Shannon Seifert

Email:sls237@cornell.edu
Office: Riley Robb 165
Advisor: Todd Walter
Degree Program: M.S.
Website: www.shannonseifert.com

I am currently an MS candidate working with M. Todd Walter on implementing Soil and Water Lab HSA and VSA models with web-based (Internet map service) tools for use in the Tompkins County watershed area (see the link to a current IMS project below).

My B.S. in Environmental Science is from the University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, with a minor in mathematics. My primary academic interests are active glacial watershed processes, including outburst flooding and sediment transport, non-point source pollution (primarily sediment and turbidity), remote sensing, and watershed engineering. My professional background is in Geographic Information Systems and glaciology research (As shown in Figure 2, below, I also have an honorary degree in percussive field maintenance).

My pet projects are real-time soil-saturation monitoring and investigating suitability of InSAR methods to detect isostatic rebound in Southeastern Alaska. Oh, and then there's the SWL website!

I enjoy fishing, biking, hiking, reading, and brewing beer (and hard cider now that I'm in NY!). I'm also taking riding lessons at Oxley. Woohoo! In winter, its time for skiing, skating, and those weekend trips to Jay Peak, Mad River Glen, and maybe even Tuckerman's. For skiing pictures and beer recipes, check out www.shannonandterry.com

Research Topics

Tompkins County Saturated Areas Locator: A Demonstration Internet Map Service

http://soilandwater.bee.cornell.edu/IMS/tc_sti/mainpage.asp
Simple monthly saturation probability is interactively mapped in the Tompkins County area. Users may zoom into a specific area and select the month and likelihood of saturation (as a percent) to display. Areas likely to be saturated are highlighted in red. This service is provided as a demonstration only and is currently very slow to run, as it is not running on a dedicated IMS server yet. (It is very slow since we are running this service on the BEE webserver - the speed will improve if hosted on a dedicated IMS server).

Simplified tools for identifying hydrologically sensitive aras in near real-time to improve surface water quality

The Soil and Water Lab works extensively with Variable Source Area hydrology concepts to improve water quality in and around areas impacted by agricultural lands. My research interest in is marrying VSA hydrology concepts and technology to render simple, internet-based maps delineating areas prone to saturation and runoff generation. The goal is to make these maps as accurate and simple as possible for land users to use and incorporate into agricultural nutrient spreading regimes, thereby avoiding application of materials in areas likely to saturate during high risk times. My most recent work is in scaling up Laura Agnew's MS thesis work to a regional, multiple watershed scale in Tompkins County. I plan to integrate distributed, real-time water table monitoring and precipitation forecasts to provide more accurate saturation information and potentially scale up to forecasting hydrologically sensitive area locations and extents.

Visit the VSA Hydrology website
Check out the DEMO Hydrologically Sensitive Areas Locator

Historic Map Application: Glacial retreat and isostatic rebound in Southeast Alaska

Isostatic rebound due to recent glacial retreat in southeast Alaska is currently monitored by others with GPS and estimated historically by dendrochronolgic study of historic shorelines. Additional information may be gleaned from study of historic Alaska maps depicting snapshots of uplifting shorelines. By digitizing and draping historic island and shoreline polygons onto current DEMs, I am able to estimate isostatic rebound rates over periods of time represented by available historic maps.

Characterizing isostatic rebound throughout southeastern Alaska with InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar)

I'm currently utilizing repeat-pass SAR data collected by ERS-1 and ERS-2 satellites to create one-year interferograms of various areas in southeast Alaska. These interferograms of uplifting regions throughout southeastern Alaska may yield uplift rates at various locations as well as determine more generally the extent of uplift in southeast Alaska.

Links

Geographic Information Network of Alaska, GINA is the University of Alaska’s mechanism for organizing and sharing its diverse data and technological capabilities among the Alaskan, arctic, and world communities. Such a network promotes collaboration and wide participation in discovering and sharing data and analysis capabilities. Established in 2001 as an initiative of UA’s President, GINA operates at all three of UA’s main residential campuses and works with agency, NGO, and private sector organization to serve geospatial data needs for Alaska.

SEAMONSTER - The South East Alaska MONitoring Network for Science, Telecommunications, and Education Research is a smart sensor web project designed to support collaborative environmental science with near-real-time recovery of large volumes of environmental data. The year-one geographic focus is the Lemon Creek watershed near Juneau Alaska with expansion planned for subsequent years up into the Juneau Icefield and into the coastal marine environment of the Alexander Archipelago and the Tongass National Forest.