The Center for Geospatial Research Unveils Suite of Updated Capabilities and Opportunities

UGA’s Center for Geospatial Research (CGR), located in the Department of Geography, has introduced a re-vamped website to promote it’s updated suite of monitoring capabilities and opportunities. 

The CGR is dedicated to interdisciplinary research, whether to study the impact of climate change on our coastal environments and water quality or studying human-animal conflict in Africa. CGR scientists use geospatial technology to answer questions in the areas of environmental and climate science, landscape ecology and terrain traversability, and human-environment interactions. The most significant update to the CGR's operational capabilities include their new Drone Services page. This page allows other scientists to request to use custom drone data in their research projects. The goal of this service is to bypass typical barriers preventing researchers from using UAV data such as learning to operate a drone, learning new technology, obtaining FAA pilot license, and more. The CGR has made drone data collection more accessible for use in research across a wide variety of disciplines. 

In a recent UGA Columns article, Communications Director and writer Alan Flurry explores the new site:

Since 1985, the UGA Center for Geospatial Research has been dedicated to advancing remote sensing, mapping, and geospatial research. Along with the technological changes over that nearly 40 year history, the center's technical capacities have grown to reflect the advanced capabilities of today in environmental remote sensing and GeoAI, photogrammetry, small satellite development, and graduate and undergraduate training.

In service of promoting its updated suite of monitoring capabilities and opportunities, the CGR launched a re-vamped website, including a new page detailing its drone services for the first time. 

"Our goal is to be the go-to place for anyone who needs drone data/processing and support, within and outside of UGA," said Deepak Mishra, Merle C. Prunty, Jr. Professor & associate head of the department of geography and director of the CGR. "Our ultimate sim is to make this center a premier Geospatial Center by taking advantage of the boom in GeoAI, satellite remote sensing, and other geospatial technologies."

The Drone Services page has a form visitors can use to request data collections. This will allow for CGR to become the go-to-place for drone data acquisition at UGA. The service benefits multiple groups inside and outside UGA and will help bring resources to CGR.

A chronology page highlights important moments for CGR over these past 39 years, including recognition by NASA and ESRI, distinguished positions by leadership, as well as project results being presented to President Jimmy Carter in support of humanitarian efforts by The Carter Center

The students page includes multiple possibilities to feature student's work. Hovering over a student's photo brings icons that link to the student's project page, department page or LinkedIn

Grants received by Dr. Madden, Dr. Mishra, and Dr. Bernardes are listed. Total received in grants, corrected for 2024 dollars, is over U$47 million.

The Publications page has filter capabilities, so people can look for articles by a specific author, year or keyword.

The CGR invites the community to visit the site and inquire about their services.