Spatial Analysis Lab

Led by Dr. Stephen J. Walsh, we investigate spatial pattern and process at a variety of temporal and spatial scales to address questions about geomorphology, biogeography/landscape ecology, land use / land cover change and population-environment interactions. Of particular interest is the complexity of interactions and feedback mechanisms within ecological and socio-ecological systems that improve our understanding of the dynamics between pattern and process. A mixed methods approach that integrates social, ecological, and spatial data is employed to address many of our research questions through a variety of spatial, statistical, and qualitative data analysis techniques, including remote sensing image analysis, the development of geographic information systems, and numerical spatial modeling.

The inter-disciplinary nature of our research requires collaboration with social, natural, and spatial scientists at UNC through the Carolina Population Center, the Institute for the Environment, and the Center for Galapagos Studies; at other universities within North Carolina and across the U.S.; and with in-country partners at Mahidol University in Thailand and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. We have on-going research at field sites in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Galapagos Islands, Thailand, the mountains of the U.S. American west, and the state of North Carolina. Our research is primarily funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, US Geological Survey, the National Institutes of Health, and the Water Resource Research Institute.