| Introduction
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February 1999, the Earth Science Applications Research Program of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
funded nine Regional Earth Science Applications Centers (RESACs) to help
bring remote sensing technology to bear on regional natural resource issues.
Michigan State University is a consortium
member of the Upper Great Lakes RESAC along with the University
of Wisconsin - Madison and the University
of Minnesota - Twin Cities.
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The Upper Great Lakes RESAC is organized around the three universities with
state and federal natural resource agency partners. These partners include
the Departments of Natural Resources for Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin,
regional offices of the USDA Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation
Services, and the USGS (Figure 1). Other partnerships are expected
to develop as work progresses.
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Figure
1. Logo for the Upper Midwest RESAC. |
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goal of this three-year program is to further develop, disseminate, and
integrate NASA-EOS (Earth Observing Systems) data, other remotely sensed
data, and GIS (Geographic Information Sciences) data among public, private,
and non-government agencies with regional natural resource stewardship interests
or responsibilities.
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| Researchers
at the three universities are focusing on a series of environmental and
resource management problem areas in the Upper Great Lakes region and are
developing remote sensing and geospatial analysis methods and biophysical
process models in four application areas: agriculture, forestry, land use/cover
change, and water resources (Figure 2). The limited RESAC budget
precludes major new research efforts. Rather, it supports the coordination
of existing efforts and leverages the combined assets of the consortium
membership.
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RESAC is emphasizing Internet delivery of data and information, serving
as an information broker for the benefit of policy makers coping with land
use and natural resource stewardship issues. The RESAC will conduct workshops
and organize outreach programs to disseminate and transfer this work to
the public.
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| National
Context
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The Upper Great Lakes RESAC is one of nine NASA-funded centers nationwide.
Each of the RESACs emphasizes regionally specific natural resource management
issues (Figure 3).
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Figure
3. NASA-funded Regional Earth Science Applications Centers (RESACs). Click
on numbers above to view NASA descriptions. Click on (www) below to link
to each RESAC web site.
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1) NAUTILUS RESAC, University of Connecticut (www)
2) Mid-Atlantic RESAC, University of Maryland, College Park
3) *Midwest Center RESAC, University of Wisconsin
- Madison (www)
4) *Upper Great Lakes RESAC, U of Mn, U of WI, MSU (www)
5) Northern Great Plains RESAC, Univ. of North Dakota & UMAC
6) Great Plains RESAC, University of Kansas (www)
7) *NASA Southwest RESAC, University of Arizona (www)
8) *California Water Resources Research and Applications Center, LBNL
(www)
9) Wildlands Fire Hazard Center, California State University
*Combined as Upper Midwest RESAC (www)
*Combined as Southwestern US RESAC Team (www)
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| NASA
favorably reviewed another RESAC proposal submitted by a different group
at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Due to similarities in applications
research focus and their close geographic proximity, the Midwest Center
for Natural Resource Management (Figure 3,#3) and the Upper Great Lakes
RESAC (Figure 3,#4) merged under the title "Upper Midwest RESAC."
Two RESAC programs in the Southwest (Figure 3,#7 and #8) similarly merged.
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| Contact
Information
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For further
information about the Upper Great Lakes RESAC, the Upper Midwest Center,
and the combined Upper Midwest RESAC, please visit http://resac.gis.umn.edu
For information regarding activities at Michigan State University, please
contact Dr. Samuel A. Batzli by e-mail
or phone (517) 432-0963. The URL for this page is http://resac.msu.edu/resac/Overview.html
This
page last modified
21-May-2001 17:13
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