Christine Hladik

I am broadly interested in the application of geospatial data, including remote sensing imagery, GIS and GPS, to address a range of ecological and management goals. My general research interests are the remote sensing of wetlands, estuaries, and coastal waters; the use of remote sensing to monitor climate change impacts; and the use of multi-sensor data in ecological monitoring. My research integrates different technologies to answer these questions and is interdisciplinary in nature. The overall goal of my research is to improve the value and interpretability of environmental geospatial data by developing methodologies and workflows that reduce errors and increase the usefulness of remote sensing data.

My research has involved the remote sensing of both estuarine water quality and salt marsh habitats. The focus of my M.S. thesis was close range remote sensing of coastal water quality and the development of a robust algorithm for the prediction of chlorophyll a concentrations. My dissertation research evaluated tools used to describe elevation and plant distribution in a Southeastern salt marsh using light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and hyperspectral imagery.