Active and Recent Research Activities Department of Geography 2003-2008     Vladimir Aizen, Research Professor http://www.sci.uidaho.edu/cae/index.html   Active projects: 2008     NSF Paleo-Climate Program, Collaborative Project: “Asian Ice Core Array (AICA): Reconstruction of Past Physical and Chemical Climate over Central Asia” PI ($1M three years). 2008     NASA LCLUC, Collaborative Research: “Diagnosis of changes in alpine water storages and land surface degradation in Pamir Mountains and Amu Dariya River basin” PI ($884,621 three years). 2007     NASA “Estimation of Seasonal Snow Cover, Glacial and Lake Area Changes at the Ob/Yenisei River Heads During the Last 40 years Using NASA ESE Products and In Situ Data” PI ($448,000 - three years). 2007     NSF ANT Antarctic Glaciology Program. Collaborative Proposal: “2000+ Year Detailed, Calibrated Climate Reconstruction from a South Pole Ice Core Set in an Antarctic - Global Scale Context” Co-PI ($362,000 – tree years) #AP0636475. 2006     EPSCoR Research and instrumentation grant ($80,000 one year). 2005     CADIP (Central Asia Deep Ice-Core Project). USA, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, international program based on multi-national funds (Leader). 2005     NASA “Estimation of Seasonal Snow Cover and Glacial Area Changes in Central Asia (Tien Shan) During the Last 60 Years Using NASA ESE Products and In-Situ Data”, PI ($532,666/three years).     Raymond Dezzani, Assistant Professor   Active Projects: 2008      Research with Salvatore Babones (University of Sydney) on economic inequality estimation                 Research with John Bodley (WSU) on income and social inequality scale and geographic transmission                 Research with Melanie Murphy (WSU grad student and now post-doc at CSU, Fort Collins) on landscape genetics landscape interactions                 Research with Eileen Perry (UI grad student) on spatial statistical estimation of agricultural yields                 Research with Levan Elbakidze (UI Ag Econ) concerning economic ramifications of wolf-human interactions                 Research with Lisette Waits and Lee Vierling (UI CNR) on landscape genetics metrics                 Research with Harley Johansen (UI Geography) on geographically-variant FDI estimation                 My own ongoing research into regional economic classification and dynamic change                 With Gundars Rudzitis (UI Geography) to develop regional labor economic model for the Pacific Northwest       Jeffrey Hicke, Assistant Professor   Active Projects: I have several research projects related to disturbance effects on forest ecosystems in western North America, particularly related to insect outbreaks and fire.  These projects involve mapping and monitoring disturbances, identifying drivers of disturbances, and understanding the impacts of these disturbances.   Graduate student Arjan Meddens, colleague Dr. Lee Vierling (Rangeland Ecology and Management) and I are assessing the capability of QuickBird, Landsat, and MODIS satellite observations to map and monitor bark beetle outbreaks in the West.  This work is funded by the USGS LANDFIRE program.   Through funding by the USDA Forest Service and the USGS Western Mountain Initiative, we are using climate information and forest stand condition data to assess whether drought, warming, and/or stand structure are mechanisms behind the large-scale infestations that have occurred recently.   I have several projects that quantify effects of bark beetle outbreaks on forest ecosystems.  An M.S. student, Eric Pfeifer, used the Forest Vegetation Simulator model to predict the carbon cycle response of stands attacked by mountain pine beetle (NSF EPSCoR).  I am using field measurements and national inventories to assess biomass killed by insects (funded by the USGS Western Mountain Initiative).  Another project will incorporate bark beetle outbreaks in a global climate model to assess past and future impacts of infestations on the carbon cycle (DOE National Institute for Climate Change Research).  Finally, NOAA is providing funding to collaborators at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and myself to assess how bark beetle outbreaks affect land surface properties and weather and climate.   In addition, my graduate student, Jason Trook, and I are studying how climate change will affect the potential habitat of a small mammal species of concern, the pika, funded by the USGS Gap Analysis Program.  We are developing a statistical model using climate information and occurrence data, and then applying climate change scenarios to the model to quantify differences compared with the current climate.  GAP is also funding another M.S. student, Terri Stamper, to quantify changes in land stewardship status over the last 10-15 years in the western US.     Karen Humes, Professor   Recent and Active Projects: Remote Sensing of Key Quantities for Hydrologic and Ecologic Modeling of the Carbon and Water Cycles.   Together with graduate student Jennifer Jensen and collaborators from other departments, we have used airborne Lidar data to made Leaf Area Index (LAI) at 30 m spatial resolution over large heterogeneous forest stands in northern Idaho.  The ability to quantify LAI across the landscape is important because LAI is an important factor that controls the exchange of water, carbon and energy between plants and the atmosphere.  In addition to being used as inputs to models, these unique, high-resolution maps of vegetation distribution are being used to evaluate key operational NASA products from global-scale sensors.  We are also beginning to extend these techniques to sagebrush habitat in the USDA/ARS Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed in southern Idaho.   Improved Operational Forecasting of Snowmelt-Runoff in Small Mountainous Basins.   Together with graduate students and Geography faculty member Von Walden, we have developed new tools for water resource managers and forecasters that utilize snow-cover extent derived from the NASA/MODIS sensor to forecast runoff from small mountainous basins.  This work is somewhat unique in that we have been able to make basic research contributions to the field of hydroclimatology while at the same time developing a tool for operational managers for one of our partners/stakeholders in this work – the USDA National Resource Conservation Service.   Use of Remotely Sensed Data for Management of Lands on the Nez Perce Reservation.   In partnership with the Land Services and Forestry Departments for the Nez Perce Tribe, we obtained funding from NASA to develop applications of remotely sensed data (i.e., satellite and aircraft data) that would be useful to the Tribe in the operational management of their lands.  This work continues the theme of the last project described, in that my research team makes a special effort to engage in projects which contribute to basic research, but simultaneously develop tools and products of use to “real people” on the ground.  In this case, we developed new techniques and data products related to mapping forest characteristics of interest to Tribal forest managers, while also making contributions to the remote sensing literature on the use of Lidar data over complex terrain and highly-variable forests.   Leadership of Inter-college Team for Idaho NSF EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Grant (RII).  The Idaho EPSCoR office led a state-wide team of researchers from UI, ISU, and BSU for a successful NSF RII grant (2005-2008) on the overall theme of water and carbon cycling.  I was the leader of one of five teams statewide.  The team was comprised of researchers from three colleges focused on coupled carbon/water cycles in complex terrain, with primary emphasis on forest ecosystems.   The collective team effort involved the acquisition of water and carbon flux data and modeling at various scales (tree and soil level, canopy scale, and watershed scale), as well as studies on the impacts of insects and other disturbances on carbon/water fluxes.     Harley Johansen, Professor/Dept Head   Current projects Multi-ethnic Labor Force Integration in Transition Economies:  A Case Study of Macedonia. This project is funded by the U.S. Department of State (2009), to examine the level of ethnic integration in the workforce in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to investigate relationships among multi-ethnic communities and transition economics.  It will look at labor force ethnicity at the firm level and how this relates to characteristics of the firm including sector, size, location, industry, and ownership or management structure.  It will also address the identity of employees toward ethnicity and Macedonian citizenship.  The purpose of the project is to learn how ethnic tensions may be reduced by economic progress in general, and how specific firms and their employees view ethnicity in today’s working environment.  Co-PI, Michele O’Neill, College of Business.   Climate Change Adaptation in High Latitude Rural Development Planning. Funded by NSF, Polar Programs, Arctic Social Sciences, this project is about adaptation to climate change in high latitude rural communities where the effects have been most severe.  High latitude locations experience extreme climates and short growing seasons, along with the usual combination of remoteness, including distance to markets, small populations, outmigration of young people, and small size, that face most rural areas.  The new challenge of climate change causes uncertainty about how it will affect options for both traditional and potentially new economic developments.  This project will compare data on climate change adaptation measures and recent economic change among 71 municipalities spread across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and northwestern Russia above lat. 65N, to identify elements of local development strategies that are associated with positive economic change in the local economy.  The countries are selected to provide a variety of governmental approaches to high latitude development.  The broader impacts of the research will enable municipalities outside the region, but with similar challenges caused by size, location, and climate change effects, to benefit from the results of this analysis.   Projects during Past Five Years: Adaptive Business Location, Survival, and Sustainability in Transitional Market Economies – A research project funded by the National Science Foundation to study survivors of the first wave of western companies to enter the former Soviet Baltic region in 1993-94.  The project will learn how surviving companies have adapted both in operations management and location to changing conditions in the transition setting.  A goal of the project is to learn how governments can help offset disadvantages to foreign investors and local entrepreneurs through policy adjustments.   Macedonian American School of Business and Entrepreneurship – A new university-level school in Skopje to teach an American business curriculum using the innovative Integrated Business Curriculum, along with courses in business location, demographic methods, and local development using the proven methods and models of the University of Idaho.  I was invited by the organizers in Skopje to facilitate collaboration with our business school and to help design the curriculum and management plan.  The new school started in September, 2006.       Hejun Kang, Assistant Professor Recent Projects A Spatio-Temporal GIS Toolkit for Identifying and Visualizing Intra-household Interactions Funded by Ontario Graduate Scholarship Science and Technology, Canada (2007-2008), the objective of this project is to develop a new activity-based travel demand forecasting model, which will improve the performance of travel prediction of models, by identifying and incorporating intra-household interactions. This model will also provide a very powerful tool for hypothesis testing, visualization, policy analysis (e.g., car-pooling, road pricing, parking pricing, telecommuting), route planning and long-term travel demand forecasting.   Proposed Projects: Climate Change and the Highway System: Impacts and Adaptation Approaches To be submitted to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP). The objectives of this research are to (1) synthesize the current state of worldwide knowledge regarding the probable range of impacts of climate change on highway systems by region of the United States for the period 2030-2050; and (2) recommend institutional arrangements, tools, approaches, and strategies that state departments of transportation (DOTs) can use during system planning, design, construction, operations, and maintenance to adapt infrastructure and operations to these impacts and lessen their effects.   Social Exclusion of the Elderly: An International Perspective on the Participation of Joint Activities and Travel Together with several scholars from China, this research is going to compare the participation in joint activities/travel by the aged group across the US and China. The goal of this researchis to develop an understanding about how to reduce the level of social exclusion of the elderly, and therefore increasing their life quality.   Gundars Rudzitis, Professor Active Projects, 2009: The recently completed Future Visions of a Sustainable Palouse paperback book funded by Sustainable Idaho is being revised and going into a second printing.  The book was a two year project done in conjunction with a multidisciplinary team of eight undergraduate and graduate students from Anthropology, Architecture and Environmental Science, and Geography.  It will be used in several classes in different disciplines in Fall, 2009.   I am cooperating and participating with the Palouse Project portion of the recently refunded $3.4 million National Science Foundation-IGERT grant.  This grant provides funding for PhD students who are chosen in a national competition to work on integrated projects.  I will work with PhD students and faculty to build upon and extend the research ideas and possibilities described in the Future Visions of a Sustainable Palouse paperback.   I am starting in Fall, 2009 with a group of multidisciplinary graduate students a research project “Future Geographies of the American West.”   The end result of this project will be an edited book to be published by EWU Press, along with an associated website linked by the press to the book. The project will be rooted in a place-based theory of development in sub-regions of the American West and guided philosophically by the principles of both radical pragmatism and radical democracy.   I am, at the suggestion of the National Science Foundation, resubmitting a proposal “Indigenous Development: A Case Study of the Nez Perce Reservation.”  The proposal is in conjunction with the tribe and is intended to address the extent to which the tribe is pursuing a developmental approach rooted in traditional and cultural values.  The research considers whether tribal development strategies are embedded in an indigenous worldview where economic values are not primary, and if tribal strategies represent a potential move towards alternative ways of societal organization?  I am also as a result of prior research in this area co-writing with Nicolas Barbier  a book on American Indian resource and environmental development conflict issues for the University of Chicago Press.   I will be conducting field research in the Spring of 2010 in New Zealand on a comparative study of the differences and similarities between environmental and resource developmental issues of the indigenous Maori populations and Northwest Native American tribes such as the Nez Perce.     Von Walden, Associate Professor   Active Projects:  for details see http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~vonw/ ·  NSF EPSCoR RII: Water Resources in a Changing Climate (NSF, 2008-2013), Lead Scientist and co-PI ·  NASA ROSES: Antarctic Clouds and Climate: A Study with Two Generations of NASA Earth Science Enterprise Data (NASA, 2008-2011) ·  IPY: Cloud Properties across the Arctic Basin from surface and satellite measruements (NSF, 2007-2010) ·  Longwave Radiation Processes and Surface Energy Budget over the Antarctic Plateau (NSF, 2005-2009) ·  Deployment of the Polar Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (P-AERI) in Eureka, Canada for SEARCH (NOAA, 2005-2009)   I have four concurrent projects to study the atmospheres of both the Arctic and Antarctic.  All of these projects rely on data from the Polar Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (PAERI), a state-of-the-art infrared spectrometer used for ground-based, passive remote sensing.  The PAERI is one of about a dozen instruments of this type in the world.  Dr. Walden’s research group is working on retrieving properties of the Antarctic atmospheric (clouds and trace gas concentrations) through two projects:  NSF Office of Polar Programs – Longwave Radiation Processes and Surface Energy Budget on the Antarctic Plateau and NASA – Antarctic clouds and Climate: A Study of Two Generations of NASA Earth Science Enterprise Data.  In addition, this research group is acquiring and analyzing data from the Arctic through an international collaboration at Eureka, Canada with NOAA and the Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC).  This project is being supported by grants from NOAA – Lease of the University of Idaho Polar Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (PAERI) and the NSF International Polar Year (IPY) – Cloud properties across the Arctic Basin from surface and satellite measurements – An existing Arctic Observing Network.   Dr. Walden is co-PI and leader of the science Team of a recently funded project to study climate change in Idaho.  This project was funded by NSF EPSCoR Program, and is entitled “Water Resources in a Changing Climate: Connection to Ecological and Human Systems.”  This is a large state-wide program containing many faculty from the three major universities in Idaho, and will focus on understanding the effects of climate change on water resources and the impact of these effects on ecological, human, and economical systems.  The faculty will work in three primary areas of hydroclimatology, ecology, and economics/policy. As part of this project, the Dept of Geography will be hiring three new faculty between 2008 and 2010 in the areas of climatology, regional science, and water policy.