Blending Remote Sensing and Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Support Ecosystem Health
This project is investigating the feasibility and benefit of integrating geospatial technology with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of an indigenous LA coastal population to assess the impacts of current and historical ecosystem change to community viability, i.e. considerations of risk. This interdisciplinary project is lead by a staff member of UNO-PIES (Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Studies ) with UNO-CHART as co-P.I
The primary goal is to provide resource managers with an accurate, cost-effective, and comprehensive method of assessing ecological change in the Gulf Coast region that can benefit community sustainability. Using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other geospatial technologies integrated with a coastal community’s TEK to achieve this goal, our objectives are to determine (1) a method for producing a vulnerability/sustainability index for an ecosystem-dependent livelihood base of a coastal population that results from physical information derived from RS imagery and supported by TEK, and (2) to demonstrate how such an approach can engage both affected community residents and others who are interested in healthy marshes to understand better marsh health and ways that marsh health can be recognized, and the cause of declining marsh determined and improved. Other partners include LA DNR and the Stennis Space Center.
Current Projects Resources
Elevated Homes in New Orleans Neighborhoods
Click the map for our site!
Introducing New Projects