Newswise — A newly formed partnership in eastern South Dakota will pack a punch that will be felt around the world.
South Dakota State University in Brookings, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center near Sioux Falls, has created the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence, which will greatly enhance and stimulate both organization's research, education and service capabilities in geographic information science.
"This Center of Excellence brings together under one umbrella a stronger partnership where the University will invest some resources, we will invest some resources and, because we're both investing in common goals, we both will be stronger for it," said Jim Sturdevant, deputy chief of the USGS EROS Data Center, the premier USGS remote sensing, geographic analysis and earth science research facility.
"There are a lot of reasons we're excited about this," Sturdevant said. "There are many benefits that can come from cooperation between federal government and universities, especially when the mission of the two organizations align as well as ours do. SDSU, as a land-grant institution, has disciplines of engineering, geography, agriculture, computer science. Those disciplines are so well aligned with the mission of the USGS—environment, biology, geology, geography, water resources. We believe strongly that, together, we will do better science. Together we will be stronger as we address environmental and geographic issues that face our nation."
Funding for both institutions will also be enhanced.
"As a federal agency, we are limited with respect to some sources for funding," Sturdevant said, "but the University can be more flexible. Also, there are certain sources of funds a university has trouble tapping into, but we can. Together, we have a larger pool of sponsors upon which to draw to support our work."
The Center will have two co-directors: one from EROS, senior scientist Dr. Tom Loveland, and one from SDSU, for which a search is underway. Senior scientists from EROS and SDSU will collaborate to develop research proposals and conduct projects. Other SDSU faculty and students and EROS scientists will also have the opportunity to become involved.
Scientists from throughout the world will also benefit. A program to train international scholars and managers, which was discontinued 20 years ago, will be reinstituted.
That program alone will impact the world, said Dr. Ed Hogan, former SDSU faculty member and current State Geographer for South Dakota. Hogan assisted in formulating the concepts of and plans for the Center of Excellence.
"Essentially, all of these international scientists want to protect and nurture the planet and its people," Hogan said. "We can help these people help prevent a tremendous loss of life around the world, through drought, certain diseases, natural disasters. We can train them to anticipate and plan for it—how long the drought will last, where it will hit, changes in land use, the impact of volcanoes. Our flood control has been really amazing. This will have a positive impact on a lot of countries."
"We used to train 60 international scientists per year," Sturdevant said, "teaching them how to use the technology for the environmental issues they face in their home countries. We're excited about reestablishing that."
The Center of Excellence will allow SDSU and EROS to work together in a stronger, more coordinated way on a myriad of issues.
"Wildland fires cost the government billions of dollars a year," Sturdevant said. "The Jasper fire in the Black Hills was a multimillion dollar tragedy. We're already involved in this research, but with the folks at SDSU, we can do even more from a position of strength to assess and hopefully predict wildland fires.
"We're already working with the National Drought Mitigation Center in Nebraska to predict drought in the U.S. and overseas, but, again, that's an area of interest to a number of people at SDSU, like geographers and agriculture groups. With enough research into those areas, we'll do a better job as a society of predicting and preparing for these environmental natural disasters.
"A researcher at EROS is correlating agricultural land use patterns of human health risk. The research is addressing whether various crop patterns, practices and patterns of fertilization application and the extent to which fertilizers flow into the water supply, may have a connection to human disease.
"An area where we've only scratched the surface," Sturdevant continued, "is agri-bioterrorism. The environmental impacts of terrorists introducing pestilence or crop disease is a high area of interest to the world. The Center of Excellence would be interested and equipped to study this.
"The United Nations has a presence at EROS. We fly the United Nations flag, we host a United Nations office and we are doing work worldwide to address issues like agricultural sustainability. Can a third-world country sustain itself from the food it can grow? What does it need to import? We get lots of international scientists who come here for help in addressing issues like these.
"Eventually, we'd like to get into policy issues. What's the national policy on the use of geographic information to study these societal issues? What's the national policy on the study of the earth from space?
"These are the kinds of scientific challenges that we want to work together on with SDSU. All of these challenges can fit under the umbrella of geographic information sciences, the title of the Center. This is not just geography. It's computer science, engineering, biology, wildlife management, agriculture. And we're going to need them all."
While the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence makes its impact on the world, it will also be doing its share of good at home.
"Outside of the medical industry, scientists at EROS are among the most professionally trained people in the state," Hogan said. "They're highly skilled scientists who receive appropriate pay. The more people we have employed in that area, the better for the state's economy. They have already made an impact and it will grow over time."
The Center could result in spin-off businesses, including a variety of consulting application and technology businesses, thus creating additional jobs.
"This will benefit South Dakota state and local governments, farmers and other businesses," Hogan said.
The Center of Excellence is an outgrowth of a solid relationship SDSU and USGS have known for 30 years.
"This Center builds on SDSU's expertise in geography and geographic information sciences and our long history of collaboration with the EROS Data Center," said SDSU President Peggy Miller.
"Since EROS was established in 1974, we've had a good relationship with SDSU," Sturdevant agreed. "SDSU's Remote Sensing Institute helped EROS get established in the early 70s with computer expertise. Some of our early, innovative employees came from SDSU. About 170 of our (600) employees have degrees from South Dakota universities and about 85 of them are from SDSU, so that's another connection. Some of our scientists at EROS are adjunct faculty at SDSU and teach classes. We hire a lot of summer interns and students and this partnership will provide a richer source of students and summer interns and summer faculty sabbaticals at EROS to augment the work we do."
The Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence will involve undergraduate and graduate students in many majors, Hogan said, including geography, geographic information science, computer engineering, computer software engineering, computer science, mathematics, wildlife and forestry and biological sciences.
Students who become Center scholars will present and publish a professional paper, intern with EROS or a similar scientific agency, create a portfolio and undergo a review by Center scientists. Center scholars will minor in geographic information science, a program begun by SDSU in 2002 and which now has 30 to 40 majors, Hogan said.
Such students will provide EROS and other private and governmental agencies with the people they'll need due to future growth and replacement of current employees as they retire.
"The collective vision of South Dakota political and education leaders to expand the state's research capabilities will pay dividends for years to come," said R.J. Thompson, USGS EROS Data Center chief. "This innovative venture will further elevate USGS and SDSU science programs and together we will be a national and international force in geographic information science."
When the South Dakota Board of Regents approved creation of the Center at its May meeting, Regents President Harvey C. Jewett said the partnership is truly about the future of the state.
"By its design and actions, this new center will be a research, academic and economic vehicle for South Dakota. EROS needs an ongoing pool of trained scientists and scholars to maintain and grow its programs. At the same time, South Dakota students will have the opportunity to obtain a professional education that enables them to compete with their very best counterparts in the world."
To Vice President Carol J. Peterson, the Center is a means to that end.
"We want our students to be recognized internationally that they are among the very best with this preparation," Peterson said. "This will be a major research center. We want the world to know that eastern South Dakota is the center of remote sensing. That's our ultimate goal."
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