Research Positions:

Indiana University - Post Doctoral Fellow CIPEC

Bloomington, Indiana Aug. 1996 - Present

Remote Sensing Specialist and Biogeographer for CIPEC: Responsible for conducting research on landcover change in Madagascar, Uganda and Indiana as well as designing and implementing methodological protocols on remote sensing for CIPEC sites, and developing an interactive internet web site to disseminate these remote sensing techniques to the Global Change community. Participates in the creation of a theoretical framework for studying landcover change systematically across both time and space. Developing a distance-learning, web-based course entitled "Remote Sensing of Global Change" in Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). Topics covered include: remote sensing theory, radiometric calibration, atmospheric correction, radiometric rectification, spectral mixture analysis, reflectance properties of vegetation, field sampling strategies, field methodologies appropriate for remote sensing, the limitations of NDVI, use of field spectrometers, and the use of hemispherical 35mm photography to measure LAI. Is a major contributor, for the last 7 years, to CIPEC's Summer Institute (SI). The CIPEC SI is an annual 3-week, intensive, multi-disciplinary course on the human dimension of global environmental change.

 

Was responsible for preparing and conducting a series of one-month training sessions with foreign environmental researchers and/or policy makers from Africa and Latin America in the study of the human dimensions of global environmental change. Training program covered the application of Remote Sensing, GIS and GPS to the study of land cover change involving both deforestation, and secondary succession.

Research Interests and Current Projects:

My research broadly focuses on using Remote Sensing and GIS analysis to map and monitor changes in forests and to explore the causes and controls of landcover change across multiple scales of space and time. This information is vital in designing effective and equitable conservation policies and resource management strategies. Other research interests include establishing the physical basis for spectral variation in vegetated terrains, and determining how physical factors, such as soil moisture relations, control plant distributions and leaf reflectance. This research involves the measurement of forest physiognomy and species diversity, spectral measurement of leaf reflectance from numerous canopy species, as well as satellite image calibration. More detailed descriptions of specific research interests follow:

Linking Forest Cover and Biomass with Landsat Reflectance Collected quantitative cover estimates in Uganda during the summer of 2003 in the field and using a small airplane. Hemispherical digital images were acquired from underneath canopies in which National Biomass Survey (NBS) 50x50m plots have been done. During several flights of a small airplane we also acquired high-resolution images over numerous NBS plots using digital video, a still digital camera, and a 35mm film camera. All these images will be measured and compared with NBS biomass estimates. Reflectance spectra were also acquired with a field spectrometer using a lens and an integrating sphere; these measures will be compared with Landsat end-member images derived from Spectral Mixture Analysis (SMA). We hope these measures will provide more robust and objective ground truth data for mapping vegetation change in southern Uganda.

Establishing the Physical Basis for Reflectance in Old Growth and Early Successional Forests

Examined the relationship between remotely sensed reflectance measurements and forest mensuration data from sixty to eighty year old secondary forests, identified and measured during the Ecological Classification System (ECS) project. Designed and implemented a forest mensuration protocol that measures appropriate taxonomic and structural properties of early successional stands to compare with Landsat derived canopy reflectance data. Successional stands consist of: 1) hardwood plantations, 2) clear cuts, and old-fields in both 3) uplands and 4) bottomlands.

Determining the BioPhysical and Institutional Control on Forests Conducted research on the physical and Institutional controls that determine forest cover in Indiana. Digital Elevation models at several scales were used to derive the distribution of topographic slopes. In Indiana slope seems to be the primary physical factor determining the present distribution of forest. However, several locally important institutional anomalies have been identified: several large Department of Defense bases and numerous private woodlots on farms.

Determining and Monitoring the Causes of Forest Loss in Southern Madagascar

Employed Remote Sensing / GIS methodologies to monitor deforestation in dry forest under pressure from subsistence farming, clearing for charcoal production and clearing for export crop production. Conducted landowner interviews as well as the quantitative description of the structure and taxonomy of xerophytic vegetation communities together with the measurement of plant spectral properties. Conducted field studies in Madagascar during five trips, totaling more than a year's duration, involving historical landcover changes and agricultural practices.

 

Mapping the Distribution of the Ring Tailed Lemur Determining the present and historical density and distribution of Lemur catta in southern and southwestern Madagascar is an ongoing project in collaboration with primatologists: Robert Sussman, Ingrid Porton, and Joelisoa Ratsirarson. We conducted a field survey in 2001 facilitated by the use of broad scale spectral and multi-temporal satellite based image products covering the dates: 1973, 1985, and 2000. This survey showed that the distribution of Lemur catta is very heterogeneous, with a few sites of very high density separated by large areas of much lower lemur density. We showed that sacred forests maintained by local communities are critical to the maintenance of certain lemur populations.

Radiometric Calibration of Landsat Images

Compiled and generated a set of web-based protocols to transform both Landsat MSS, TM, and ETM+ image data from digital number (DN) values to surface reflectance values. This conversion is necessary for accurate comparisons using satellite images across various scales of time and space. Images are corrected for non-surface parameters related to instrument and satellite differences, illumination effects caused by Earth-Sun distance and solar incidence angle differences, and atmospheric optical property differences and topographic normalization. Are using field spectrometer measurements to validate results.

Web-Based Remote Sensing Training

Generated an extensive web site for use in training CIPEC personnel, and students at Indiana University plus the CIPEC Summer Institute in remote sensing techniques. These guidelines are used across many CIPEC locations to facilitate comparisons. This web site consists of more than a dozen image processing stages including: selecting appropriate Landsat images to answer different Global Change science questions, and performing radiometric calibration, principle component analysis, vegetation indices, spectral mixture analysis, and temporal change analysis using Landsat NALC data sets. Protocols total several hundred pages of text and are linked to numerous flowchart, icons, and illustrations to aid site navigation and understanding. All files used and example images are downloadable. Excel spreadsheets automate many complex calculations.

Ground Truth Procedures for Landsat Images Generated a methodology to collect field data on woody vegetation that is appropriate for comparison to Landsat TM, MSS, and ETM+ image data across a wide range of vegetation types. This protocol is needed because many commonly used plot-based plant mensuration techniques used by foresters and ecologists are inappropriate for understanding the physical linkage between remotely sensed optical images and vegetation structure. My point-quarter-based methodology adapts to both early successional communities as well as old-growth forests, thus avoiding the under-sampling and over-sampling of particular dbh classes which commonly occurs with plot-based measurements. Canopy hemispherical 35mm photographs are also collected to estimate canopy cover and Leaf Area Index (LAI).

Landsat Based Land Cover Time Series

Supervised the construction of a series of Landsat MSS, TM, and ETM+ images of southern Indiana, Madagascar, Uganda, and Sierra Leone from 1972 to 2002. Images are geometrically registered and have undergone image restoration which includes: radiometric calibration, image rectification and atmospheric correction. Topographic normalization will also be preformed before the image time series undergo classification and spectral mixture analysis.

Research Experience:

Scientific Analysis and Software Used

Extensive experience with Remote Sensing and GIS as well as digital image processing and Exploratory_Data_Analysis on PCs and Macintosh computers using the following software: MFworks, Noesys, ERDAS-Imagine, Idrisi, MultiSpec, DataDesk. Extensive analysis with Landsat image series, leaf and soil spectral data, Spectral Mixing Analysis, NDVI, change detection, statistical analysis of multi-dimensional data, dynamic modeling, and visualization.

Equipment and Remotely Sensed Images Used

Operated numerous field spectrometers including a Palm based Omni_Spec VIS/MidIR instrument, the Spectron 590, Barringer HHRR, Daedalus, Ancal Spectator, Licor and Analytical Spectral Devices instruments, and laboratory instruments from NIRS, and Beckman, as well as Garmin, Trimble, and Sony GPS instruments. Satellite or aerial data used include Landsat Thematic Mapper and MultiSpectral Scanner, SPOT, AVHRR, TMS, AIS, SIR-A, Seasat, HCMM, AVIRIS, and stereo aerial photography. Field and laboratory methods used include SEM photography, collection and processing of plant material using liquid nitrogen, use of field portable integrating sphere, use of pole and motorized cherry picker. Also employed plant collection and drying, measurement of community diversity and physiognomy using transects, quadrats and point-quarter methods. Used digitizers, slide scanners, video equipment, 35mm cameras and digital infrared photography.

Fieldwork Locations

Designed field protocol and conducted Landsat training sample field data collection in Indiana secondary forests as well as interviewed landowners. Organized and conducted field studies in Madagascar, Missouri, Indiana, and Uganda employing the quantitative description of the structure and taxonomy of xerophytic vegetation communities, temperate deciduous forest, as well as rain forest together with the measurement of plant spectral properties and GPS locations. Conducted interviews with local peoples in relation to historical land cover changes, grazing and agricultural practices. Have working knowledge of French and Spanish.

Outreach My original maps of tropical deforestation in Madagascar have been reproduced in numerous environmental and biogeography text books, in journals including Scientific American, National Geographic, and New Scientist, and in an Audubon Society TV special. They have been reported on in The Futurist, The Scientist, in a number of newspaper articles and newsletters, and in the Smithsonian SITES display about tropical rain forests that toured nationally. Given presentations at both the Indianapolis Zoo and the St. Louis Zoo. Conducted numerous 1-month training sessions on remote sensing, GPS, and GIS technologies. Created a web-based learning environment to teach remote sensing methodologies to CIPEC Summer Institute students for seven 3-week sessions. Five years of experience teaching university level courses in remote sensing.

Environments Studied and Disciplines of Collaboration

Have conducted Remote Sensing and GIS field studies in temperate and tropical deciduous forest, tropical rain and montane forest, savanna, sclerophyllous woodland, temperate and tropical semi-arid shrubland, desert communities and acid rain-damaged spruce forest. Have worked closely with political scientists, social anthropologists, geologists, primatologists, botanists, ecologists, soil scientists, and conservationists.

Collaborators:

Krister Andersson

Chetan Agarwal

Joseph Bahati

Lisa Gezon

Derek Kauneckis

Steve McKracken

Harini Nagendra

Janet Nakoney

Endre A. Nyerges

Ingrid Porton

Joelisoa Ratsirarson

Charles M. Schweik

Jane Southworth

Mohamed Sultan

Robert W. Sussman

Sean Sweeney

J.C. Randolph

Nathan Vogt

Brian Winchester

Mark Wood

Jim Yount

Marcelo Zak

Peer Reviewed Papers and Book Chapters:

Robert W. Sussman, Glen M. Green, Ingrid Porton, Ony L. Andrianasolondraibe, and Joelisoa Ratsirarson, 2003, A Survey of the Habitat of Lemur catta in Southwestern and Southern Madagascar, Primate Conservation, v.19, p. 32-57.

Agarwal, Chetan, Glen M. Green, J. Morgan Grove, Tom P. Evans, and Charles M. Schweik, 2002, A Review and Assessment of Land-Use Change Models: Dynamics of Space, Time, and Human Choice, CIPEC Collaborative Report No. 1. USFS Publication GTR-NE-297, Joint publication by the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University-Bloomington and the USDA Forest Service, Burlington, VT, USDA Forest Service Northeastern Forest Research Station. Download PDF

Endre A. Nyerges, and Glen M. Green, 2000, The Ethnography of Landscape: GIS and Remote Sensing in the Study of Forest Change in West African Guinea Savanna, American Anthropologist, v.102, n.2, p.271-289.

Evans P. Tom, Glen M. Green, and Laura A. Carlson, 2001, Multi-Scale Analysis of Landcover Composition and Landscape Management of Public and Private Lands in Indiana, chapter 16 in book: GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in Biogeography and Ecology, Andrew, C. Millington, Stephen, J. Walsh, and Patrick, E. Osborne, editors, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Morgan Grove, Charlie Schweik, Tom Evans, and Glen Green, 2000, Modeling Human and Environmental Dynamics, Chapter 7 in book: Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Modeling, Clarke, K. C., B. E. Parks, and M. P. Crane (editors), Prentice-Hall.

Charles M. Schweik, and Glen M. Green, 1999, The Use of Spectral Mixture Analysis to Study Human Incentives, Actions and Environmental Outcomes, Social Science Computer Review, v.17, n.1, p. 40-63.

Sussman, R.W., Green, G.M., and Sussman, L.K., 1995, The Use of Satellite Imagery and Anthropology to Assess the Causes of Deforestation in Madagascar, in Tropical Deforestation: The Human Dimension, Sponsel, Headland and Bailey, editors, Columbia University Press, New York.

Sussman, R.W., Green, G.M., and Sussman, L.K., 1994, Satellite Imagery, Human Ecology, Anthropology, and Deforestation in Madagascar, Human Ecology, v. 22, p. 333-354.

Arvidson, R., Duncan, I., Green, G., Rivard, B., and Sultan, M., 1992, Geological Mapping Using Landsat Thematic Mapper Data over Oak-Hickory Forest, Arctic, and Hyperarid Terrains, in Pieters, C. and Englert, P., editors, Remote Geochemical Analysis: Elemental and Mineralogical Composition, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX.

Green, G., and Sussman, R., 1990, Deforestation History of the Eastern Rain Forests of Madagascar from Satellite Images, Science, v. 248, p. 212-215.

Green, G., 1988, Physical Basis for Remotely Sensed Spectral Variation in a Semi-Arid Shrub Land and an Oak-Hickory Forest: Implications for Mapping Soil Types in Vegetated Terrains, Ph.D. Thesis, Washington University, 410 p.

Green, Glen, M., 1986, Use of SIR-A and Landsat MSS data in Mapping Shrub and Intershrub Vegetation at Koonamore, South Australia, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, v. 52, p. 659-670.

Book Chapters Submitted:

Randolph, J. C., Glen M. Green, Jonathon Belmont, Theresa Burcsu, Laura Carlson, Nathan Vogt, and David Welch. Under review. Forest Ecosystems, Ecology, and the Human Dimensions. In Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, ed. Emilio F. Moran and Elinor Ostrom. Submitted to Oxford University Press.

Green, Glen M., Charles M. Schweik, and J. C. Randolph. Under review. Useful Concepts and Approaches for HDGC Research: Scales of Space, Time, and Human Decision Making. In Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, ed. Emilio F. Moran and Elinor Ostrom. Submitted to Oxford University Press.

Green, Glen M., Charles M. Schweik, and J. C. Randolph. Under review. Using Remote Sensing to Study HDGC: Enhancing the Land-Cover Change Signal by Minimizing Other Sources of Variability. In Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, ed. Emilio F. Moran and Elinor Ostrom. Submitted to Oxford University Press.

Unruh, Jon, Harini Nagendra, and Glen M. Green. Under review. Cross-Continental Comparisons: Africa and Asia. In Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, ed. Emilio F. Moran and Elinor Ostrom. Submitted to Oxford University Press.

Presentations:

Glen Martin Green, 2003, A New Method For Comparing Land Cover Change Events, Abstract and oral presentation given at the Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community, Montreal, Canada, October 16-18. Download PDF

Glen Green, Sean Sweeney, Robert Sussman, Ingrid Porton, Joelisoa Ratsirarson, 2003, 50 Years of Change in Madagascar's Southern Dry Forests: Comparing Western and Indigenous Conservation Results, Abstract and oral presentation given at the Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), New Orleans, LA, March 3-7.

Laura A. Carlson, Charles Schweik, Harini Nagendra, Glen Green, 2002, A Methodology for Identifying Institutional Arrangements Using Remote Sensing and GIS, Abstract and oral presentation given at the Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Los Angeles, California, March 17-23.

Glen Green, Chetan Agarwal, Charlie Schweik, and J. Morgan Grove, 2001, Limits to Land Cover Change Modeling: Barriers Imposed by Disciplinary Divisions and Data Availability, Abstract and oral presentation given at the 97th AAG Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, NY, February 27 - March 3.

C. Agarwal, G. Green, M. Grove, T. Evans, and C. Schweik, 2000, A Review and Assessment of Land Use Change Models: Dynamics of Space Time, and Human Choice, a report to the U.S.D.A. Forest Service.

J.C. Randolph, and Glen M. Green, 2001, Topography, Ownership, and land Use in Indiana Forests, a presentation at the CIPEC Open Forum: Indiana Forests, Biophysical and Social Aspects, Bloomington, IN, Nov. 9.

Chetan Agarwal, Glen M. Green, J. Morgan Grove, Tom Evans, and Charles Schweik, 2000, A Review and Assessment of Land Use Change Models: dynamics of space, time, and human choice, paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Integrating GIS and Environmental Modeling (GIS/EM4): Problems, Prospects and Research Needs, September 2 - 8, Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Glen M. Green, Laura A. Carlson, and Tom Evans, 2000, The Spatial Scale of Institutional Anomalies in the Distribution of Forested Land in Indiana, Abstract and oral presentation given at the Eighth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property (IASCP), May 31- June 4, Bloomington, IN.

Glen Green, Ingrid Porten, Robert Sussman, Sara Ivie, 1999, Using Landsat Images to Estimate Habitat Loss in the Dry Forests of Southern Madagascar and the Distribution and Density of the Ringtail Lemur ( Lemur catta ), Abstract and poster presented at the Seventh World Conference on Breeding Endangered Species: Linking Zoo and Field Research to Advance Conservation, Cincinnati, OH, May 22 - 26.

Glen Green, 1996, Case Study on Land Cover Change in Madagascar: Deforestation and Conservation Policy Analysis, paper presented at the Fourth Japan-US Workshop on Global Change: Land Use/Cover Change and Global Environmental Conservation, Tsukuba, Japan, February 27- 29.

Glen Green, Emilio Moran, and Steve McCracken, 1996, Amazonian deforestation: Assessing the human Impact Using Remote Sensing, Vegetation Measurements, and Household Surveys, Abstract and oral presentation given at the 13th Pecora Conference: Human Interactions with the Environment: Perspectives From Space, Sioux Falls, SD, August 20-22.

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