It has been recognized that wildfire, followed by large precipitation events, triggers debris flows in mountainous regions. The October 16th 2015 mudslide in California that inundated 200 vehicles is a recent example of this. Predicting and mitigating these hazards is crucial for protecting public safety and infrastructure. New machine learning models have been developed to predict the probability of a debris flow event and will be accessible to the public through NASA's RECOVER platform.
Sediment Core Data and Statistical Model InterfacE: Fox River Superfund Site
For over 10 years, The Boldt company has overseen the dredging and capping efforts in the lower Fox River in Green Bay, WI with the goal of significantly reducing concentrations of hazardous contaminants. Throughout the course of the project, over 30,000 sediment core samples have been analyzed. Visualizing these cores along with bathymetric surfaces and statistically modeled solutions was automated through a personalized a graphical user interface.
Human-computer interaction and educational impacts
Even the most advanced mathematical model is not meaningful if there is no means of model application and communication of insightful findings. In order to demonstrate how to automate models and promote interactivity, a graphical user interface was developed for modeling moose and wolf populations in Isle Royal National Park, located in Lake Superior. This material is being distributed nation wide through the National Science Foundation for educational purposes.
The Coldwell Complex located on the northern shore of Lake Superior is widely studied due to its origins Midcontinent Rift System approximately 1.1 billion years ago. Due to the hematite and magnetite within the igneous regional rocks, the polarity of the geomagnetic field at the time of magmatism was recorded within the rocks. This information may be used to understand local tectonics and geodynamics for the overall Midcontinent Rift System.