John Jensen Distinguished Lecture Series at AAG 2024

Sponsored by Remote Sensing Specialty Group (RSSG)

Date: 4/18/2024
Time: 1:20 PM – 2:40 PM 
Room: 314 (Lānaʻi), Third Floor, Hawai’i Convention Center

In-person modality: In-person streamed/hybrid

Title: Trade-off between water conservation and heat alleviation with environmental justice for urban sustainability

Speaker: Dr. Soe Myint

Heat is the deadliest weather-related risk in the United States and kills more people than all other weather-related disasters combined. Understanding the linkage of heat, vegetation and social inequality is critical for urban sustainability. In this talk, Dr. Myint will discuss how to manage vegetation to reduce urban heat, and assess the effects of intra-urban social inequality on water use. Dr. Myint will also provide solutions to mitigate urban heat and outdoor water use by adding new green space in urban environments. Dr. Myint will identify the trend, challenges, and opportunities using remote sensing to solve pressing urban environmental issues.

Soe W. Myint, Meadows Endowed Chair Professor and Honorary Professor of International Studies at Texas State University, is an internationally recognized scholar and leading expert in environmental geoinformatics, who holds the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in water, environment, and clean energy. He integrates his areas of expertise to examine environmental issues in urban, forest, water, and coastal ecosystems, understand the environmental benefits and burdens within and across cities, and advance environmental justice in marginalized communities.

Dr. Soe Myint has been recognized as one of the most influential researchers in remote sensing, GIS, and spatial modeling with a long list of highly cited publications and funding support from multiple federal agencies such as NSF, NASA, and NOAA. His talk at RSSG John Jensen Distinguished Lecture was published in AGU Advances and featured on Eos.org in 2023. This year he was selected as the recipient of the 2024 E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Award by AAG. Dr. Myint has also made outstanding contributions to teaching/education and professional service in the discipline of AAG. Dr. Myint has supervised and served over 60 PhDs on their dissertation committee and has long been dedicated to the diversity and inclusion in geography programs.

The past speakers of John Jensen Distinguished Lecture Series:

  • 2023 – Prof. Karen Seto, Yale University
  • 2022 – Prof. Ruth DeFries, Columbia University 
  • 2021 – Prof. Qihao Weng, Hong Kong Polytechnic University/Indiana State University
  • 2019 – Prof. Marguerite Madden, University of Georgia
  • 2018 – Prof. Douglas A. Stow, University of California, San Diego
  • 2017 – Prof. John Jensen, University of South Carolina