Geoinformatics

A comprehensive understanding of Earth systems sciences requires substantial integration among datasets/types acquired over varying spatial and temporal domains. We expanded our expertise in the general area of geoinformatics, and we are applying the acquired experience to address environmental and tectonic problems of interest. Using the Google Earth Interface, we have now developed a comprehensive web-based GIS (https://www.esrs.wmich.edu/) that encompasses all the databases we generated and the custom tools we constructed throughout the years for the distribution, analysis, visualization, and modeling of accumulated data sets. Examples of these databases are the Egyptian, Saudi, African GRACE, the Mojave, and the rapid response databases. Given the volume and wide range of spatial and temporal datasets that we bring to bear on a problem of interest, we resort to machine learning applications to better understand the relationships between the investigated variables and their impact on the response or dependent variable. Using satellite-based temporal observations and applying these methods, we mapped the distribution of shallow groundwater in the Red Sea coastal plain, and in the Western Desert of Egypt, the onset of algal blooms in southwest Florida, and areas susceptible to debris flows in the Red Sea Hills.