National Consortia for Remote Sensing in TransportationEnvironmental Assessment

Mississippi State UniversityProgress and Strategic Directions

First Year

For MSU, as the lead university in the environmental assessment consortia, there were four strategic first year milestone components:

Management and Imagery ProductsResearch Needs AssessmentGulf Coast Research ActivitiesOutreach Activities

Lead University Strategic DirectionsRoles and ResponsibilitiesAt MSU, the strategic outlook on the initial role of the lead university is to provide leadership to the consortia through helping projects to define, organize, and accomplish research goals and objectives and through assisting with the management and the acquisition of needed data resources. As the consortium progresses, the role of the lead university will shift to a supporting “center of excellence” as the core components of that functionality are incrementally developed.

Management and Imagery Products

Management of the consortium required travel to many events for technical information exchange and planning. The management and travel activities are expected to increase due to the addition of an international programs component to the consortia.

Management and Imagery Products

Data acquisition was a major focus for the first year. The lead university managed and coordinated the procurement of needed data for the projects. The need for project data for following years will be reduced by about 60 percent and that reduction will be reprogrammed to support the development of core functions of the “center of excellence.”

Management and Imagery Products

Year two data acquisitions will be largely focused on supporting the data needs of newly identified collaborative efforts currently under development as well as additional data needs of the currently supported projects. Newly identified collaborative efforts are being developed to address priority issues identified through research needs assessment.

Research Needs Assessment

Through multi-agency scoping efforts, several areas of priority research needs were established. In some cases, existing research efforts have been modified to meet assessed needs and in other cases, new collaborative efforts have begun and are in the early stages of planning. NCRST-E has identified State DOTs that have current projects that contain research components that fit the identified research needs.

Research Needs AssessmentNew Research Collaboration MatrixWetlands Mapping and Assessment

Iowa DOT

Habitat Assessment and Characterization

Washington DOT

Wetlands Identification and Data Fusion

North Carolina DOT

Watershed/Raster Characterization

Florida DOT

LC/LUC and Baseline Characterization

Mississippi DOT

New Research Development Example

In the case of Iowa DOT, they have expressed a desire tocollaborate on a wetlands assessment effort and will contribute cost share while the consortia contributes data.

Iowa Dot has identifiedfour separate locationswhere they need to dowetland assessment. Inthese areas, collectingtimely data is critical toallow the identificationof vegetative communities that are highly seasonal.

Gulf Coast Research Activities

Research objectives for the MSU Gulf Coast project were initially oriented upon LC/LUC in a coastal corridor. After further scoping, the priorities for this area have been adjusted to include aspects of corridor preservation in a coastal zone area of considerable population growth. LC/LU baseline and change analyses are important components of the research and will serve to facilitate and complement the study of corridor preservation and sustainability issues in a fragile coastal ecosystem.

Outreach Activities

Some of the outreach activities that have been identified are included in the following list:

Center of Excellence DevelopmentCongressional BriefingsInternational ProgramsNew Project DevelopmentTRB MeetingsGIS-T, URISA, AASHTO, ESRI, and ASPRSCookbook and factsheet publicationsOther Conferences and Meetings

New Strategic Components

For the second year of the consortia, several new strategic components have been identified:

Management and International ProgramsCookbook Development and PublicationDevelopment of Center of Excellence

Management and International Programs

The new international program development component will require time, travel, and additional international outreach to build affiliations and collaborative research relationships with partnering groups. Additionally, for potential international demonstration efforts the development of materials, applications, and high-end presentation content will require a significant investment of time, technology, and effort.

Cookbook Development and Publication

The development of cookbook publications that describe the application of remote sensing technology in the areas of the individual consortium will provide a significant visible beneficial product for the NCRST effort. For Environmental Assessment, five topics have been identified as "strawmen" for cookbook development.

Cookbook Development and Publication

“Strawman” topics for cookbook development include:

Watershed Delineation and Characterization LC/LUC Detection and Characterization Ecosystem and Habitat Analysis Using High-Resolution Elevation and Image Data for Environmental Visualization Using Remote Sensing Technology for Wetland Mapping

Development of Center of Excellence

For each of the consortia to succeed in the task of developing a world-class center of excellence for the consortia's specific area of responsibility, certain fundamental core functions must be developed and fostered.

Advanced Curriculum DevelopmentGraduate Student Research SupportAdvanced Data ManagementRS/GIS-T Computational Earth Sciences LabWeb Server Development & Support Resources

Strategic Development Discussion Points

Roles and ResponsibilitiesOutreach ActivitiesManagement and Image ProductsInternational ProgramsResearch Needs AssessmentCookbook Topics and ProcessDevelopment of Center of Excellence