Remote sensing as a tool for assessing and monitoring environmental impacts: integration of research and education

The role remote sensing plays in studying the Earth as a system will be magnified in the coming millennium. Whether by itself or as part of an integrated, interdisciplinary approach, remote sensing will be a major component in the study of the environment and environmental change due to natural or anthropogenic means. In view of this, the Center for Water Resources and Environmental Research of the City College School of Engineering has designed research for undergraduate and graduate students that has remote sensing as its core. The authors believe that one of the best ways to educate students in remote sensing and its environmental applications is to actually get them involved in such research activities. In collaboration with NASA´s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Goddard Space Flight Center a two pronged research project is underway. On one hand, Electrical Engineering students are engaged in the Optical Remote Sensing (ORS) of the atmosphere. The basic principals of Optical Remote Sensing and ORS instrumentation is taught in a new course at City College, and GISS has provided the students with the opportunity to analyze and visualize NASA´s remote sensing data and products. The combination of photonics research and the course in ORS at City College enable these students to conduct research utilizing state-of-the-art technology to instrument a multiwavelength LIDAR system for tracking of aerosols in the New York City Metropolitan area. On the Other hand, Civil Engineering students use remote sensing and GIS databases to study climate change and land use/land cover changes and their subsequent impacts on both the quantity and quality of New York City´s water resources. The initial success of the project has led to project´s expansion into a multi-disciplinary program of study in environmental resources and at the City University of New York (CUNY) in partnership with GISS which is funded through the NASA-PAIR program