Land Systems Lab

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About 

The Land Systems Lab conducts interdisciplinary research on coupled human-environment systems, with particular emphasis on Earth observation, land-use and land-cover change, climate variability and the interactions between people and landscapes. The lab’s work integrates geospatial data, remote sensing and spatial analysis to examine how environmental and human processes shape land systems across multiple scales.

Key Research Areas

  • Coupled human-environment systems  
  • Earth observation  
  • Remote sensing  
  • Land-use and land-cover change  
  • Climate variability  
  • Human-environment interactions  
  • Geospatial data analysis  
  • Spatial modeling  
  • Population and landscape dynamics  
  • Environmental change across spatial and temporal scales 

Current Projects

LouHeat is a NASA-funded project focused on better characterizing how urban environments shape weather. Current models can oversimplify the complex land surface dynamics of the urban fabric. LouHeat advances the next generation of land cover data and modeling approaches to better capture urban heat, improve forecasts and support climate-informed decision-making in cities.

LouHeat is funded by NASA through its Biosphere: Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program, under the program’s Land Use for Digital Twins (LU4DT) research area (award number 80NSSC25K7495).

Learn more on the LouHeat project hub or the NASA LCLUC project page for LouHeat.

Our National Science Foundation-funded project, Equitable, Nature-based Climate Solutions (ENACTS), is a multi-institutional effort examining how nature-based solutions are put in place in three U.S. locations through a framework focused on equity and how benefits are distributed. The project combines environmental questions, community engagement, planning and social equity to study how nature-based solutions such as urban forests, parks and green infrastructure can improve environmental quality, reduce climate-related risks and enhance community well-being. Through community-engaged research and geospatial analysis, we develop evidence-based strategies to support more resilient, sustainable and equitable cities. (Award number 2418377)

Team

Recent Publications