environmental change and human-environment interactions. Dr. Southworth’s NASA lab consists of undergraduate, master’s students, doctoral students and post-docs.
The lab is run by Dr. Jane Southworth, Professor and Chair of the Dept of Geography at the University of Florida. It is located inside TUR1215 in Turlington Hall.
The lab uses earth observations and RS techniques & application, spatial analysis/statistics, and machine learning to analyze issues/problems including land use and land cover change, climate variability & change, agricultural productivity, food security, natural hazards, forest cover change, global vegetation dynamics, natural resource management and sustainability. The lab has published research articles on topics such as savanna ecosystems and vegetation dynamics in Africa.
The core focus of the NASA lab is monitoring global environmental change and its relationship with anthropogenic LULCC and climate change and increasing variability, and implications for environmental sustainability and human wellbeing. Dr. Southworth’s lab has historically consisted of a diverse group of students and post-doctoral researchers who originate from across the US and the world/international community who bring a broad range of backgrounds, interests, and skillsets.
Current Lab Members
Dr. Jane Southworth
My research interests are based on the study of human-environment interactions within the field of Land Change Science. All of my research is undertaken with highly interdisciplinary research teams which involve both social and physical scientists. It is this interdisciplinary focus on research problems that interests me and for which I was trained. Within such interdisciplinary teams my particular strengths lie in the remote sensing of time series analyses, machine learning and AI RS approaches, vegetation dynamics, land use, land cover change and land change modeling; the implications of scale and scaling in remote sensing and modeling analyses; people and parks; and modeling of the impacts of climate change on human-environment systems and vegetation dynamics.
- Mohammad Mehedy Hassan, Ikramul Hassan, Jane Southworth, Tatiana Loboda, 2022. Coupling field data and a remote sensing approach to mapping fire-impacted refugee camps. (2022). International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 115: 103120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2022.103120
- Southworth, J., V. Seufert, K. Seto, and D.K. Munroe, 2022. Editorial Introduction: Women in Land Science. Journal of Land Use Science, 17 (1): 1-11.
- Tyler Schaper, Reza Khatami, Mohammad Mehedy Hassan, Gregory Glass, Jane Southworth, 2022. Monitoring Major Crop Coverage Change Trends in Agricultural in Florida. American Journal of Geographic Information System. 11(1): 23-31.
- Southworth, Jane and Muir, Carly, 2021. Specialty Grand Challenge: Remote Sensing Time Series Analysis. Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 2, https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2021.770431
- Xavier Haro-Carrión, Peter Waylen & Jane Southworth, 2021. Spatiotemporal changes in vegetation greenness across continental Ecuador: a Pacific-Andean- Amazonian gradient, 1982–2010, Journal of Land Use Science, 16 (1): 18-33.
- Muir, C., Southworth, J., Khatami, R., Herrero, H., and Akyapi, B., 2021. Vegetation Dynamics and Climatological Drivers in Ethiopia at the Turn of the Century. Remote Sensing, 13 (16): 3267, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163267
- Herrero, Hannah Victoria and Southworth, Jane, 2020. Special Issue on Dynamics of the Global Savanna and Grasslands Biomes. (2020). Applied Sciences. 10 (22), 8043. Editorial. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10228043
- Herrero, H. V., Southworth, J., Muir, C., Khatami, R., Bunting, E., and Child, B., 2020. An evaluation of vegetation persistence in and around southern African national parks during the 21st century. Applied Sciences, 10(7), 2366. Special Issue: Dynamics of the Global Savanna and Grasslands Biomes. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10072366
- Khatami, R., Southworth, J., Muir, C., Caughlin, T., Ayana, A., Brown, D.G., Liao, C., & Agrawal, A., 2020. Operational large-area land cover mapping: an Ethiopia case study. Remote Sensing, 12, 954. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12060954
- Hassan, M. M., Ash, K., Abedin, J., Paul, B. K., & Southworth, J., 2020. A Quantitative Framework for Analyzing Spatial Dynamics of Flood Events: A Case Study of Super Cyclone Amphan. Remote Sensing, 12(20), 3454; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12203454
- Khatami, R., Southworth, J., Muir, C., Caughlin, T., Ayana, A., Brown, D.G., Liao, C., Agrawal, A., 2020. Operational large-area land-cover mapping: Ethiopia case study. Remote Sensing, 12(6), 954; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12060954
- Herrero, H., P. Waylen, J. Southworth, R. Khatami, D. Yang, and B. Child, 2020. A healthy park needs healthy vegetation: The story of Gorongosa National Park in the 21st century. Remote Sensing, 12(3), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12030476
- Graduated Spring 2023.
- Researcher, William and Mary
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carly-Muir
- Graduated Spring 2022.
- Lecturer, SNRE, University of Florida
- https://snre.ifas.ufl.edu/people/faculty-staff-and-administration/good/
- Graduated Spring 2022.
- Postdoc at University of Michigan
- https://www.coexistencegroup.com/people.html
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leandra-Merz
- Graduated Summer 2021.
- Postdoc, Stanford
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4cxbjzIAAAAJ&hl=en
- Graduated Summer 2019.
- Assistant Professor, Macalester University
- https://www.macalester.edu/geography/facultystaff/xavier-haro-carrion/
- https://xavierhc.weebly.com/
- Graduated Summer 2019.
- Assistant Professor, University of Kuwait
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4SCb85EAAAAJ&hl=en
- Graduated Summer 2019.
- Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee
- https://geography.utk.edu/about-us/faculty/dr-hannah-herrero/
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hannah-Herrero
- Graduated Spring 2018.
- Assistant Professor, Namik Kemai University, Turkey
- http://fened-c-en.web.nku.edu.tr/Personel/0/s/4812/5047
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mehmet-Ozdes-2
- Graduated December 2015.
- Associate Professor, University of Louisville
- https://louisville.edu/geogeo/our-people/profiles/forrest-r-stevens-ph-d
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=L_YiAkgAAAAJ&hl=en
- Graduated Summer 2014.
- Assistant Professor and Director of Remote Sensing Institute, Michigan State University
- https://geo.msu.edu/directory/bunting-erin.html
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qClqu8EAAAAJ&hl=en
- Graduated Summer 2014. Co-Chair with Dr. Brian Child.
- Senior Ecologist, The Wilderness Society
- https://www.wilderness.org/about-us/tim-fullman-phd
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Timothy-Fullman
- Graduated Summer 2014.
- Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Southampton
- https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5xf866/doctor-jessica-steele
- https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Jessica-E-Steele-2143568041
- Graduated Summer 2014.
- Associate Professor, Linyi University, China
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B8UnCHMAAAAJ&hl=en
- Graduated Summer 2013.
- Professor, Institute of Agricultural Resource and Regional Planning, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jing-Sun-46
- Graduated Fall 2012.
- Associate Professor & Chair, University of Kuwait
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad-Almatar
- Graduated Fall 2012.
- Faculty member, NCH University, Taiwan
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Huiping-Tsai
- Graduated Spring 2011.
- Associate Professor, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
- https://ges.uccs.edu/cerian_gibbes
- Graduated Spring 2011.
- Associate Professor, University of California, Northridge
- https://www.csun.edu/social-behavioral-sciences/geography/sanchayeeta-adhikari
- Graduated Fall 2010.
- Assistant Professor, University of Delaware
- https://www.udel.edu/academics/colleges/ceoe/departments/gss/faculty/pinki-mondal/
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PnouwuQAAAAJ&hl=en
- Graduated December 2009.
- Scientist, Earth Innovation Institute
- https://earthinnovation.org/about/eii-staff/4
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claudia-Stickler
- Graduated Summer 2009.
- Research Scientist, Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, University of Florida
- https://hobi.med.ufl.edu/profile/hall-jaclyn/
- Graduated Summer 2009.
- Research Scientist
- Graduated Fall 2008 (Co-Chair with Dr. Peter Waylen)
- Data Management Analyst, UF Health
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ANZWueQAAAAJ&hl=en
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Marsik
- Graduated Fall 2007 (Co-Chair with Dr. Abe Goldman)
- Professor & Director of MENV Program, University of Colorado, Boulder
- https://www.colorado.edu/envs/joel-hartter
- https://jhartter.weebly.com/
- Graduated Spring 2021.
- Works in Foreign Affairs, US Government
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-schaper-27043388
- Graduated Spring 2017.
- Continued on to PhD [see above]
- Graduated Spring 2015.
- Continued on to PhD [see above]
- Graduated Fall 2009.
- Continued on to PhD at Duke University
- Country Director, Wildlife Conservation Society, Argentina
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6yRjqVsAAAAJ&hl=en
- https://ar.linkedin.com/in/mariano-gonzalez-roglich-8a061913
- Graduated Spring 2009.
- Continued on to PhD [see above]
- Graduated Spring 2008.
- Continued on to PhD [see above]
- Graduated Fall 2006.
- Continued on to PhD [see above]
- Graduated Spring 2006.
- Geospatial Analyst, US Department of Defense
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-lopez-5422164a
- Served as an external member of his PhD committee at University of Miami, and now his remote sensing mentor in his postdoctoral position with Drs. Scott Brown and Jose Szapocznick, both from the University of Miami
- https://people.miami.edu/profile/j.dewald@umiami.edu
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AqLLGboAAAAJ&hl=en
- Postdoctoral scholar, working on time series analysis, machine learning and advanced classification approaches. Jan 2021 – current
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4cxbjzIAAAAJ&hl=en
- Postdoctoral scholar, working on time series analysis, land cover change and land transactions in Ethiopia and Florida agricultural analysis. Jan 2017 – Jan 2021
- https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ksex1GgAAAAJ&hl=en
- Visiting Scholar, China. Worked on remote sending techniques and machine learning, 2016-2017
- Post-doc on the SEED Grant from the Informatics Institute on Health Climate and Land. 2014-2015.
- Research scholar at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana and independent consultant. Post-doc (25% time) on NASA Project 2009-2013
- Visiting Scholar to my lab, from Lanzhou University, China. Major: Cartography and Geographic Information System. Graduation Date: Summer, 2011.
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL (Feb-Oct 2010), and Postdoctoral Fellow, Percy Fitz Patrick Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Advisors: G. Cumming, S. Perz, and J. Southworth. Project: NSF grant: Infrastructure change, human agency, and resilience in social-ecological systems.
Key terms
agriculture, big data, climate change, climate variability, cloud computing, Deep learning, ecosystem services, food and nutrition security, food security, global environmental change, hazards, human vulnerability and resilience, human-environment interactions, interdisciplinary, land change science, land system science, machine learning, natural disasters, natural resource management, remote sensing, risks, savanna ecosystems, Spatial Analysis, spatial statistics, sustainability, time-series analysis