Tag: Geography

Refining cloud exclusion methods in tropical montane forest change detection with Landsat timeseries

Presenter: Sophia Shuler – Geography, Spatial Data Science and Technology

Faculty Mentor(s): Lucas Silva

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

Satellite based remote sensing is one of the most accessible methods for implementing large-scale terrestrial change detection. However, cloud cover contamination of images is a frequent barrier to the use of change detection algorithms, particularly in places where cloud cover is frequent, such as in tropical mountains. In this project, I offer a method for cloud detection that can improve the quality of satellite image time series in tropical regions. Using both a cloud mask and a cloud index, I detected clouds in a set of Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ time series from a tropical montane forest in Oaxaca, Mexico to a higher degree of accuracy than would be achieved by using the cloud mask alone. This method was used in sequence with the Breaks For Additive Season and Trend (BFAST) method in order to detect forest disturbances. After using a cloud index threshold of 2.8, the percentage of clouds detected increased from 91.8% to 94.4%. Additionally, this method yielded a 161% increase in the number of forest disturbances detected by BFAST. These results are applicable to change detection projects in regions with frequent cloud cover, where accuracy is limited by the climate conditions.

 

Social and Environmental Impacts of River Linking in Tamil Nadu, India

Presenter: Irene Klock

Mentors: Leslie McLees, Geography

Poster: 39

Major: Geography and Japanese 

River linking, the connecting of water canals to divert water to regions that wouldn’t usually receive it, is an important solution to the water crisis in India. The agricultural sector benefits from river linkage through increases in both job and food security on local and national scales. In south India, the water deprived state of Tamil Nadu is planning to create a flood carrier channel by interlinking the Tamiraparani, Karumeniyar, and Nambiar rivers. My research focuses on the potential social and environmental impacts of this flood carrier channel on surrounding villages. I gathered data through a series of surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions with the local communities. I then analyzed how the current water system drives local farming practices and compared it to how the new system could change them through alterations in geography, population, and long term traditions.

What I Wanted to Say, But Couldn’t: Epistolary Poetry’s Effects on Access and Intimacy for Asian-American Diasporic Poets

Presenter(s): Katie Quines—Spatial Data Science, Geography

Faculty Mentor(s): Ariel Machell

Session 4: Let’s KIDD Around: KIDD Creative Writing Program

While much attention has been paid to the thematic similarities between poetic works produced by Asian-American writers, little commentary exists on why several Asian-American poets are partial to a particular poetic form: the epistolary poem, or a poem stylized as a letter . Contemporary poets ranging from Franny Choi to Ocean Vuong have produced several epistolary poems that discuss their perspectives on the experience of being part of the Asian diaspora . However, the epistolary form creates varied and distinct effects on themes common to diasporic writing, with some letter-poems giving authors access to voice and emotions that critique external, social structures, while some choose to address issues that exist internal to the Asian-American community . This project explores different benefits that the epistolary format confers upon poems written to address the experience of diaspora . By analyzing letter-poems from four Asian-American poets in relation to Marie Myuk-Ok’s theory that the epistolary poem functions as a means of giving minorities access to social critique, I argue that the letter-poems give access to more than pure critique . Rather, the epistolary format functions as a liminal space, which allows diasporic writers to both confront and come to terms with various forms of absence (racial equality and power, of knowledge of our own communities or histories, of physical separation from loved ones, etc .) . This project aims to help poets like myself, who write under the shadow of diaspora, understand the epistolary poem as a form that is ripe with potential for creating new understandings of identity .