Coastal environments have been steadily subjected to natural and anthropogenic events such as hurricanes, coastal development, sea-level rise, and overfishing. These changes have resulted in wetland loss, water quality degradation, loss of barrier islands, reduced storm surge protection, and decline of fisheries. Continuous monitoring and restoration of the fragile ecosystems are fundamental to life along the coast. Geospatial technologies provide the tools to monitor these ecosystems at large spatial scale and in a timely fashion. My research includes combining field-based remote sensing (field spectroscopy) with satellite remote sensing to study inland and coastal water resources.

Current projects focus on: (1) Developing satellite based decision support tools for Coastal salt marsh conservation and restoration; (2) Modeling and mapping the spatio-temporal distribution of cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms in inland and coastal waters; (3) Combining flux tower and satellite datasets to study long-term changes in gross and net primary productivity, and carbon sequestration in tidal wetlands; (4) Sea Level Rise and coastal resources; (6) Seagrass mapping and coral disease detection using remote sensing; (7) Developing a cyberinfrastructure by combining social, computational, and sensor clouds for monitoring coastal marshes and inland water quality, and (8) Small satellite development for Space AI applications.