Recent Progress in Remote Sensing for Environmental Change Detection in Water Cycle
Professor Ni-Bin Chang
Director, Stormwater Management Academy
University of Central Florida
Orlando, Florida, USA
Contemporary challenges in optical remote sensing for earth observations include: 1) complexity in data/image fusion or merging for higher spatial and temporal resolution, 2) feature extraction of different environmental quality images utilizing machine learning techniques, 3)cloud contamination, image reconstruction and cross-mission data merging with the aid of machine learning, and 4) design of integrated decision support systems.The recent regime shift of machine learning techniques from regular learning to deep learning to fast learning has triggered a renewed interest in remote sensing image processing. This presentation will focus on theseforefronts and challengesusingcase studiesof Lake Erieand Lake Nicaragua based on both multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensingimageries.MonitoringChlorophyll-a, total phosphorus and total nitrogenconcentrations as well as the algal toxin – mycrocystins – will be discussed for lake eutrophication assessment. The latest advances in Integrated Data Fusion and Mining (IDFM) by fusing images collected from two satellites will be introduced. To recover the missing information caused by cloud contamination, SMart Information Reconstruction (SMIR) and Spectral Information Adaptation and Synthesis Scheme (SIASS) will be presentedfor merging cross-mission consistent ocean color reflectance observations.A decision support system will be described for Cross-mission Data Merging with Image Reconstruction and Mining(CDMIM) with application to map the water quality conditions in Lake Nicaragua. In addition, remote sensing applied to characterize the climate change patterns associated with changing sea surface temperatures that affect the terrestrial precipitation will be discussed too. Future topics related to the next regime shiftof remote sensing technologies for the water sustainability and climate will be discussed in the conclusion.
Biosketch: Ni-Bin Chang is Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering, having held this post in the US since 2002. He received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan in 1983, and M.S. and PhD degrees in Environmental Systems Engineering from Cornell University in the US in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He is Director of the Stormwater Management Academy andProfessor with the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida in the US. His research lie at the intersection between “Environmental Sustainability” and “Resilient Infrastructure Systems”. From August 2012 to August 2014, Professor Chang served as Program Director of the Hydrologic Sciences Program and Cyber-Innovated Sustainability Science and Engineering Program at the National Science Foundation. He has received over thirty-five awards/honors since 1987 nationally and internationally, including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2010, the Fulbright Scholar Award from the Department of State and German-American Fulbright Council in 2012, the Bridging the Gaps Award from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the United Kingdom in 2012, the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom in 2014, and the Blaise Pascal Medal from the European Academy of Sciences in 2016 and the citation is “for his outstanding contribution in Environmental Sustainability, Green Engineering, and Systems Analysis“. He is Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (F.ASCE), theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (F.IEEE), the International Society of Optics and Photonics (F.SPIE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (F.AAAS), the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom (F.RSC), and the European Academy of Sciences (F.EASc).