Paul Gessler Associate Professor of Remote Sensing & GIS Co-Director, Geospatial Laboratory for Environmental Dynamics Department of Forest Resources E-mail: paulg@uidaho.edu Web: www.cnrhome.uidaho.edu/remotesensing Office: Room 17C, CNR Phone: (208) 885-2595

Education & Experience:

• B.S. Natural Resources (Soil Science), University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1986
• M.S. Environmental Monitoring (Remote Sensing), University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990
• Ph.D. Environmental Modeling, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 1996
• Research Assistant, Environmental Remote Sensing Center, University of Wisconsin, 1988-1990
• Senior Experimental Scientist, Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) - Division of Land & Water, Canberra, Australia, 1990-1997
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Geography, University of California - Santa Barbara, 1996-1997
• Affiliate Faculty, Centro Agronmico Tropical de Investigacin y Enseanza (CATIE), Turrialba, Costa Rica, 2001-present
• Co-director, Geospatial Laboratory for Environmental Dynamics, College of Natural Resources, 1997-present
• Assistant Professor of Remote Sensing & GIS, Department of Forest Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, 1997-2003
• Associate Professor of Remote Sensing & GIS, Department of Forest Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, 2003-present

Specialty Areas of Interest:

• Remote Sensing & GIS for Forest Ecosystem Analysis & Monitoring
• Wildland Fire Fuels and Fire Hazard Mapping
• Airborne Sensor Development
• Environmental, Ecosystem and Soil-Landscape Modeling
• Terrain and Watershed Analysis
• Forest Soils
• Spatial Statistics

Current University of Idaho Courses:

• Introduction to Spatial Analysis for Natural Resource Management - Ugrad
• Remote Sensing of the Environment - Ugrad
• Spatial & Biophysical Modeling - Grad
• Advanced RS/GIS Research Topics - Grad

Continuing Education or Service Activities:

• Leader, Inland Northwest Infomart, Raytheon Synergy Program
• Leader, Inland Northwest Remote Sensing Laboratory for Bioregional Analysis - NASA Funded Center of Excellence
• USFS landcover classification and change detection training course
• Idaho representative, Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium

Recent and Current Research:
     (>$4 million of externally funded research since 1997)

• Remote sensing of forest characteristics for process models
• Development of a forest health/stress index
• Ecosystem modeling on the Sedgwick Natural Reserve
• Effect of topography on soil carbon dynamics
• Incorporation of digital terrain analysis methods for quantitative soil-landscape modeling

Recent Peer Reviewed Publications and Submissions:

• Eitel, J., D. Long, P.E. Gessler, and A.M.S.Smith. In Press. Using in-situ spectroradiometry to evalue RapidEye satellite data for prediction of wheat nitrogen status. International Journal of Remote Sensing.
• Beck, R.N. and P.E. Gessler. In Press. Development of a Landsat time-series for the Inland Northwest and an application in forest status assessment. Western Journal of Applied Forestry.
• Gessler, P., R. Pike, T. Hengl, R.A. MacMillan and H.I. Reuter. 2007. The future of geomorphometry. Chapter 28 In: Hengl, T., Reuter, H.I. (eds.), Geomorphometry: concepts, software, applications. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, EUR 22670 EN, pp. 479-489.
• Nelson, A., H.I. Reuter and P. Gessler. 2007. DEM production methods and sources. Chapter 3 In: Hengl, T., Reuter, H.I. (eds.), Geomorphometry: concepts, software, applications. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, EUR 22670 EN, pp. 49-62.
• Reuter, H.I., T. Hengl, P. Gessler and P. Soille. 2007. Preparation of DEMs for geomorphometric analysis. Chapter 4 In: Hengl, T., Reuter, H.I. (eds.), Geomorphometry: concepts, software, applications. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, EUR 22670 EN, pp. 65-88.
• Eitel, J.U.H., P.E. Gessler, A.M.S. Smith, and R. Robberecht. 2006. Suitability of Existing NIR and Novel SWIR Spectral Indices to Remotely Detect Water Stress in Populus spp. Forest Ecology and Management. 229:170-182.
• Lentile, L.B., Z.A. Holden, A.M.S. Smith, M.J. Falkowski, A.T. Hudak, P. Morgan, P.E. Gessler, N. Bensen, and C.H. Key. 2006. Remote sensing techniques to assess fire and fire effects. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 15:319-345.
• Gorsevski, P.V., P.E. Gessler, J. Boll, W.J. Elliot, and R.B. Foltz. 2006. Spatially distributed process modeling of landslide hazard. Geomorphology. 80, 3-4:178-198.
• Falkowski, M.J., A.M.S. Smith, A.T. Hudak, P.E. Gessler, L.A. Vierling and N.L. Crookston. 2006. Automated Estimation of Individual Conifer Tree Height and Crown Diameter via Two-dimensional Wavelet Analysis of Lidar Data. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 32, 2:153-161. PDF link
• Hudak, A.T., N.L. Crookston, J.S. Evans, M.J. Falkowski, A.M.S. Smith, P.E. Gessler, and P. Morgan. 2006. Regression modeling and mapping of coniferous forest basal area and tree density from discrete-return lidar and multispectral satellite data. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing. 32, 2:126-138. PDF link
• Gorsevski, P.V., P.E. Gessler, R.B. Foltz and W.J. Elliot. 2006. Spatial prediction of landslide hazard using logistic regression and ROC analysis. Transactions in GIS. 10, 3:395-415. PDF link
• Gorsevski P.V., Jankowski P., and P.E. Gessler.  2006. Heuristic approach for mapping landslide hazard integrating fuzzy logic with analytic hierarchy process. Control and Cybernetics. 35(1): 121-146.
• Williamson, T.N., P.E. Gessler, P.J. Shouse, and R.C. Graham. 2006. Pedogenesis-Terrain Links in zero-order watersheds after chaparral to grass vegetation conversion. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 70:2065-2074.
• Strand, E.K., A.M.S. Smith, S.C. Bunting, L.A. Vierling, D.B. Hann, and P.E. Gessler. 2006. Wavelet estimation of plant spatial patterns in multi-temporal aerial photography. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 27, 9-10:2049-2054.
• Holden, Z.A., A.M.S. Smith, P. Morgan, M.G. Rollins and P.E. Gessler. 2005. Evaluation of novel thermally enhanced spectral indices for mapping fire perimeters and comparisons with fire atlas data. International Journal of Remote Sensing. 26(21): 4801-4808.
• Falkowski, M.J., P.E. Gessler, P. Morgan, and A.M.S. Smith. 2005. Evaluation of the ASTER sensor for fire fuels mapping in North Idaho. Forest Ecology and Management. 217:129-146.
• Gorsevski, P.V., P. Jankowski, and P.E. Gessler. 2005. Spatial prediction of landslide hazard using fuzzy K-means and Dempster-Shafer theory. Transactions in GIS. 9(4): 455-474. PDF link
• Robinson, A.P., A.L. Pocewicz, and P.E. Gessler. 2004. A cautionary note on scaling variables that appear only in products in ordinary least squares. Forest Biometry, Modeling and Information Systems. 1:83-90. PDF link
• Pocewicz, A., P.E. Gessler, and A.P. Robinson, 2004. The relationship between leaf area index and Landsat spectral response across elevation, solar insolation, and spatial scales, in a northern Idaho forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 34:465-480. PDF link
• Gorsevski, P.V., P.E. Gessler, and P. Jankowski, 2003. Integrating a Fuzzy k-means classification and a Bayesian approach for spatial prediction of landslide hazard. Journal of Geographical Systems. 5:223-251. PDF link
• Chamran, F., P.E. Gessler, and O.A. Chadwick, 2002. Spatially Explicit Treatment of Soil-Water Dynamics along a Semiarid Catena. Soil Science Society of America Journal 66:1571-1583. PDF link
• Vert, G., M. Stock, P. Jankowski, and P.E. Gessler. 2002. An architecture for the management of GIS datasets. Transactions in GIS. 6(3):259-275.
• Gessler, P.E., O.A. Chadwick, F. Chamron, K. Holmes, and L. Althouse. 2000. Modeling soil-landscape and ecosystem properties using  terrain attributes.  Soil Science Society of America Journal 64:2046-2056. PDF link
• N.J. McKenzie, P.E. Gessler, P.J. Ryan, and D.A. O'Connell. 2000. The role of terrain analysis in soil mapping.   In Terrain Analysis: Principles and Applications. J.P. Wilson and J.C. Gallant (Eds.). Chapter 10. John Wiley and Sons Ltd. New York.
• Cook, S.E., R.J. Corner, G.J. Grealish, P.E. Gessler, and C.J. Chartres. 1996.  A rule based system to map soil properties. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 60:1983-1900.
• Gessler, P.E., I.D. Moore, N.J. McKenzie, and P.J. Ryan. 1995. Soil-landscape modeling and spatial prediction of soil attributes. Special issue: Integrating GIS and Environmental Modeling.  International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, Volume 9, 4:421-432.
• McSweeney, K., P.E. Gessler, B. Slater, D. Hammer, J. Bell, and G.W. Petersen. 1994. Towards a new framework for modeling the soil-landscape continuum. Chapter 8 In Factors of soil formation: a fiftieth anniversary retrospective. SSSA Special Pub. 33. p.127-145.
• Hutchinson, M.F., and P.E. Gessler. 1994. Splines - more than just a smooth interpolator. Proceedings Pedometrics - 92: Developments in spatial statistics for soil science. September 1-3, 1992. Wageningen, Netherlands. Geoderma 62(1-3):45-67.
• Gallant, J.C., I.D. Moore, M.F. Hutchinson ,and P.E. Gessler. 1994. Estimating fractal dimension of profiles:a comparison of methods. Mathematical Geology. Vol. 26, 4:455-481.
• Moore, I.D., P.E. Gessler, G.A. Neilsen, and G.A. Petersen. 1993. Soil attribute prediction using terrain analysis. Soil Science Society of America Journal. 57:443-452.
• Moore, I.D., P.E. Gessler, G.A. Neilsen, and G.A. Petersen. 1993. Terrain analysis for soil-specific crop management. Chapter 3 In Soil specific crop management: a workshop on research and development issues. Minneapolis, Minnesota. April 14-16, 1992. p. 27-55.
• Bolstad, P.V., P.E. Gessler, and T.M. Lillesand. 1990. Positional uncertainty in manually digitized map data. International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 4:399-412.