GIS Day @ University of Idaho

Through a venture-backed model, DroneSeed is able to rapidly prototype and operationalize critical software, hardware, standard operating procedures, and biotechnology to meet the needs of a broad customer base in the revegetation space. Wildfire and other large-scale ecosystem disturbances are increasing in frequency and severity, while operational constraints seem to be increasing for land owners. Constraints to post-disturbance revegetation include accessibility to remote areas, difficulty distributing seed precisely at scale, invasive species mitigation, and associated costs. DroneSeed is developing a multipronged approach to revegetation using UAVs that is applicable to large scale post-disturbance revegetation and native plant management, at an effective cost. DroneSeed is increasing operational capacity using swarm technology, enabling multiple heavy lift aircraft to move material payloads across restoration areas with increased precision compared to conventional aircraft and manual systems. The company is precedent setting in the regulatory environment allowing for this work. The presentation will provide an overview of the company’s technology, present and future opportunities, and outline the research and development supporting their data-driven approach.

Presenter Bio

Matthew is currently the Director of Research and Development at DroneSeed Co in Seattle. Previously his work as a consultant had sent him around the world to pursue reforestation and native plant restoration for both ecological and industrial applications. He has trained and practiced as a nurseryman and regeneration specialist and has conducted research on a gamut of topics from the plant microbiome to tree community ecology. He has previous degrees from Purdue University and the University of Idaho, and in his limited spare time is wrapping up a PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle. Reforestation and native plant restoration are his mission.

Presenters from across the geospatial, GIS, and drone community will give 10-minute presentations highlighting their recent work.

• “RangeSAT: Delivering Geospatial Data to Ranchers”, Vincent Jansen (University of Idaho, Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences) - Using the Landsat satellite record going back to 1984, RangeSAT (RangeSAT.org) provides at set of online vegetation monitoring tools for rangeland management. RangeSAT is an ongoing project being developed at the University of Idaho, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Oregon Ranchers, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Northwest Climate Hub.
• “Disparities in emergency medical service (EMS) response time for automobile crashes in Idaho”, Skye Swoboda-Colberg (University of Idaho, Geography and Geological Sciences) - This talk presents research comparing actual and predicted EMS response times in Idaho to identify potential service shortage areas, and compares the results to research in other States.
• “Adaptation of UAS Field Procedures - Living with Covid-19”, Jennifer Gilley (Alta Science and Engineering, Inc.) - Alta has worked for several years now on their UAS program collecting imagery and LiDAR data. With the onset of Covid-19, it was necessary to adapt yet again to a changing environment and meet new challenges. We would like to discuss the advances in the program, but also how Alta has overcome outside challenges in the year of Covid-19.

Food, food production, and the consequences of disrupted supply chains from COVID-19 have had resounding impacts on our social ecological systems and networks. At the onset of the pandemic, the Center for Resilient Communities (CRC) at the University of Idaho and the Earth Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire developed a framework to analyze impacted areas at the national scale. Representatives from both groups will present the following topics within the process: a) the Science of COVID-19 food system vulnerability assessments, b) physical / hydrological assessments to support the process, and c) pulling it all together with tools for analysis and representation.

Presenters from across the geospatial, GIS, and drone community will give 10-minute presentations highlighting their recent work.

• “Predicting fine-scale forage distribution to inform ungulate nutrition”, Ryan McCarley (University of Idaho, Fish and Wildlife Sciences) - Using segmented NAIP imagery, spatially explicit environmental variables, and field data we predicted fine-scale occurrence of 20 forage species for mule deer and Rocky Mountain elk across all of Idaho. Lasso logistic regression models provided high predictive accuracy, while validation at two University of Idaho affiliated research stations demonstrated the strengths and weakness of our approach.
• “The effectiveness of the U-net on urban tree canopy mapping”, Zhe Wang (University of Idaho, Geography and Geological Sciences) - In this study, we applied the U-net to urban tree canopy mapping, tested the effectiveness of the U-net in comparison with other approaches and assessed the performance and robustness of the U-net at different scales.
• “Knowledge graphs for global and regional geologic time scales”, Chao Ma (University of Idaho, Computer Science) - A knowledge graph for global and regional geologic time scales was created and stored in a SPARQL endpoint. An R package was developed for querying the knowledge from it.
• “Real time visualization of virtual wildlife”, Jean-Marc Gauthier (University of Idaho, Virtual Technology and Design) - This talk will present recent efforts in real time visualization of virtual wildlife using 2d and 3d mapping. Gauthier will cover new visualization and simulation technologies involving procedural animation, interactive cameras, visual effects, and applications of machine learning.