Buren B. DeFee II, Ph.D.
RESEARCH
(Active and Future)
The Interpretation of Land Use Change
and Development of Monitoring Protocol
for the Heartland Network Hot Springs National Park
Dr. Robert Weih and Dr. Buren B. DeFee II
Analysis and ecological interpretation of historic
land cover change and development of monitoring protocols to monitor land
use change in and around Hot Springs National Park (HOSP). The resulting
protocols will guide the implementation of a long-term monitoring program.
Currently Funded.
Legislative Impact on Prescribed Fire
in Arkansas: A Historical Analysis
Changes in the rules governing the use of prescribed fire may
result in unintended consequences. This project seeks to examine the
potential impacts of the proposed rule changes for using prescribed
fire. The proposed rules will be applied to a statewide prescribed fire
model to determine how the new rules would have affected the use of
prescribed fire in the state. Model development is currently underway.
Seeking funding.
Estimating Impervious Cover in the
Absence of Remote Sensing Data
Current methodologies for estimating impervious cover rely heavily on
remotely-sensed data such as aerial photography or satellite imagery.
Remotely-sensed (RS) data can be prohibitively expensive to obtain and
may be cumbersome to work with because of the large resulting datasets.
The result is large spatial and temporal gaps in the record, especially
outside of large urban centers. Database-derived estimates of impervious cover
can be used to replace missing RS data. This project seeks to assess the
accuracy of database-derived methods for estimating impervious cover.
Pilot Project Complete.
Seeking Funding.
Improving Road Built-Date Estimates
Previous work in estimating impervious cover resulted in gaps in
the road network due to methods employed to estimate the date of
original construction. This work aims to improve the methodology for
build-date estimates by incorporating present-day road networks as
potential roads, providing a network upon which historical networks may
grow. Isolated road segments would be connected to the main network via
one of the potential network lines, thus providing a temporal point of
reference for each potential road segment.
Broad-scale Forest Impacts on
Streamflow Estimates
Incorporating urban forests into urban watershed modeling to determine
actual and potential effects for reducing flooding.
Comparing the Role of Urban Planning on
Flooding
Two watersheds, one without any urban planning controls and one with
planning controls on development, are compared with respect to long-term
growth and changes in streamflow.
Demographics of the Floodplain
An initial study of the floodplains in Arkansas. What are the
socioeconomic profiles of the residents of the floodplains?