Colloquium title: Land Change Science is as complex as you choose to make it.
Friday, April 17
12:20PM
Location: AUS 434
Dr. Pontius is an environmental statistician who creates new quantitative methods for Land Change Science and Geographic Information Science (GIS), thus he incorporates his methods into Clark’s GIS software Idrisi. These methods help investigators to analyze Coupled Human and Natural Systems. For example, in the Plum Island Ecosystems of Massachusetts, he examine why humans fertilize & water their lawns, and how this influences watering bans and river pollution. In Puerto Rico, he examines why humans transform the surface of the land, and how this influences flooding and biodiversity in San Juan. Many investigators use his methods for carbon offset projects to manage greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forests. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds most of his research, through the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, the Urban Long Term Research Areas (ULTRA) program, and the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.
Geog. Dept. faculty host: Chuanrong Zhang
For more information, contact: Nat Trumbull/Geography at trumbull@uconn.edu