Robert Austin
Geographic Information Systems Specialist
EPA Faculty and Professionals
Williams Hall 3403F
Specialty: Geographic Information Specialist
My work is directed toward geomatics and the application of related technologies in soils, agriculture, and the environment. I largely support faculty, staff, and students in the use of geospatial information and analytics.
Current program emphasis is directed toward (i) the use and application of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in early-season nitrogen management and crop scouting, (ii) the optimization of commercial nitrogen inputs through on-farm, multiple rate strip trials, and (iii) the spatial characterization of heavy metals on agriculture land resulting from the 2014 Dan River coal ash spill.
Other technology and programming interests include: web-based distribution of spatial data (RESTful APIs, leaflet, GeoServer, PostgreSQL PostGIS), open-source spatial solutions (GDAL/OGR), mobile application development, spatial analytics (R), and the development of tools and services for use in agriculture and farm management
Publications
- Soil weathering as an engine for manganese contamination of well water (2016)
- Assessment of trace element impacts on agricultural use of water from the Dan River following the Eden coal ash release (2016)
- Chemical composition, speciation, and elemental associations in coal fly ash samples related to the Kingston ash spill (2015)
- Modeling of ammonia dry deposition to a pocosin landscape downwind of a large poultry facility (2014)
- Future directions for hydropedology: Quantifying impacts of global change on land use (2009)
- Horizontal resolution and data density effects on remotely sensed LIDAR-based DEM (2006)
- LIDAR density and linear interpolator effects on elevation estimates (2005)
- The Spatial Information Research Laboratory at North Carolina State University (2000)