MRI: Acquisition of a small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) for natural and urban ecosystem studies and risk disaster management

MRI：采购小型无人机系统（UAS），用于自然和城市生态系统研究以及灾害风险管理

• 批准号: 1531511
• 负责人: Alexander Buyantuev
• 金额: $ 14.8万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Albany
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1531511&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; small; Unmanned; Aircraft

This award permits University at Albany, SUNY, to purchase an unmanned aircraft system. Researchers led by Dr. Alexander Buyantuev will use the system to conduct a multidisciplinary study focused on monitoring fast ecological and geophysical processes and advance the understanding of environmental changes at scales of individual trees to whole landscapes. Several projects that utilize near surface remote sensing made possible by the cutting edge drone technology and ground measurements will examine effects of climate warming and local anthropogenic impacts, such as soil acidification, wind power generation, and urbanization, on vegetation growth. Gaining insight into these effects is of great importance to predict more accurately the state of ecosystems in the future and to develop sound mitigation strategies. Researchers will also be committed to look closely into the use of the technology in identifying best practices and developing protocols for post-storm area analysis and future emergency management applications. Overall, these studies are expected to benefit a large number of students and the public by either their direct involvement in the work or through exposure to research during classwork or public presentations.Dr. Buyantuev with colleagues will use a professional grade unmanned aircraft system (UAS) outfitted with visual, multi (hyper-) spectral, thermal, and laser sensors to collect geospatial data at forested field sites and near developed areas. Such very high resolution data will provide the missing link in scaling between ground sampling and airborne and spaceborne remote sensing, primarily data from widely used Landsat and MODIS satellites. It will allow researchers to assess how climate warming and associated changes in timing of tree growth affect the dynamics of nonstructural carbon in spruce trees and understand better the effects of soil acidification and warming on growing season arrival and length for sugar maple stands in Upstate New York, USA. The team is also particularly interested in how wind turbines, being the sources of alternative and environmentally friendly power production, and the process of urbanization characterized by the expansion of built-up land, modify local climates and vegetation/crop growth. These effects will be studied by quantifying inter-annual growing seasons and biomass changes in the vicinity of an existing wind farm and along the gradient of land development in a suburban site. The research will generate valuable datasets and methods for processing high resolution imagery into important scientific information.

该合同允许纽约州立大学奥尔巴尼分校购买无人驾驶飞机系统。由亚历山大Buyantuev博士领导的研究人员将使用该系统进行多学科研究，重点是监测快速的生态和地球物理过程，并在单个树木到整个景观的尺度上推进对环境变化的理解。利用尖端无人机技术和地面测量实现的近地表遥感的几个项目将研究气候变暖和当地人为影响（如土壤酸化、风力发电和城市化）对植被生长的影响。深入了解这些影响对于更准确地预测未来生态系统的状况和制定合理的缓解战略至关重要。研究人员还将致力于密切关注该技术在确定最佳实践和制定风暴后区域分析和未来应急管理应用程序的协议方面的使用。总的来说，这些研究预计将使大量的学生和公众受益，无论是他们直接参与工作，还是通过在课堂作业或公开演讲中接触研究。Buyantuev博士及其同事将使用专业级无人机系统（UAS），配备有视觉，多（超）光谱，热，和激光传感器来收集森林野外和发达地区附近的地理空间数据。这种分辨率极高的数据将弥补地面取样与机载和星载遥感之间比例关系中缺失的环节，主要是广泛使用的大地卫星和中分辨率成像分光仪卫星提供的数据。它将使研究人员能够评估气候变暖和树木生长时间的相关变化如何影响云杉树中非结构性碳的动态，并更好地了解土壤酸化和变暖对生长季节到来和美国纽约北部糖枫树的影响。该团队还特别感兴趣的是，风力涡轮机是替代和环境友好型电力生产的来源，以及以建筑用地扩张为特征的城市化进程如何改变当地气候和植被/作物生长。这些影响将通过量化年际生长季节和生物量的变化，在现有的风力发电场附近和沿着梯度的土地开发在郊区的网站。 该研究将产生有价值的数据集和方法，用于将高分辨率图像处理为重要的科学信息。