Indiana State University Newsroom

The Center for Urban and Environmental Change at Indiana State University recently hosted a mini-workshop on the environmental and societal benefits of geospatial technologies.

Dean Jianli Ding and Fei Zhang from the School of Resources and Environmental Science at Xinjiang University in China, Wasit Wulamu and Matthew Maimaitiyiming from the Center for Sustainability at St. Louis University and fellows from CUEC presented their recent research and discussed related issues and future collaboration on Aug. 24.

Xinjiang is located in the northwest of China, and soil salinization is an important environmental issue in this arid region, especially in the desert oasis. Ding and Zhang introduced remote sensing methods they use to monitor the saline soil. Maimaitiyiming shared his recent research on the effect of "urban oasis" spatial pattern on land surface temperature and its implications for sustainable urban planning and climate change adaptation. Wulamu reviewed the urban inequality in St. Louis in the last 40 years in social and environmental perspectives.

Indiana State's Qihao Weng, director of CUEC, introduced the Group on Earth Observation key activities from 2016 to 2025, including global megacities monitoring initiative, generation of global human settlement layers, global urban remote sensing laboratory, urban impervious surface mapping in developing countries and more. The CUEC fellows also presented their recent research, which covers different perspectives of urban remote sensing: 3-D building reconstruction, utilization of time series data, urban heat island, urban surface moisture, dynamics of urban growth, regional economic development and the indicators of urbanization.

Ding, Wulamu and Weng further discussed student exchange, scholar visits, joint research, academic program collaboration, conferences and student placement that will strengthen the links between Indiana State and these institutions. Ding invited Weng to visit Xinjiang University at his earliest convenience.

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Photos: http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-mQDthpv/0/O/i-mQDthpv.jpg -- Wasit Wulamu and Qihao Weng

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-mZjjWj2/0/O/i-mZjjWj2.jpg -- From left, Hung Ha, Lei Zhang, Yitong Jiang, Fei Zhang, Jianli Ding, Qihao Weng, Wasit Wulamu, Peng Fu, Yuanfan Zheng and Wei Huang

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-KrzD3vt/0/O/i-KrzD3vt.jpg -- Dean Jiangli Ding and Qihao Weng

Contact: Qihao Weng, professor of earth and environmental systems, Indiana State University, 812-237-2255 or Qihao.Weng@indstate.edu