My project aims to combine two forms of data – satellite images and surveys – to gain a better understanding of conservation farming practices in Wisconsin. To do this, my plan has been to first send a survey to 500 farmers in Wisconsin and ask them about their experiences with cover cropping and no-till farming techniques. Then, using an algorithm developed by Ryan Geygan in Prof. Ozdogan’s lab which uses satellite data to identify conservation farming techniques, I would (1) verify the algorithm and (2) develop a database illustrating which conservation farming conditions produced what results.
My placement has started on June 3rd, and it has been
two weeks now. During this time, I have completed some works and made progress.
Before my placement started, I met with Annemarie, my academic supervisor, and she gave me some feedbacks and proposed some questions about my proposal, which lead me to a good point to start my work. At the kick-off meeting with my host supervisor, we discussed some of the questions, and decided to use Orthoimagery from Ayres as data source. The data contains Red, Blue, Green and Near Infrared bands, and has a resolution of 0.5 feet. The study area is focused on Middleton. And impervious surface will be used to identify urban area.
The last few weeks of my placement have been focused on identifying the best publicly available datasets to identify physiological stress in trees from space.
This began with time spent in the JavaScript Google Earth Engine API visualizing datasets and developing ways of observing various indices. The ones that offered the best qualitative change with tree mortality were the Tasseled Cap wetness index and ALOS/PULSAR 2 derived Radar Forest Degradation index.
I’ve been working with the MPO for about four weeks now. As been stressed in the introduction, one of the main deliverables for me during this placement is to develop road networks for Dane County. Which means the very first task is digitizing line features within Dane County with the help of aerial photo and street view.
The work I’ve done for my placement so far is very similar to the expectations outlined in my proposal and preparatory discussions with my current supervisor. Namely, I’ve been handling community outreach, mitigation planning, review of the Flooding Resilience Scorecard and ingesting an almost obscene amount of terminology and associated acronyms. One key difference is target audience. While most of my proposal and initial work focused on the Village of Viola, now that they’re “off the ground” they have also slowed down their process and are in what appears to be a holding pattern until Hazard Mitigation Grant awards are in circulation. However, another community, the Village of La Valle is just getting started. So, much of the work description that follows comes from engagement with their newly formed Revitalization Committee, which has been a pleasure to sit in on.
It’s hard for me to believe that this is already the fifth week of my placement at TNC. I am finally learning my way around WO (TNC’s Worldwide Office), and I am enjoying seeing familiar faces outside of my small team. I’ve become even more comfortable making connections with other TNC staff from different departments. In other efforts to get to expand my TNC network, I have been attending brown bag lunches and other events. Last week, I attended a lunch meeting for the office’s Women in Nature group. Yesterday, I attended a fascinating lecture about NASA’s GEDI project- an International Space Station laser which captures topographic data and detects deforestation.
My introductory post was entitled “Let’s Sequester Some Carbon!” I am sorry to report that nearly three weeks into my placement, I have yet to personally sequester any carbon. However, I have taken the bus to work every day so far, so I am at least limiting my carbon footprint!
In all seriousness, I can honestly say that my first few weeks at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) have gone largely according to expectations. During my first week, I sat in on stakeholder meetings between TNC staff, state government officials and representatives of other environmental groups. In these meetings, Dr. Rose Graves presented her findings on potential Natural Climate Solution (NCS) pathways in Oregon, demonstrating the carbon sequestration potential of several potential NCS strategies. Participants were invited to provide feedback and recommendations on Dr. Graves’ initial research. These meetings provided an excellent opportunity to watch NGOs and government officials navigate the science-policy interface (more on this later).
It has exactly been 1 month that I started working with the Rainforest Alliance on Accountability framework, in this period, I learnt a lot about the deforestation commitments of the companies whose supply chains affect the forests in South-East Asia and South America. I am helping the team in the initial phase of uptake of the guidelines by the companies, providing them a practical roadmap to achieving their commitments.
Now that I’ve had 3 1/2 weeks behind me, I finally feel like I’m making some real progress and can see my deliverables coming together. The first two weeks were definitely challenging and I initially had some doubts in my abilities to successfully and meaningfully create maps about the elk reintroduction project. But I was able to problem solve and now look forward to sharing with you what I have done so far and what is still coming.
Not too little. Not too much. Just right. Lagom. The Swedish way of life which includes a healthy work-life balance and a more simplistic way of living is often accredited to the Lagom philosophy. It is this balanced way of life that allows for many Swedes to enjoy long summer holidays, leaving their work behind until the autumn returns.
The Nelson Institute: Environmental Conservation Leadership Projects 