Introduction

The Center for Geospatial Information & Environmental Sensor Networks is an interdisciplinary research unit of the College of Arts and Sciences. It was established based on the Geographical Information Networks (GINs) research initiative, led by the Department of Geography, with the participation of the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Geology. The center personnel consists of four new faculty hired under this initiative and relevant faculty from the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geography and Geology. The overall goal of the Center is to facilitate and promote the cutting-edge research and applications of the state-of-the-art geospatial information technologies on campus. The center has unique and excellent combination of research expertise and technical capabilities in geographical information sciences (GIS), remote sensing, environmental sensor networks, geospatial computation, scientific visualization, internet mapping and web GIS, location-based services (LBS), global positioning system (GPS), space-time data assimilation, environmental and urban modeling. The geospatial technologies and spatial analysis methods are crucial for measuring, monitoring, modeling and predicting the complex geographical phenomena and addressing the pressing environmental issues that are the subject of multidisciplinary investigation, particularly in the disciplines of biological sciences, environmental science, geography, geology, and urban and regional planning.