From Earth to the Cloud: Harnessing Open Source Tools for Cloud-based Geospatial Analysis

Speaker: Quisheng Wu, Ph. D., Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Sustainability, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Satellite data are critical for a wide range of environmental applications. In the past, access to satellite data was limited to researchers and professionals with expertise in remote sensing and image processing. However, with the increasing availability of open-access satellite data and cloud-computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Planetary Computer, and Amazon Web Services, anyone can now gain insight into environmental changes on a planetary scale. This presentation will introduce open-source packages, data catalogs, and interactive web apps designed to empower users in harnessing the full potential of cloud computing for geospatial analysis. These user-friendly and accessible tools enable researchers, students, and environmental professionals to explore and analyze satellite data for diverse environmental applications. Dr. Qiusheng Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography & Sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also an Amazon Visiting Academic and a Google Developer Expert (GDE) for Earth Engine. His research interests include geospatial data science and open-source software development. Dr. Wu is particularly interested in utilizing big geospatial data and cloud computing to study environmental change, especially surface water and wetland inundation dynamics. He is an advocate of open science and reproducible research, having developed and published various open-source packages for advanced geospatial analysis and data visualization, such as geemap, leafmap, and segment-geospatial. Check out his open-source projects at https://github.com/opengeos.