MRI: Acquisition of a novel multi sensor-equipped unmanned aerial system (UAS) observatory for coastal mapping

This Major Research Instrumentation Grant award supports the acquisition of a novel multi sensor-equipped Uncrewed/Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) observatory for coastal mapping and data collection from both the air and the ground in an integrative manner. The observatory will consist of three off-the-shelf, commercial UAS platforms equipped with four complementary remote sensors: 10-band multispectral, hyperspectral, topographic and topo-bathymetric Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) along with required in situ reference instrumentation to form a consolidated system to monitor and map coastal ecosystems. This coastal UAS observatory, the first of its kind at a Southeast United States regional university, builds on university expertise and on-going research. By bolstering infrastructure in a rapidly urbanizing coastal region, this acquisition will enable continuation and development of new and diverse interdisciplinary applications of UAS-derived data and, importantly, provide unparalleled opportunities for student training, professional development and community partnerships. The state-of-the art instrumentation also will provide students, especially women and participants from underrepresented groups, with hands-on training in the operation, collection, and analysis of remotely-sensed datasets. Empowering students with these high-demand skills will not only increase their competitiveness in coastal engineering, geography, and environmental science job markets but also expand representation in the rapidly growing UAS and geospatial employment fields. These assets also will increase academic recruitment to the southeastern U.S. where poverty is prevalent, and underrepresented minorities comprise a large percentage of the region’s population. The instrumentation and datasets will be readily available to a growing community of researchers, institutions, and local and regional stakeholders given the new and innovative collaborations between academia, government and growing geospatial industry sectors supported by this equipment.The planned research will focus on quantifying, mapping, monitoring and modeling coastal ecosystem and human-environmental dynamics in under-studied and critical coastal ecosystems of coastal regions, currently home to more than half of the world’s population. The strongest impact will occur across those fields where accounting for spatially- and temporally-explicit dynamic processes is critical. Continuous, integrated (e.g., nearshore, estuarine, and riverine) and synoptic measurements will identify areas that are most vulnerable to the combined impacts of sea-level rise and extreme weather events, guide land management decisions and inform strategies and tools that enable both ecosystems and humans to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Therefore, the observatory will provide critical infrastructure to observe and quantify human-environment, biogeographic, geomorphic, biogeochemical and surface processes and establish a novel framework for detecting, modeling and predicting future impacts to complex and anthropogenically-impacted coastal regions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.