Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are farmers, producers, owners of coal-mine properties, students, federal, state and local agencies, Extension agents, paraprofessionals, and other stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by this project. Changes/Problems:We achieved significant progress on the project objectives in the past two years. Over the first year, three graduate students completed thesis projects related to Objectives 1 and 2. Three graduate students, hired as graduate research assistants to conduct thesis research related to the grant objectives, graduated in May 2019. These students have developed three manuscripts, and two are in the "review & resubmit" stage. Two new graduate students were hired in September 2019 to continue to conduct thesis research relevant to project objective 2. Other specific accomplishments related to Objective 1 over the last two years are a continuous mapping of physical features and associated energy flux using a combination of satellite and unmanned aerial systems in the selected counties in Eastern Kentucky. We also generated statewide, spatially explicit layers depicting high-frequency climate data, vegetation productivity estimates; continued to build site-specific benchmark datasets for comparing to coarser scaled satellite-based products. A few undergraduate and graduate students used such data for developing their experiential research projects for Intro to GIS and Remote Sensing of Environment classes. Specific accomplishments related to Objective 2 are a study of environmental effects of large-scale landscape change in central and eastern Kentucky, assessed water quality properties in agroecosystems with different types of land use, examined sediment loads of streams in watersheds, and estimated net primary production in selected agroecosystems in Kentucky. Specific accomplishments related to Objective 3 are: analyzed relationships among Landownership, Landscape Diversity, and Ecological Productivity in the selected counties and found ecological productivity varied significantly at different landownership size, updated land cover data, and established a platform for hosting applications for storing source data for public access using a familiar mobile-based interface. In the reporting period, we continued to perform a web-based analysis of drone imagery collected in the last two years. Moreover, w made multiple presentations in professional conferences, continued to engage K-12 and other stakeholders for introducing drones, optical sensors, computer systems, and more during the Third Thursday, KY Small Farmers conferences, and other Socially Disadvantaged Group (SDG) project workshops in multiple counties. The COVID-19 related travel restriction has affected many of our proposed activities since March 2020. Graduate students did not get to travel to validate their land cover change analysis of the selected watersheds in Appalachia. The COVID-19 pandemic also influenced the physical meetings with the stakeholders of the research site. We need to complete additional work that is important for the successful completion of this grant. Two graduate students hired in fall 2019 and supported by this project to work on the Objectives 2 and 3 are expected to complete their thesis research by May 2021. Two manuscripts under the second review will most likely be accepted for publication, and two new manuscripts out of the graduate thesis will be developed/submitted for publication. Soil sampling in the coal-mined and reclaimed lands, which were held up due to COVID, will resume when the travel ban is relaxed. Land cover change accuracy assessment was not completed as desired. Finally, a fully functional Decision Support Tool using the geospatial, topographic, land cover, land ownership, economic, demographic, and crop production and marketing data will be completed and validated for public consumption. Due to these multiple unexpected scenarios, mostly related to COVID-19, we requested and received approval for a no-cost extension of the project until August 2021. We are hopeful that we will be able to accomplish all objectives in the next reporting period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Thanks to COVID-19, we have had to adjust how we operate, including almost zero visits to the site for evaluation and exclusive use of teleconference for communication with team members and stakeholders. We have adapted by enhancing our use of digital media and production resources to increase our online presence overall and have provided support where necessary to ensure all team members adapted to the new digital emphasis with less friction. This year also saw an exponential increase in the availability of helpful webinars and digital learning opportunities aimed at helping understand the issues of particular groups distressed by the pandemic, including the producers and land managers of the state and the communities supporting them. Team members, including graduate students, have also continued to attend and network with like-minded professionals at events at professional organizations, including the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Kentucky Academy of Sciences (KAS), and the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP). Graduate students presented multiple papers out of their on-going thesis projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, we adapted all of our activities to the teleconference model. Consequently, we were able to participate in most part of the same recurring events, including the annual meetings, extension gatherings, and other events. We continue to contribute to new virtual events to present the aspects of the project work. Example outreach includes the KSU STEM Seminar Series and the STEM Symposium to discuss new methods in unmanned aerial systems and advanced sensors for land management. The PI (Gyawali), Co-PI (Sandifer), and students presented papers/posters in the Annual meetings at the Southern Rural Sociological Association (SRSA). Their work-in-progress papers focused on the use of spatial methods to inform change over time in parameters important in decision support in agriculture and land management. We also participated in many additional extension events, including virtual field days, Third Thursdays, and the KSU Small Farmers Conference. Perhaps most importantly, most team members have taken part in one or more focus groups with regional stakeholders engaged in agricultural and land management to understand how they use technology and to understand how we can adapt our work to remove barriers to the adoption of more and better technology by decision-makers. Some examples of presentations are: J. Sandifer (2020). Applications with Unmanned Aerial Systems and Advanced Spectral Sensors in Land Management. KSU STEM Seminar. Virtual Event on April 17, 2020. OP B. Jones, B. Gyawali, and J. Sandifer. (2020). An Analysis of the Voting Shift in Kentucky's General Election for Governor from 2015-2019. Southern Rural Sociological Association 51st Annual Meeting. February 1-3, 2020. Louisville, Kentucky. S. Kandel, B. Gyawali, and J. Sandifer. (2020). Understanding Variations in Ecological Productivity of Farmland-What Farmers Need to Know. Southern Rural Sociological Association 51st Annual Meeting. February 1-3, 2020. Louisville, Kentucky. OP What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The next reporting period will see the deployment of a comprehensive web application that increases access to interested users of the geospatial data necessary for making an informed decision in land management. The topic-specific resources will be integrated into the comprehensive app as they become operational. As the resources come online, we will increase the technical and educational outreach to ensure stakeholders are aware of the resources and are fully able to exploit the capabilities contained within. A combination of digital reference materials and teleconference-based workshops will be hosted to support the adoption of the resource. Two current graduate students will complete their thesis projects and continue to work on completing manuscripts to submit to peer-review journals. Mr. Jeremy Sandifer will continue to complete the Decision Support Tool, validate, test, and publish for adoption. The project is approved for a one-year no-cost extension until September 2021.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Under Objective 1, developing geospatial database portals for agroecosystems information and data, we have continued efforts in the further development of lightweight, web-based resources and applications that not only deliver targeted information but also allow for hands-on interaction with the data by the stakeholders. This reporting period has seen the near completion of several new open source-based products that integrate continuously increasing inventories of environmental data summarized for quick characterization and visualization and for download by users for further integration into other priorities. In addition, the products are to be self-updating on a rotating schedule and available to the end-user with no additional effort put forth. The products developed during this period include the following: First, the subset of Global Historical Climatological Database of ~1200 climate stations covering the southeastern and Appalachian regions of the United States (January 1970 to present) and including key parameters of precipitation, air temperatures, and other derived parameters. In addition, spatial interpolation procedures have been applied to construct parameter surface layers that offer spatially explicit information for applications in modeling and site characterization for areas lacking stations. Second, satellite-based datasets from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) have been assembled for the full extent of the continental US composed of monthly measurements over a time span of 2000 to present. Included MODIS datasets include NDVI, EVI, LAI, ET, and other important parameters used for characterizing managed land areas over time. Besides, Landsat 5 & 8 data have been compiled for some path/rows covering the extent of Kentucky, but work continues to assembly the complementary and higher resolution data in approximate 5-year intervals. Lastly, drone imagery collected by project team members is featured in database access through a simple interface allowing for easy subsets based on sensor type, date, or location. The database continues to grow, though new imagery consists mainly of the KSU research and demonstration farm due to safety restrictions from the pandemic. Multiple KSU farm-based projects are taking advantage of the imagery and providing practical use case information back to the team, including studies on changes in erosion and vegetation patterns in response to livestock operations, soil amendments, yields, etc. Under Objective 2, recent progress includes the establishment of algorithms for calculating the soil erosion vulnerability for the watersheds throughout the state that are being extended to cover the entire state. Graduate thesis work has established and demonstrated the pathway to mathematically expressing the parameters needed to estimate erosion vulnerability indices using the types of datasets managed for many other project priorities. Work is in progress to integrate additional ground reference information aimed at helping quantify the uncertainty associated with this type of approach in identifying vulnerability to erosion damage. Additionally, plans are underway to perform reference analysis properties accessible to us during the pandemic restrictions, including the Environmental Education Research Center (EERC) and the KSU farm. Key accomplishments under Objective 3 and nearing completion are in response to feedback from stakeholders and include new applications for disseminating customized products based on simple user inputs of commonly used locational geographies that prompt the generation of location-specific starter-templates containing the minimal datasets needed to inform the sought topic. The state of Kentucky has many active natural resource and agriculture groups that have at least minimal capacity for managing the GIS. Therefore, a significant portion of our outreach can be achieved in helping these users benefit from previous efforts through repositories of this nature. We also continue to adapt new spatial aggregation models for summarizing highly reliable source data into innovative data structures, for example, to ease connectivity demands and increase access. We also continue to explore new custom and external application programming interfaces or "APIs" to avoid issues with the storage of large imagery datasets in the cloud. Our efforts are primarily focused on the use of open source technology for custom public-facing applications. However, yet we continue to exploit the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) suite of products where appropriate. New programming options are continuing development to serve as a model for digital decision support systems at various spatial scales. The Farm Parcel Characterization and Simulation program provides an interface for viewing the comparative attributes of the legal parcels distributed across multiple counties in Kentucky where records exist. The user has the ability to search existing parcel records by name or ID and can view the historical trajectories of various climate and biophysical parameters aggregated to that unit. In addition, tools have been added to facilitate the user-based manipulation of individual parcels including, merging or separating parcels according to the homogeneity in the land use of the parcel. In addition, multiple farm management templates are being integrated that calculate the benefit and cost of various farm management strategies, including the addition of animal paddocks or the addition of multiple acres of hemp to current operations. This tool allows for site-specific visualizations of various agricultural strategies available to the operator. When this tool, coupled with the contextual elements of the operation (such as land cover information, demographics, and economic indicators of counties), provides a simulation for assessing the viability of different options. All data for this application is aggregated to the individual county and is activated by simply double-clicking the county of interest or by using predefined selector inputs. A final product of this application will be available for adoption in the next reporting period.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Santosh K. Ojha, Wubishet Tadesse, Christopher M. Oswalt, Buddhi Gyawali (2020). Occurrence, density, and distribution of longleaf pine regeneration in southeastern forests: An assessment by forest type, disturbance and site quality. Forest Ecology and Management . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118755
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Thomas, M. Gyawali, B. Pomper K., Simon, M., May, B., Banerjee, S. (2020). Economic Analysis of a Gasification System from Converting waste to Energy: A case Study in Kentucky with Enterprise Budgeting. Southwestern Journal of Economics Vol. XIII (1).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Maheteme Gebremedhin, Ian Ries, Gabriel B. Senway, Martin Matisoff, Jeremy Sandifer, Ibukun Amusan, Buddhi Gyawali. Evaluation of the Operational Simplified Surface Energy Balance Model for Pastureland Evapotranspiration Mapping and Drought Monitoring in North Central Kentucky. Advances in Meteorology: 2020:1-11. DOI: 10.1155/2020/1386468.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Gyawali B. , Aman Bhatta, Richard Cristan , George Antonious, Swagata Banerjee,Krishna P. Paudel, Sandesh Shrestha, Bijay Pokhrel. 2020. Effect of land Use change on sediment yield in a rural watershed in Kentucky, USA. Submitted to Water in December 2020. (In review)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Gyawali B. R. Jeans, Paudel K. Adoption of computer-based technology in Agriculture: Opportunities and Barriers. Technology and Society submitted in 2020 (in Review)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Khadka S. Gyawali B. Cristan R. Banerjee, S. Antonious G. Understanding dynamics of landownership, landscape Diversity, and ecological productivity in Kentucky. Landscape Ecology (second revision in review)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Cynthia Rice, Kentucky State University; Buddhi Gyawali, Kentucky State University; Jeremy Sandifer. Kentucky State University. Small Farmers, Sustainability and Climate Change: How to Plan for a Changing Future . Southern SAWG Conference. Little Rock, Arkansas. January 23-25, 2020.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
11. Cynthia Rice, Buddhi Gyawali and Marion Simon, Kentucky State University. Socially Disadvantaged Groups (SDG): Identification, Technical Assistance, Service and Education with Pathways to SDG Populations . Southern Rural Sociological Association 51st Annual Meeting. Louisville, KY. February 1-3, 2020.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Smriti ,K., Sandifer, J., Gyawali, B. (February 2, 2020). Understanding variations in ecological productivity of farmland, what farmers need to know. An oral presentation at Southern Rural Sociological Association, Annual meeting, Louisville, KY., February 1-3, 2020.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Sandifer (2020). Applications with Unmanned Aerial Systems and Advanced Spectral Sensors in Land Management. KSU STEM Seminar. Virtual Event on April 17, 2020.
|
Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are farmers, producers, owners of mined lands and mine workers, students, local agencies, and other stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by this project. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The activities completed for the project and the results generated have been shared in a variety of places for public consumption creating important experiences for students in preparing them for public speaking and presentation of scientific information. Student centered projects have culminated in the oral or poster presentation at national recognized conferences and professional organizations including the Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) annual meeting, the Kentucky Academy of Sciences (KAS) annual conference, the Association of Research Directors (ARD) bi-annual meeting, and the Association of American Geographers (AAG) annual conference. In addition to the conference presentation, the project team and students attend skills based workshops on topics in geospatial education, like LiDAR data processing or utilization of preprogrammed processing modules available in the most popular software offerings, particularly those of the ESRI ecosystem. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project team (Dr. Buddhi Gyawali and Jeremy Sandifer) and graduate students have been actively involved in presenting preliminary results to the scientific communities via oral and poster presentations such as Kentucky Academic of Science (KAS), Association of American Geographers, and Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP). All three presented at the Kentucky Academy of Sciences in 2019 and AAG conference in Washington D.C. Preliminary results have been also shared in other venues of outreach audiences including multiple SDG workshops. We also presented project high lights in in the Shaping Our Appalachian Region Annual Conference (Pikeville, KY) and discussed progress in deploying geospatial tech for land management at reclaimed mine areas. Additional activities have included taking part in internal outreach activities including Farm Day activities at the KSU Farm, Third Thursday Events, and other campus activities including the Jr Kentucky Academy of Sciences, career days, STEM Symposiums, GIS Days, and others. We also take part in unique opportunities for engaging various constituencies including the Wildlife Habitat Symposium, and various other Extension based community gatherings across the state. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Two new students will continue to work on the project objectives and develop two additional manuscripts. Two manuscripts under review are expected to be published. Soil sampling and land cover change assessment will be continued in additional counties. Mr. Jeremy Sandifer and two students will continue to work in Decision Support Tool using the geospatial, topographic, land cover, landownership and crop production and marketing data. In the short term, much effort will go to getting the applications deployed for public use and feedback for improvements. We will continue to integrate additional information into our applications, including economic information for assigning monetary quantities to the various productivity and climatic distribution identified from the above reported analysis.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This report highlights progress achieved in the second year of the grant period from October 2018 to September 2019. Three graduate students who were hired asgraduate research assistants to conduct thesis research related to the grant objectives, graduated in May 2019. These students have developed three manuscripts each from their three theses. Two of the manuscripts were submitted to the peer-reviewed journals and are currently in review. Two new graduate students were hired in September 2019 to continue to conduct thesis research relevant to the project objectives. Following are the major accomplishments related to each objective Multiple accomplishments were achieved and the research findings were shared via oral, poster and workshop presentations. ?Objective 1. Develop resource and land-surface energy flux mapping of agroecosystem components. Continuous mapping of terrestrial features and associated energy flux using fixed observational equipment in combination with satellite and unmanned aerial systems have been carried out in the selected counties in Eastern Kentucky. Involving the development of resource and land surface characterization information, we continued to make progress in terms of integrating existing data sets into state wide subsets consisting of the various source layers, derivatives, and results, each useful for some component of the decision making process. New to this reporting period in terms of newly generated data sets are state-wide, spatially-explicit layers depicting high frequency climate data, up to date vegetation productivity estimates, and result layers highlighting the temporal and fleeting characteristics of the dynamic and active landscape found in Kentucky. We have also continued to build site specific datasets using high resolution multiple spectral sensors as part of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) utilization for collection of detailed ground reference data for comparing to coarser scaled satellite based products. New sites acquired this period included managed forest at Iroquois Park and multiple wildlife management areas (WMA) in central Kentucky. We have continued to collect data frequently for previously engaged sites for development of temporal datasets to be combined with the documented land management practices adopted at each site for potentially enhancing decision making capacity here and at similar sites. Undergraduate and graduate students used such data for developing their experiential research projects for Intro to GIS and Remote Sensing of Environment classes. New this reporting period in terms of newly generated data sets are state-wide, spatially-explicit layers depicting high frequency climate data, up to date vegetation productivity estimates, and result layers highlighting the temporal and fleeting characteristics of the dynamic and active landscape found in Kentucky. We have also continued to build site specific datasets using high resolution multiple spectral sensors as part of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) utilization for collection detailed ground reference data for comparing to coarser scaled satellite based products. New sites acquired this period included managed forest at Iroquois Park and multiple wildlife management areas (WMA) in central Kentucky. We have continued to collect data frequently for previously engaged sites for development of temporal datasets to be combined with the documented land management practices adopted at each site for potentially enhancing decision making capacity here and at similar sites. Objective 2. Evaluate relative vulnerability of agroecosystem health and production capacity and monitor changes in supporting resources. We made some progress with this objective. Three thesis projects were completed related to this objective, which examined environmental effects of large-scale landscape change in central and eastern Kentucky; assessed water quality properties in agroecosystems with different types of land use examined sediment loads of streams that originate in watersheds with various percentages of forested and agricultural land covers.; and estimated net primary production in selected Agroecosystems in Kentucky. These research found that land use change disturbs the soil resulting in nonpoint source pollution (NPSP) through increased sediment yield and thereby affects ecosystems productivity as reflected by changes in vegetation coverage. In addition, we analyzed vulnerability data to evaluate agroecosystem and presented in conferences. In these papers, we analyzed data for understanding of the tendency for the system components that fluctuate over time, particularly in response to underlying climatic and atmospheric forces. Moreover, several ongoing, student-centered projects have examined the heterogeneous nature of regional vegetative responses to ongoing climatic changes, particularly changes in the timing and totals of precipitation. Other projects have quantified apparent responses to this environmental change by altering land management practices, particularly in the form of consolidation of intensively managed land parcels to fewer and larger functional parcels. Vulnerabilities have been quantified at the farm level as well utilizing the Unmanned Arial System (UAS) to produce detailed topographic information for identifying physical features contributing to erosion and for evaluating the overall distribution of productive biomass, moisture content, and in-canopy light availability, as well as other measures of importance to the particular site under evaluation. Two manuscripts were submitted to the peer-reviewed journals, which are currently in review. Objective 3. Evaluate the land use and land cover change and practicality and usefulness for concerned stakeholders. A graduate student in his completed thesis analyzed relationships among Landownership, Landscape Diversity, and Ecological Productivity in three counties in Kentucky. The research found that change in land cover was mostly noticed in the cultivated crops, forest and pasture in the study area. The ecological productivity was significantly different among small, medium, and large parcels. This study suggests further research on other driving factors that affect the relationship among landscape diversity, ownership structure, and ecological productivity that would assist researchers to better understand the decision-making process when farmers at different ownership sizes make decisions to change land use and farm management practices. A new graduate student was hired in September 2019 to continue to conduct this research in additional sites. In addition, additional progress was made for updating the land use and land cover data and establishing platform for hosting applications and for the storing source data for public access using familiar mobile based interface. Success in developing the appropriate capabilities is recent and tools have only just been deployed for interaction with the public for only a few instances during the reporting period. Mr. Jeremy Sandifer, Research Associate, is leading this effort. Working examples of his initiative provide access to climate and productive data and others provide for web based analysis of drone imagery collected during the project period. The various student centered projects supported in full or adjacently connected with the project include the formal presentations in various conferences which are listed in the products section of this report. As part of outreach activities related to the Objective 3, in this reporting period, we continued to engage K-12 and other stakeholders for introducing drones, optical sensors, computer systems, and more during the Third Thursday, KY Small Farmers conferences and other Socially Disadvantaged Group (SDG) project workshops in multiple counties.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Ariel Smith and J. Sandifer (2018). The spatial distribution of local and organic food available in Kentucky. 104th Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Nov 2-3, 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Jarod Jones and B. R. Gyawali (2018). Trends in Total Suspended Solids(TSS) Discharge of Headwater Streams in Agricultural and Forested Watershed. 104th Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Nov 2-3, 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Tori Farrow and J. Sandifer (2018). Urban Heat and Demographic Change: A Comparative Analysis of the Largest 100 Cities of the Temperate-Forested Ecoregion. 104th Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Nov 2-3, 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Kristopher Nelson, J. Sandifer and B.R. Gyawali (2019). The Use Of Geospatial Technology for the Characterization of an Organically Managed Farm in Central Kentucky. 104th Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Nov 2-3, 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Jeremy Sandifer (2018). The Use of Drone Technology for Farm and Land Management and Conservation Activities. Wildlife Habitat Symposium, KSU Research and Demonstration Farm. Dec 12th, 2018
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Ariel Smith, J. Hannemann, J. Sandifer, and B.R. Gyawali (2019). The Spatial Distribution of Local and Organic Food Availability in Kentucky. Association of Research Directors of 1890 Institutions Research Symposium, Jacksonville, Fl. March 31-April 3, 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Jacouri Burns, J. Sandifer and B.R. Gyawali (2019). Using Drone Technology and Geographic Information Systems to Evaluate Availability of Flat Land Areas at Kentucky State University. Association of Research Directors of 1890 Institutions Research Symposium, Jacksonville, Fl. March 31-April 3, 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Jeremy Sandifer, B.R. Gyawali and K. Gurtowski (2019). Use of Decision Support Systems for Prediction of Maple Sap Production Season Duration in Appalachian Kentucky. Association of Research Directors of 1890 Institutions Research Symposium, Jacksonville, Fl. March 31-April 3, 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Kolan Livingston, J. Sandifer and B.R. Gyawali (2019). Comparison of Plant Productivity at Satellite and Drone Spatial Scales for a Farm in Central Kentucky. Association of Research Directors of 1890 Institutions Research Symposium, Jacksonville, Fl. March 31-April 3, 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Krishtopher Nelson, J. Sandifer and B.R. Gyawali (2019). The Use of Geospatial Technology for Identifying Potential Hazards in Athletic Practice Field Areas. Association of Research Directors of 1890 Institutions Research Symposium, Jacksonville, Fl. March 31-April 3, 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Jeremy Sandifer, R. Cristan, B.R. Gyawali (2019). Processing of sUAS imagery using R for Applications in Forestry for a Central Kentucky Wildlife Management Area. Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY. Oct 3, 2019
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Jarod Jones (2017-2019). Thesis: Jarod J. (2019). Trends in conventional water quality parameters of headwater streams in central Kentucky: a study of agricultural nonpoint source pollution. (Masters Thesis). Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY, USA
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Aman Bhatta (2017-20119). Thesis: Bhatta A. (2019). Effect of land cover change on sediment yield in bell watershed, Kentucky from 1992 to 2013. Masters Thesis). Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY, USA.
- Type:
Theses/Dissertations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Saaruj Khadka (2017-2019). Exploring relationships among landownership, landscape diversity, and ecological productivity in Kentucky. (Masters Thesis). Kentucky State University, Frankfort, KY, USA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gyawali, B. Poudyal, N. 2019. Social Dynamics of Surface Mining Impacts in Eastern Kentucky: An Assessment of and Comparison of Resident Segments. A Poster presented at Association of American Geographers Annual meeting , April 3-7, 2019, Washington D.C.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gyawali, B. Assessment of Physicochemical Soil Properties in Coal-Mined and Reclaimed Sites in Eastern Kentucky.A poster presented at ARD Biannual Symposium, April 1-3, 2019. Jacksonville, Florida.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Bhatta and B. Gyawali,Change in Net Primary Production of Selected Forest Ecosystems and Sediment Yield in the Bell Watershed,Kentucky from 2001 to 2011. A paper presented ARD 19th Symposium, Jacksonville, Florida, March 31-April 3, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
S. Khadka*,B. Gyawali, T. Shrestha and J. Sandifer.Exploring Changes in Landscape Diversity, Land Ownership Size and Agroecosystems in Kentucky. A paper presented ARD 19th Symposium, Jacksonville, Florida, March 31-April 3, 2019
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gyawali, B. & Poudyal N. Community Dynamics of Impacts of Surface Mining and Reclamation Efforts in Appalachian Region of Kentucky. A paper presented ARD 19th Symposium, Jacksonville, Florida, March 31-April 3, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Gyawali, B. & Sandifer, J, Sariyildiz, O. (2018). Evaluating variations in above-ground biomass accumulation and carbon balance impacts on reforested reclaimed coal mine sites: A case study in eastern Kentucky from 1980 to 2017. 7th International Symposium on Energy from Biomass & Waste, Venice, Italy, October 14-18, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sariyildiz, O., Gyawali B (October 2018). Water Quality Assessment in Coal-Mine Impacted Watersheds in Eastern Kentucky. A paper presented at Geological Society of America (GSA) 130th Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN, November 4-7, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Khadka, S. Gyawali, S. (October 24, 2018). Land Cover Assessment and Change Detection at Scott County, Kentucky. Paper presentation at Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) Annual Conference in Bowling Green, October 23-24, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sariyildiz, O. Sandifer, J., Gyawali, B. (October 24 2018). Creating A Digital Surface Model (DSM) with Python for the Entire Kentucky. Paper presentation at Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) Annual Conference in Bowling Green, October 23-24, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Bhatta, Aman, Gyawali, B. (October 24, 2018). Sediment Yield Comparison for Different Agroecosystems in Crestwood Watershed, Kentucky. Paper presentation at Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP) Annual Conference in Bowling Green, October 23-24, 2018.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Bhatta A. Gyawali, B. Paudel, Antonious G., Cristan R (2019). Effect of Land Cover change on sediment Yield in Rural Kentucky, USA Watershed. MDPI-Water. (Second Revision stage).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gyawali B. R. Jeans, Paudel K (2019). Adoption of computer-based technology in Agriculture: Opportunities and Barriers. Technology and Society (in Review).
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Khadka S. Gyawali B. Cristan R. Banerjee, S. Antonious G. (2019). Understanding dynamics of landownership, landscape Diversity, and ecological productivity in Kentucky. Landscape Ecology (in review)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Sariyildiz O, Gyawali B. Pomper K. Cristan R. (2018). Geospatial Habitat Characterization of Lonicera maackii, Lonicera japonica, and Native Plants in the Understory of a Northcentraly Kentucky Forest. Torrey Botanical Society. In revision.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Thomas, M. Gyawali, B. Pomper K. (2019). Economic Analysis of a Gasification System from Converting waste to Energy: A case Study in Kentucky with Enterprise Budgeting (In print) in the upcoming issue of Southwestern Journal of Economics.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Mishra, B., J. Sandifer, B. Gyawali (2019). Urban Heat Island in Kathmandu, Nepal: Evaluating relationship between NDVI and LST from 2000 to 2018. International Journal of Environment 8(1), 2018/19. https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/IJE/article/view/22546
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Poudyal, N. B. Gyawali and M. Simon. Local residents' views of surface mining: Perceived impacts, subjective well-being, and support for regulations in Southern Appalachia, Journal of Cleaner Production, 217(2019):530:540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.277
- Type:
Books
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gyawali B. Shrestha T. Shrestha P. (2018): A map book State of Kentucky Land Cover Change Map book (1992-2011), College of Agriculture Food Science and Sustainable Systems. In Press.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Mishra B., B. Gyawali, K. Paudel, N. Poudyal, M. Simon. G. Antonious, S. Dasgupta. Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture Practices among Kentucky Farmers. Environmental Management 62(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-018-1109-3
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Gyawali, B. & Sandifer, J, Sariyildiz, O. (2018). Evaluating variations in above-ground biomass accumulation and carbon balance impacts on reforested reclaimed coal mine sites: A case study in eastern Kentucky from 1980 to 2017. Proceedings VENICE2018. � 2018 CISA Publisher. All rights reserved / www.cisapublisher.com. Available at https://members.venicesymposium.it/2018/pdf/132.pdf
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Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are farmers, producers, owners of mined lands and mine workers, students, local agencies, and other stakeholders directly or indirectly affected by this project. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided funds for the project team and students to attend conferences and professional development training programs, and to purchase supplies and small sensors and digital geospatial data. Students and faculty utilized these funds to present research papers and posters in multiple regional and national conferences during the reporting period, such as Kentucky Academic of Science (KAS), Association of American Geographers (AAG), and Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals (KAMP), Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), etc. Additional outreach activities were performed by Jeremy Sandifer in coordination with on- and off-campus programming efforts, including hands-on activities in support of Agriculture, Food, and Environment Day at the KSU research Farm, the Family Fun Spring Fling at Portland Community Center, College and Career Day at Georgetown Library, Lexington Heritage Festival, and multiple open house events. STEM-based youth learning activities were also developed for summer programs such as 4-H Robotics Club, Tech Wizards, Tech Savvy Girls, and the Summer Apprenticeship Program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project team (Dr. Buddhi Gyawali and Jeremy Sandifer) and graduate students have been actively involved in presenting preliminary results to the scientific communities via oral and poster presentations, such as KAS, AAG, and KAMP. All three students presented at the Kentucky Academy of Sciences (Murray, KY) and the AAG conference in New Orleans, LA. Preliminary results have been also shared at other venues and to other audiences, including multiple community forums such as the West Virginia Maple Syrup Producers (Summersville, WV) where we discussed the monitoring of climate over time in Appalachia and the observed impacts on vegetation productivity and the Shaping Our Appalachian Region Annual Conference (Pikeville, KY) where we discussed recent success in deploying geospatial tech for land management at reclaimed mine areas. Multiple producer-focused workshop events were held to educate farmers and land managers on project outcomes relevant to decision support activities regarding land use, sustainable practices, and access to financial resources. These workshops were held in partnership with multiple partners and hosted at various locations throughout the state of Kentucky, including Clarksville, Mayfield, Hodgenville, Russellville, and London. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Three students will continue to analyze data and graduate in May 2019 with Master of Science in Environmental Studies degrees. At least three manuscripts will be prepared and published based on their research. Soil sampling and land cover change assessments will continue in additional counties. Two new graduate students will be hired to carry out the incomplete tasks. Decision Support Tool framework will be designed using the geospatial, topographic, land cover, landownership and crop production and marketing data. We have made some progress in securing strategic partnerships with local technology and information companies for collaborative activities in the development of web-based applications for delivering digital resources to relevant constituents. Bit Source, a leading technology company and one of the few based in the Appalachia, continue to provide important assistance in selecting appropriate technology options for cost effective deployment of web resources and on designing of interfaces to connect land managers to relevant data sets. During the next reporting period, we anticipate the installation of multiple digital applications accessible to the public and constantly updated to ensure high usability.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The project officially started in October 2017. Three students were hired as graduate research assistants to work on research projects that are related to each of the project objectives. Half of the reporting period was spent on guiding three students to prepare their thesis proposals and literature reviews. These students developed their thesis proposals and presented them in March 2018 and are now involved in data collection. Multiple accomplishments have been made in the mapping of terrestrial features and associated energy flux using fixed observational equipment in combination with satellite and unmanned aerial systems. For example, a time series of normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVI) have been generated on reclaimed mine land, using gridded systematic data collection missions and modeled at multiple spatial scales for comparison with satellite derived NDVI measurements at the Mike's Big Cabin Ranch in Knot County, KY. These validation exercises have increased confidence in data collection and processing techniques using NDVI for estimates of biomass generation and carbon sequestration. At this same site, one meteorological station was installed to monitor the long-term climatic variables for this location, primarily atmospheric conditions, rainfall, and incoming radiation. Additional meteorological stations were installed at St Francis Middle School to monitor air temperature, wind speed and direction in areas used in the production of beeswax and honey. Findings generated at this location are to inform planning for similar strategies for deployment at reclaimed mine sites with particular vegetation distributions and favorable micro-climate conditions. Objective 2. Evaluate relative vulnerability of agroecosystem health and production capacity and monitor changes in supporting resources. Jarod Jones, a graduate research assistant, has been working on a thesis entitled "Determining environmental effects of large-scale landscape change in central and eastern Kentucky" since October 2017. The objectives of his research are: examine/assess water quality properties in agroecosystems with different types of land use (food crop types, livestock etc.); and (2) examine/assess sediment loads of streams that originate in watersheds with various percentages of forested and agricultural land covers. He has completed an intensive six-month data collection of water quality and flow data from streams at the outer Bluegrass region of central KY during the summer of 2018. Preliminary results suggest that there is significant difference in sediment loads between the streams located in agricultural watersheds compared those that originate in forested watersheds. Streams in agricultural watersheds have higher sediment loads on average compared to streams in forested watersheds. Likewise, another graduate student, Aman Bhatta, is conducting his thesis research entitled "Soil Erosion, Sediment Yield and Net primary production Estimate in selected Agroecosystems in Kentucky". Preliminary results show that sediment yield depends upon the land use, slope type, and soil of an area and a slight increase in sediment yield and a slight decrease in NPP in the watershed; however, these changes are yet to be evaluated statistically. Objective 3. Evaluate the land use and land cover change and practicality and usefulness for concerned stakeholders. We spent a few months to compile geospatial data from Earth Explorer, NASS, Kentucky Geoportal and MODIS global subsets to use for land cover change assessment. A graduate student, Saaruj Khadka, is working on his thesis entitled "Exploring Changes in Land Ownership Size, Landscape Diversity and Agroecosystems in Kentucky". The objectives of his thesis are: (1) to explore the land cover change in three selected counties in Kentucky; (2) to identify how spatial and temporal trends, patterns, and relationships of land use/cover change varies by ownership size; and (3) to examine the ecological productivity of agroecosystems managed under different ownership structures (such as small, medium, and large). The preliminary results suggest that land cover change occurred at a higher rate in small and medium landownership classes. The change detection results at the pixel level between major land cover classes suggests major conversion of agriculture and forest lands into urban lands. The ecological productivity was higher among larger parcels based on the NDVI. Some preliminary piloting work on the development of a decision support system for intentional and sustainable management of lands has been done during the reporting period. For instance, the development of decision support systems for determining optimal timing for production of maple sap was explored in the Appalachian counties of Kentucky. Atmospheric conditions are being monitored on an on-going basis with the use of multiple meteorological stations placed at varying elevations. Efforts continue with installation of additional sensors for tracking small changes in soil moisture and energy content within the production area. Recorded climatic data is used by land managers in this region to understand the timing and duration of the maple sap production season. This work involves multiple partners associated with maple sap production, including the Kentucky Association of Maple Syrup Producers. Another preliminary exploration involves the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) for the purposes of sub-surface surveying of managed land areas for enumeration of unknown assets at the Frankfort Cemetery. Spatial databases were developed that enable the mapping and age approximation of inventory for sound planning and decision making concerning expansion and cultural significance of managed assets. Techniques developed at this study area yielded techniques directly applicable for subsurface survey activities of other managed land areas. Mr. Jeremy Sandifer, Research Associate (FTE 0.5 for this project), is also collaborating with other faculty for monitoring hemp near Hopkinsville and organic crop monitoring at KSU using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs; also known as drones). As part of outreach activities related to the Objective 3, we continue to engage stakeholders involved in K-12 education to introduce STEM concepts and technologies, including drones, optical sensors, computer systems, and more. During the reporting period, we worked with multiple middle schools, such as St Francis, Bondurant, and Elkhorn, to create experiential learning opportunities culminating in competitive oral research presentations at the Student Technology Leadership Program.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Gyawali, B., Sandifer J., Sariyildiz, O. (2018). Evaluating variations in above-ground biomass accumulation and carbon balance impacts on reforested reclaimed coal mine sites: A case study in eastern Kentucky from 1980 to 2017. Proceedings VENICE2018. Available at https://members.venicesymposium.it/2018/pdf/132.pdf
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Bhatta, A. (2018). A Comparison of Land Productivity Based on Net Primary Production in Owen and Graves Counties in Kentucky. American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 10-14, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Bhatta, A. (2017). Comparison of Land Productivity of Farm Parcels in Graves County Based on Net Primary Production. Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), Richmond, KY, January 11, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Jones, J., Gyawali, B., Mullins, C., Sluss, T. (2017). Trends in Total Suspended Solids Discharge of Headwater Streams in Agricultural and Forested Watersheds. Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS), Murray, KY, November 3-4, 2017.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Jones, J., Wilson, J., Sandifer, J., Bates, K. (2018). Identifying Potential Unmarked Burials in the Frankfort, KY Cemetery: An Attempt to Determine the Correlation between Subsurface Anomalies and Surface Topology Using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and LIDAR data. Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), Richmond, KY, January 11, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Khadka, S., Bhatta, A., Gyawali, B., Sandifer, J., Shrestha, P., and Mishra, B. (2017). Land Cover Change Assessment of Five Major Watersheds in Central Kentucky. Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS), Murray, KY, November 3-4, 2017.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Khadka, S., Gyawali, B. (2018). Exploring ownership size and landscape diversity in Whitley County, Kentucky. Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), Richmond, KY, January 11, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Khadka, S., Gyawali, B., Sandifer, J. (2018). MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for comparison of farm parcel of Scott County, Kentucky. Association of American Geographers (AAG), New Orleans, LA, April 10-14, 2018.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Sandifer, J. (2018.) Drones in Farm and Land Management. 2nd Annual New Albany Drone Festival. New Albany, IN, June 6, 2018.
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