CNIC: US-India Collaborative Research Linking Remote Sensing, Citizen Science, and Robotics to Address Critical Environmental Problems in Data Sparse Regions

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Technical description Despite several decades of calls for improved international data sharing and environmental observations, measurements of critical environmental data remain unavailable in many parts of the world, especially in developing nations due to the lack of data collection, quality control, and bureaucratic obstacles. Reliable local environmental data are essential for identifying environmental trends and formulating appropriate policy responses. This proposal focuses on a synthesis of traditional and emerging observation techniques to address data scarcity in the Arkavathy Watershed, Karnataka as a case study. This is a new international collaboration among the University of California, Berkeley (UBC), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore to generate novel environmental data collection techniques for application in data scarce regions. It will bring together researchers with expertise in environmental science in India, robotics and remote sensing to pilot an observation system linking field measurements, robotics and satellite remote sensing. There will also be a workshop at ATREE to formulate next steps including conceptualizing future proposals for submission to Indian funding agencies and to NSF?s Geospatial Sciences and Robotics programs. The intellectual merit of this proposal lies in the development of data collection and synthesisapproaches that address fundamental environmental data gaps within the context of developing nations. It will evaluate the feasibility of achieving three key design goals for novel data collection systems: spatial and temporal extension of observations, low cost reproducible measurements, and ensuring researcher safety. It will identify key methodological challenges associated with fusion of multiple data types for consistent interpretation of environmental observations, as well as specific challenges associated with independent methods. It will provide cross-fertilization of research expertise across groups in three institutions: hydrology and remote sensing at UBC, low-cost sensors and mobile sensor platforms at UIUC, and water sustainability, citizen science and development projects at ATREE. Broader description By building on existing research foci held by ATREE, UIUC and UCB, the researchers will ensure that the initial collection of pilot data is linked to larger project goals, and to policy formation in south India. They will work with ATREE to ensure that collected data are shared through their project portal and the India Water Data Portal. The proposed collaborative research will directly support two PhD students by offering them the opportunity to develop meaningful working relationships with international partners and contribute to their doctoral research. The proposed research will also support the research goals of four junior faculty: three in the United States and one in India.