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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.

Recent Publications
  • 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. https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2022.2022285
  • 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. https://doi:10.5923/j.ajgis.20221101.03
  • 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.  https://doi.org/10.1080/1747423X.2020.1866705
  • 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

 


Anusha Chaudhary

I am Anusha Chaudhary, a Ph.D. student at the University of Florida. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology and a Master’s degree in Biodiversity and Conservation. In terms of work experience, I have worked extensively on land cover and land use mapping, spatiotemporal landscape analysis, socio-economic surveys, environmental impact assessment, and forestry auditing in different parts of India. Currently, my research interests are focused on applications of remote sensing and GIS techniques on the conservation of biodiversity and disease risk management. Specifically, I am interested in assessing the relationship between disease risk and urban areas, with a focus on evaluating the implication of land cover changes on the population at risk. Through my research, I hope to contribute to a better understanding of the complex interactions between the environment, human health, and disease transmission in urban areas.

 


Audrey Culver Smith

Audrey is a PhD candidate who also completed her master’s degree in the UF Dept of Geography with Dr. Jane Southworth as her advisor. Her master’s research combined remote sensing time series analysis and georeferenced household survey data to examine environmental change and undernutrition in Zambia. She holds a BA in Anthropology with minors in Geography and African Studies from UF and worked in public health and community development in the US and East Africa before returning for graduate studies.  Audrey’s dissertation research examines the social and ecological impacts of large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia and Tanzania using remote sensing, spatial analysis, and mixed methods approaches, with a focus on land use/land cover change, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and rural livelihoods and food security. Audrey currently is the student director of the Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Savannas Initiative in Africa working group- an interdisciplinary group of UF students and faculty sponsored by the UF Center for African Studies.

 


Yu (Vera) Tian

My research interests focus on the science of ecologically oriented geography in response to sustainability goals, with a particular interest in urban energy systems and urban vegetation systems. I study the ways remote sensing and GIS modeling are used for the generation of applicable urban ecological data, and I also develop life cycle assessments to access environmental impacts associated with the stages of a sustainable system, an environmental policy, or a green product. I earned a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Virginia and a M.E.S. degree in environmental sustainability from the University of Pennsylvania. I am currently a third-year Ph.D. student from the School of Natural Resources and Environment in the University of Florida, majoring in interdisciplinary ecology with a concentration in geography. My research background and interests also include fossil fuel distribution, sustainable construction, and urban geography in general.

 


Muyeed Hasan

I am Md. Muyeed Hasan, a Ph.D. student at the Department of Geography, University of Florida. I have completed my B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Since 2011, I have served as a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environment, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

My research interest areas are Geospatial Analysis, Ecosystem and Biodiversity, Sustainable Development, Environmental Pollution, and Impact Assessment. I like to demonstrate various laboratory experiments and fieldwork with different risk assessments and problem-solving techniques.

I have completed several research projects in Bangladesh based on ecological imbalance, ecological footprint, and environmental analysis. The main goal was to find out the complex relationship between LULC, environmental components change, and livelihood patterns of humans.

My future goal is to complete my Ph.D. and later post-doc. I want to have competent knowledge in research, laboratory analysis, fieldwork, technical, communication, and leadership skills to explore the various Island wetland ecosystems worldwide to achieve sustainable development goals.

I served in various administrative posts and environmental, cultural, and sports organizations during my student life and teaching period. I like to play soccer, watch movies, cycle, travel, and cook.

 

 


Bewuket Tefera

I am a first-year Ph.D. student at the University of Florida Department of Geography. I have a master’s degree in Hydrology and Water Resources from UNESCO Delft- IHE, Delft, The Netherlands, and BSc in Agricultural Engineering and Mechanization at Hawassa University in Ethiopia.  My research interest is in human-environment interactions in land change and Geospatial Science: Remote Sensing, Land Use Land Cover, Hydrological Sciences, and Spatial Sciences (machine and deep learning).

 


Mohammad Safaei

I am a first year PhD student at the Department of Geography at the University of Florida.  I have a master’s degree in remote sensing and GIS from Kharazmi University, Iran, and a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Engineering from Yazd University, Iran. My research is primarily focused on applying geospatial, statistical and machine learning techniques to study the effects of climate change on vegetated systems, species distribution modeling, and land use/land cover change.

 


Mashoukur Rahaman

I have a strong interest in using geospatial data science, remote sensing, and machine learning to address important questions concerning agriculture, environmental risks, and urban dynamics. Frequently, I use programming languages and GIS software to support geospatial and data science tasks, including the analysis, modeling, and visualization of various types of data. I have studied include vegetation change detection and prediction using machine learning, Land use changes regarding tornadoes or cyclones, air pollution and landslide vulnerability zone detection using different machine learning algorithms. Currently, I’m working on deep learning algorithms that can be used to predict crop yield changes.

Educational Background: B.S. in Urban and Regional Planning, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, 2020.

 


Former lab members

Graduated Doctoral Students

Carly Muir
Ryan Good
Leandra Merz (Co-Chair with Dr. Brian Child) Mehedy Hassan Xavier Haro-Carrion
Meshari Alenzi
Hannah Herrero Mehmet Ozdes
Forrest Stevens Erin Bunting
Tim Fullman
Jessica Steele Likai Zhu
Jing Sun
Muhammad Almatar
HuiPing Tsai
Cerian Gibbes
Sanchayeeta Adhikari
Pinki Mondal Claudia Stickler
Jaclyn Hall
Amy Daniels
  • Graduated Summer 2009.
  • Research Scientist
Matt Marsik
Joel Hartter

GRADUATED  Masters Students

Tyler Schaper
Audrey Smith
  • Graduated Spring 2017.
  • Continued on to PhD [see above]
Hannah Herrero
  • Graduated Spring 2015.
  • Continued on to PhD [see above]
Mariano Gonzalez
Forrest Stevens
  • Graduated Spring 2009.
  • Continued on to PhD [see above]
Muhammad Almatar
  • Graduated Spring 2008.
  • Continued on to PhD [see above]
Cerian Gibbes
  • Graduated Fall 2006.
  • Continued on to PhD [see above]
Rob Lopez

 


Post-Docs and Visiting Fellows

Julius Roderick Dewald
Mehedy Mohammad Hassan
Reza Khatami
Guo Cuo
  • Visiting Scholar, China. Worked on remote sending techniques and machine learning, 2016-2017
Erin Bunting
  • Post-doc on the SEED Grant from the Informatics Institute on Health Climate and Land. 2014-2015.
Lin Cassidy
  • Research scholar at the Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana and independent consultant. Post-doc (25% time) on NASA Project 2009-2013
Xia Cui
  • Visiting Scholar to my lab, from Lanzhou University, China. Major: Cartography and Geographic Information System. Graduation Date: Summer, 2011.
Xanic Rondon
  • 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.