A convergence of cyber-infrastructure for monitoring the earth: an integrated approach across the Americas (Chronos)

Environmental monitoring and assessment requires fast access and accurate processing of remote sensing information at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Furthermore, the need for fast access to remote sensing derived products is not only limited to the scientific community, but it represents an important source of information for sound sustainable development policy making over short, medium and long timeframes. Increasing integration of remote sensing derived information and its application by the biophysical and social sciences is becoming the norm rather than the exception. This presentation will evaluate the concept of a cyber-infrastructure concept denominated Chronos. Chronos is a Cyber-Infrastructure concept developed by the Center for Earth Observation Sciences (CEOS) at the University of Alberta aimed to support decision-making via environmental monitoring at multiple scales and times. Chronos is composed of research laboratories and centers from the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta, and the University in Ottawa. In addition the initiative is supported by the Inter American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), the Brazilian Space Agency and the PYXIS Innovation Inc. (Ottawa), a private Canadian firm who has developed with the Canadian military a platform that supports distributed spatiotemporal data integration, mining and knowledge discovery.

Dr. Arturo Sánchez-Azofeifa is an earth scientist actively engaged in teaching, research, synthesis and communication of scientific knowledge associated to tropical dry and boreal forests response to global environmental change. A native of Costa Rica, he attended the University of Costa Rica where he graduated as a Civil Engineer in 1990. He completed a M.Sc. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996) on Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. His expertise includes tropical dry forest biodiversity, climate change, remote sensing and econometric applications of land use/cover change to evaluate the effectiveness of payments for environmental services in tropical environments. Dr. Sánchez-Azofeifa has served as international consultant to several international organizations including the United Nations, the Central American Commission for Environment and Development and the World Bank. He has also served as advisor to many national governments in Latin America. Se has received several international awards including a U.S. NASA Interdisciplinary Program Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship and the prestigious 2006 Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellowship from Stanford University's Woods Institute for the Environment. His work on the disappearance of frogs in tropical environments as well as his contributions to the understanding of how tropical forests respond to climate change awarded him the 2006-07 Faculty of Science Research Award at the University of Alberta. Dr. Sánchez-Azofeifa is currently a Professor at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University and the Co-Director of the Center for Earth Observation Sciences (CEOS) at the same University. He also serves as Principal Investigator of Tropi-Dry a collaborative research network aimed to better understand the human and biophysical dimensions of tropical dry forests in the Americas.

• Arturo_Sanchez-Azofeifa.ppt: Slides