Our Mission
To foster an understanding of remote sensing science. Emphasis is placed on developing a meaningful dialogue among geographers interested in understanding and applying remote sensing technology in research, instruction, public service, and private enterprise.
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Student Award Winners
Student Honors Paper Competition Award: This award seeks students from all academic levels to submit a full paper in AAG that advance remote sensing. Research must have been completed entirely by the applicant. While papers may include co-authors, the applicant must be primarily responsible for the research presented. Students selected as finalists will be placed in a special competition session at the AAG Annual Meeting. First, second, and third place awards will be determined immediately following the competition sessions and awarded at the Awards Luncheon. Cash prizes are provided to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers!
Student Illustrated Paper Competition Award: This award seeks students from all academic levels to submit illustrated papers in AAG that advance remote sensing and/or GIS. Research must have been completed within the past academic year as part of the applicant’s undergraduate or graduate studies. Illustrated papers must be created entirely by the applicant. While papers may include co-authors, the applicant must be primarily responsible for the research presented. Students selected as finalists will be placed in a special illustrated paper session at the AAG Annual Meeting. First, second, and third place awards will be determined immediately following the competition sessions and awarded at the Awards Luncheon. Cash prizes are provided to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers! The first place award will be presented at the AAG Annual Awards Luncheon and the luncheon fee will be covered for the first place winner.
2022 RSSG Student Competition Winners- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Xiaoyue Tan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- 2nd place: Chishan Zhang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- 3rd place: Blair Mirka, University of New Mexico
- 3rd place: Yunze Zang, Beijing Normal University
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st place: Yin Liu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- 2nd place: Shuyu Y Chang, Pennsylvania State University
- 3rd place: Claire Wang, Clark University
- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Qi Dong, Beijing Normal University
- 2nd place: Rowan Converse, University of New Mexico
- 3rd place: Yilun Zhao, University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign
- 3rd place: Yuean Qiu, Beijing Normal University
- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Zijun Yang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, A robust hybrid deep learning modeling framework for spatiotemporal image fusion
- 2nd place: Phuong Dao, University of Toronto, Improving hyperspectral image segmentation by applying inverse noise weighting and outlier removal for optimal scale selection
- 3rd place: Ying Lu, University at Buffalo, Automatic training sample collection method for timely large-scale mangrove mapping
- 3rd place: Jie Dai, San Diego State University, Mapping understory invasive plant species with field and remotely sensed data in Chitwan, Nepal
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st place: Jie Dai, San Diego State University, Mapping understory invasive plant species with field and remotely sensed data in Chitwan, Nepal
- 2nd place: Thomas M. Bilintoh, Clark University, Methods to compare cases concerning categorical transitions during various time intervals
- 3rd place: Kayla J. Bradford, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, Remote sensing of the urban heat island effect in Wisconsin
- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Qiming Zheng, Indian State University and Zhejiang University, Developing a new cross-sensor calibration model for DMSP-OLS and Suomi-NPP VIIRS night-light imageries
- 2nd place: Ye Tian, University of Georgia, Analysis of Spatial and Seasonal Distributions of Air Pollutants by Incorporating Urban Morphological Characteristics
- 3rd place: Wenting Cao, Zhejiang University; Iowa State University, Mapping changes in coastlines and tidal flats in developing islands using the full time series of Landsat images
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st place: Abhishek Kumar, University of Georgia, Cyanotracker: A multi-cloud cyber infrastructure for monitoring global proliferation of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms
- 2nd place: Sam Khallaghi, Clark University, Baseline & Transect method compared to Polygon Overlay method to measure boundary change
- 3rd place: Geyang Li, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Near-Surface and High Resolution Satellite Remote Sensing Time Series for Understanding Crop Phenological Responses to Climate Change
- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Sory I. Toure, San Diego State University; Integrating multi-spatial resolution data and object-based image analysis to examine land use/cover change: A proof of concept for urban land change in the developing world.
- 2nd place: Xiao Huang, University of South Carolina; A flooding probability reconstruction approach by enhancing near real-time imagery with real-time gauge and tweets.
- 3rd place: Shengyuan Zou, State University of New York at Buffalo; Detecting vacant house at individual level with remote sensing.
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st place: Yang Liu, University of Cincinnati; Spatial-temporal evolution of shale oil development in the Marcellus Shale in the past century.
- 2nd place: Rachel Snavely, San Diego State University; Mapping vegetation community types in a highly-disturbed landscape: integrating hierarchical object-based image analysis with digital surface models.
- 3rd place: Xinghe Liu, State University of New York at Buffalo; Inversion of Mangrove Forest Leaf Area Index Using Consumer Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Su Ye, Clark University; Monitoring Tropical Tree Crop Plantation Expansion Using Landsat Time Series and a Shapelet-based Approach.
- 2nd place: Jing Li, UMass, Amherst; Estimating algal biomass in a shallow eutrophic lake using a look-up- table and spectrum-matching approach.
- 3rd place: Dameng Yin, University of Buffalo; Individual Mangrove Crown Delineation using UAV-LiDAR Data: Possibilities and Difficulties
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st place: Qiuyan Yu, University of South Florida; Understanding association between land surface temperature variation, and tree biophysical and biochemical properties for urban heat island studies/assessment using LiDAR and Landsat TM.
- 2nd place: Molly Smith, Florida Atlantic University; Sand Analysis Using a Combined Spectroscopic and Microscopic Technique.
- 3rd place: David O'Brien, Clark University; GIS Validation for projects to Reduce Emissions due to Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
- Honors Paper
- 1st place: Wenjie Ji, University at Buffalo; Phenology-guided saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) mapping using Landsat TM images in western U.S.
- 2nd place: Jiwei Li, University of Massachusetts; Remote sensing retrieval of colored dissolved organic matter in optically shallow waters.
- 3rd place: Tengyun Hu, Tsinghua University; Detailed land use mapping of Beijing based on medium-resolution satellite images and Point of Interest data.
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st place: Laurel Ballanti, San Francisco State University; Tree Species Classification Using Hyperspectral Imagery in Muir Woods National Monument and Kent Creek Canyon, California.
- 2nd place: Fang Fang, West Virginia University; Discriminating tree species using crown-scale measurements: fusing leaf-on LiDAR and high-resolution multi-spectral satellite data.
- 3rd place: Kyle Mullen: Minnesota State University-Mankato; Early Detection of Mountain Pine Beetle Attacked Trees using WorldView-2 Imagery and Field data.
- Honors Paper
- 1st Place: Yuhong Zhou, University of Texas at Dallas; Object-level fusion of LiDAR pseudo-waveforms and HSR multi-spectral data for land cover mapping.
- 2nd Place: Chen Shi, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; Spatial statistical detection of homogenous regions for remotely sensed imagery.
- 3rd Place: Xuecao Li, Center of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University; A 30-year (1984-2013) record of annual impervious surface dynamics of Beijing City derived from Landsat Data.
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st Place: Mengyao Zhang, University of Connecticut; Application of Using Google Direction API to Support GIS in Transit Time Calculation: A Case Study of Food Access Analysis in Hartford, Connecticut.
- 2nd Place: Shujie Wang, University of Cincinnati; Investigation of the flow dynamics of the rapidly retreating ice shelves, Antarctica.
- 3rd Place: Rebecca Chapman, Clark University; Algorithm to measure differences between maps of a continuous variable.
- Honors Paper
- 1st Place: Yanlei Chen, University of California, Berkeley; BITE: an algorithm for mapping chronic forest disturbances caused by mountain pine beetles with Landsat TM image stacks (Award prize = $500).
- 2nd Place: Lucy K. Tetteh, Mississippi State University; A multi-decadal remote sensing study on glacial change in the North Patagonia (Award prize = $250).
- 3rd Place: Matthew Dannenberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Evidence of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation influencing variability in land surface phenology and productivity in the western United States (Award prize = $150).
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st Place: Andrew Thorpe, University of California, Santa Barbara; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology; Mapping and quantifying methane emissions using airborne imaging spectroscopy (Award prize = $500).
- 2nd Place: Panshu Zhao, Texas A&M University, College Station; Integration of spectral and topographic information into an analytical reasoning model to map debris-covered glaciers in the Karakoram Himalaya (Award prize = $250).
- 3rd Place: Yan Huang, East China Normal University; Derivation of split-window algorithm for Landsat-8 dual channel thermal images and its application to spatial pattern analysis of water temperatures of Arctic lakes (Award prize = $150).
- Honors Paper
- 1st Place: Niti Mishra, University of Texas - Austin; "Relating Spatial Patterns of Fractional Land Cover to Savanna Vegetation Morphology using Multi-scale Remote Sensing in the Central Kalahari" (Award prize = $500).
- 2nd Place: Wenkai Li, University of California-Merced; "A New Accuracy Assessment Method for One-Class Classification of Remote Sensing Data" (Award prize = $250).
- 3rd Place: Chunyuan Diao, University at Buffalo; "Development of an Invasive Species Distribution Model with Fine-Resolution Remote Sensing" (Award prize = $150).
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st Place: Thomas O'Connell, Salem State University, "No More Hidden Secrets: Human Rights Violations and Remote Sensing" (Award prize = $500).
- 2nd Place: Laura Hansen, Clark University, "Comparison of metrics to measure land change model performance across various REDD projects" (Award prize = $250).
- 3rd Place: Xianonan Tai, University at Buffalo, "Validating habitat suitability model with remote sensing-derived species fractions: Using Invasive Tamarisk as an example" (Award prize = $150).
- Honors Paper
- 1st Place: Amy E. Frazier, State University of New York at Buffalo, Super-Resolution Land Cover Mapping using Landscape Metrics (Award prize = $500).
- 2nd Place: Iryna Dronova, University of California at Berkeley, Landscape analysis of wetland plant functional types: the effects of image segmentation scale, vegetation classes and classification methods (Award prize = $250).
- 3rd Place: Amy L. McCleary, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, A Comparison of Support Vector Machine and Object Based Image Analysis Approaches for Mapping Land Use/Cover: A Case Study of the Galápagos Islands (Award prize = $150).
- Illustrated Paper
- 1st Place: Andrew Shatz, Clark University, Creating and Analyzing a Time Series of Species Distribution Models: Asian Longhorned Beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) in Worchester County, MA (Award prize = $500).
- 2nd Place: Marion Clement & Kae Yamane, Rutgers University, The Shantytown Mapping Project: Google Earth in the Study of Urban Shantytowns (Award prize = $250).
- 3rd Place: Shanshan Cai, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Combing Object-based Classification Approach with Pixel-based Contextual Classification on Airborne High Spatial Resolution Remote Sensing Imagery (Award prize = $150).
- 1st Place
- Benjamin W. Heumann (University of North Carolina)
- “A comparison of spectral and spatial techniques to map mangrove forest canopy structure”
- Prize: $500.00
- 2nd Place
- Nicholas Cuba (Clark University)
- “Modeling Spatio-Temporal Variation in Deciduousness in the Southern Yucatan Peninsula Using MODIS Vegetation Indices, 2000-2010
- Prize: $250.00
- 3rd Place
- Sachidananda Mishra (Mississippi State University)
- “A Quasi-Analytical Algorithm to Quantify Phycocyanin Concentration in Turbid Productive Waters”
- Prize: $150.00
- 1st Place
- Candice Luebbering (Virginia Technological University)
- “Visualizing linguistic diversity through cartography”
- Prize: $500.00
- 2nd Place
- Harini Sridharan (University of Texas-Dallas)
- “Expectation-Maximization based Dasymetric Mapping of Population at building-level”
- Prize: $250.00
- 3rd Place
- Sarah Geise (Carthage College)
- “Measuring Suburban Sprawl and Land Cover in Boston's Northern Suburbs”
- Prize: $150.00
- First Place
- Caiyun Zhang, University of Texas-Dallas
- Prize: $500
- Second Place
- Nicholas Giner, Clark University
- Prize: $250
- Third Place
- Sachidananda Mishra, Mississippi State University
- Prize: $150
- First Place
- Moumita Duttagupta, Salem State College
- Prize: $500
- Second Place
- Yuji Zhang, Clark University
- Prize: $250
- Third Place
- Jenner Alpern, Clark University
- Prize: $150
- First Place
- Daniel Redo, Texas A&M University
- "A Hybrid Remote Sensing Protocol for Tracking Land Change Types in the Seasonal Tropics."
- Second Place
- Xuefei Hu, Indiana State University
- "Impervious Surface Extractions from IKONOS Imagery Using Object-Based Approach."
- Third Place
- Jahan Kariyeva, University of Arizona
- "Land Surface Phenological Responses to Changes in Land and Water Use, Climate and Socio-Economic: Central Asia Before and After the USSR Collapse."
- First Place
- Robert Roth, Pennsylvania State University
- "Geographic Disparities in U.S. Cervical Can cer Mortality, 2000-2004."
- Second Place
- Mary Lindsey, University of Maryland
- "Impact of Clouds on Later-Season Agricultural Land Cover Classification in Kentucky."
- Third Place
- Prajna Regmi, Clark University
- "Indian Ocean Dipole-Relationship with El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Teleconnectors in South Asia."
- First Place
- Jose Silvan (Texas State University at San Marcos)
- Presentation Title: Retrieval of sub-pixel Tamarix canopy cover from Landsat data along the Forgotten River: Assessing the influence of multiple scattering
- Prize: $500
- Second Place
- Wenhui Wang (University of Maryland at College Park)
- Presentation Title: Estimating High Spatial Resolution Clear-Sky Land Surface Downwelling Longwave Radiation from MODIS Data
- Prize: $300
- Third Place
- Joseph Fortier (Clark University)
- Presentation Title: Utilizing temporally invariant training sites to classify multiple dates of satellite imagery
- Prize: $200
- First Place
- Alicia Simonti (Clark University)
- Presentation Title: Image Time Series Analysis of SeaWIFS Ocean Color Product for the Investigation of Ocean Chlorophyll Dynamics
- Prize: $500
- Second Place
- Oh Seok Kim (Clark University)
- Presentation Title: Contribution of GIScience to Carbon Credit Estimation
- Prize: $300
- Third Place
- Bardan Ghimire (Clark University)
- Presentation Title: Incorporating spatial dependence in random forest classification models
- Prize: $200
- First Place
- Amy Neuenschwander – University of Texas at Austin
- Presentation Title: Assessing Temporal Dynamics Using Landsat TM/ETM+: Disturbance and Resilience in the Okavango Delta, Botswana
- Prize: $500
- Second Place
- Junmei Tang – Texas State University at San Marcos
- Presentation Title: Modeling urban landscape dynamics through fuzzy CA model
- Prize: $300
- Third Place
- Kuan Song – University of Maryland at College Park
- Presentation Title: A Geolocation Accuracy Assessment of NASA Landsat GeoCover
- Prize: $200
- Honorable Mentions
- Evan Ellicott – University of Maryland at College Park
- Presentation Title: Global Estimates Of Biomass Burning Particulate Matter Using Fire Radiative Power
- Prize: Clark Labs IDRISI License
- Tao Zheng – University of Maryland at College Park
- Presentation Title: Mapping Incident Photosynthetically Active Radiation From AVHRR Data
- Prize: Leica Geosystems ERDAS Imagine License
- Marco Millones – Clark University
- Presentation Title: Follies and fixes of commonly used indices of categorical map comparison in land change simulation models
- Prize: ESRI ArcGIS License
- First Place
- Joseph Fortier – Clark University
- Presentation Title: A comparison of Machine Learning Algorithms: The Effects of Classification Scheme Detail on Map Accuracy
- Prize: $500
- Second Place
- Karen Culcasi – Syracuse University
- Presentation Title: Cartography and the Construction of the "Middle East"
- Prize: $300
- Third Place
- Aude Esperbé – San Diego State University
- Presentation Title: A High-Resolution Self-Organizing Map Based on Physical and Human Attributes of Geographic Space
- Prize: $200
- Honorable Mentions
- Evan Martzial – Salem State College
- Presentation Title: Analyzing the 2006 Oil Spill off of Lebanese Coast
- Prize: ESRI ArcGIS License
- James Langill – Salem State College
- Presentation Title: A Tale of two fires. A Comparison of the Mann Gulch and Storm King Mountain (South Canyon) fires
- Prize: Prentice Hall World Atlas
- Devin Dworkin – Salem State College
- Presentation Title: An Urbanization Analysis and growth projection of greater Guangzhou City, Guangdong, China, 1990, 2000 and 2010
- Prize: Prentice Hall World Atlas
- John Raymond, Sr. – Salem State College
- Presentation Title: Using LIDAR to measure roof areas in hurricane prone regions
- Prize: ESRI Press GIS A to Z Illustrated Dictionary
- First Place
- Densheng Liu – University of California at Berkeley
- Presentation Title: Detecting Sudden Oak Death Dynamics from Multi-temporal High Spatial Resolution Imagery
- Prize: $500 and RSI ENVI 4.2 license
- Second Place
- Amy McCleary – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Presentation Title: A Multi-temporal Classification Approach to Isolating Seasonal Variation in Landuse/Landcover Change in the Peruvian Amazon
- Prize: $250 and Clark Labs IDRISI Andes license
- Third Place
- Guiyan Zhou – Louisiana State University
- Presentation Title: Reducing the Edge Effects in the Classification of High-resolution Imagery
- Prize: $150
- First Place
- Jessica McCarty – University of Maryland at College Park
- Presentation Title: Agricultural Burning in the Southeastern United States Detected by MODIS
- Prize: $500 and ESRI ArcGIS 9.1 license
- Second Place
- John Connors – Clark University
- Presentation Title: Quantifying categorical associations using sub-pixel mapping
- Prize: $250 and ESRI ArcGIS 9.1 license
- Third Place
- Jason Knowles - Louisiana State University
- Presentation Title: Visual representations of the spatial correlation between Bermuda High strengths and tropical cyclone tracks
- Prize: $150 and ESRI ArcGIS 9.1 license
- First Place
- Qi Chen - University of California Berkeley (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Isolating Individual Trees in a Savanna Woodland Using Small Footprint LIDAR Data.
- Second Place
- Lei Wang - Texas A & M University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Wavelet-transform Based Edge Detection Approach to Derivation of Snowmelt Information from Satellite Passive Microwave Measurements.
- Third Place
- Xin Miao - University of California Berkeley (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Estimation of Yellow Starthistle Cover through CASI-2 Hyperspectral Imagery Using Linear Spectral Mixture Models.
- Undergraduate Award
- Christopher Lippitt - Clark University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Timber Harvest: A Comparison of Machine Learning Classifiers.
- First Place
- Stephen David Gardner - Pennsylvania State University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Map-Use Testing of the Color Brewer Color Schemes for Accommodation of the Color-Vision Impaired.
- Second Place
- Jian Liu - University Of Wisconsin (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Mapping with Words for Knowledge-based Natural Resource Mapping.
- Third Place (Tie)
- Shuo-Sheng Derek Wu - Texas State University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: An Improved Dasymetric Mapping Method for Remodeling Census Populations.
- Amy Norman - University of Texas at Austin (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Multi-temporal Characterization of Land Use/Land Cover in Iquitos, Peru.
- Undergraduate
- Michelle Roy - Salem State College (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Change in NDVI Over Australian Land Cover from 1999 to 2003.
- First Place
- Elena Tarnavsky - San Diego State University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Fidelity of scanned and direct digital imagery in a land-cover change context.
- Second Place
- Qinghua Guo - University of California Berkeley (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: An object-based classification method in detecting Sudden Oak Death.
- Third Place
- Claudia M. Stickler - University of Florida (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Predicting the complexity of primate habitat selection in Kibale National Park, Western Uganda, using multi-scale spatial analysis and remote sensing.
- Undergraduate Award
- Christopher Lippitt - Clark University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: A method to distinguish real landscape change from map error during map comparison.
- First Place
- Erik Strandhagen - University of Oregon (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Views of the rivers; representing hydrological data of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
- Second Place
- Carl J. Legleiter - University of California Santa Barbara (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Remote mapping and geostatistical analysis of river channel morphology and change in Yellowstone National Park.
- Third Place
- Christopher Zanger - Oregon State University (Presenter)
- Presentation Title: Ecoregion delineation: using a GIS to identify and model the dominant ecoregion variables in Southern Oregon / Northern California.