| Melissa Mitchem - Ecological
Modeling Lab
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA |
| The Ecological
Modeling/Spatial Analysis Lab. is especially interested in the nutrients
present in stream water and their relationships with land use and other
geographic characteristics of watersheds. Our lab applies computer technology to the analysis of
ecological questions. Geological
Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) are types of computer
programs that display and analyze spatial data.
These programs can help analyze satellite images or aerial
photographs to categorize land as forest, crop, urban, water, and other
land uses. Nutrient
measurements taken at various stream sampling stations can then be
compared to the land types in the streams’ watersheds.
We can also use the results can to predict nutrient discharges from
other watersheds. My project deals with the
classification of land use from satellite images. The classification results depend on the source of the image
and the classification methods used.
Therefore, individuals may arrive at different conclusions when
categorizing land use for the exact same area.
My goal is to estimate the errors associated with the
categorization of land use and to see how those errors affect predictions
about nutrient discharges from watersheds. |