GRAIL-sponsored Projects:
Using HUD Foreclosure Data and GIS to Visualize Foreclosure Risk in Google Earth
http://grail.nau.edu/fcb/foreclosure/foreclosuredata.html
The dramatic increase in home foreclosure rates throughout the United States has played a significant role in fueling the global economic recession that began in December 2007.
Using foreclosure data provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) we mapped the risk of foreclosure for every census block group in the United States.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies allows us to represent this foreclosure data visually and export files to be viewed using the free software Google Earth.
KML and KMZ files have been created to show foreclosure risk and can be downloaded here for each state in the country. These files can then be opened using Google Earth.
This project is a collaboration between the NAU Franke College of Business and the GRAIL lab.
Regional Dynamic Vegetation Modeling for the Colorado Plateau
http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/gradient/research.html
http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/climatechange/dominant_species.html
This project brings together experts from a variety of backgrounds in climate and climate change modeling, ecosystem research, past vegetation change, inventory and monitoring, and ecosystem modeling. This unique integration of interdisciplinary researchers provides a great potential to better understand and predict the impacts of climate change on natural systems. This regional modeling effort includes all the dynamic components important to controlling a species distribution; it is a key step for moving modeling forward. SIMPPLLE models and other landscape process models have been developed for several other areas in the U.S. but many of them have not yet incorporated GCM output. The intention is to improve modeling for climate change impacts by merging biogeographical/habitat models with dynamic vegetation modeling and by merging climate modeling with ecosystem modeling.
Endemic Plant Climate Change Modeling Project Summary
http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/climatechange/projectsummary.html
The Greater Colorado River Corridor Climate Change Project will enhance our understanding of climate change effects and their impact on biodiversity in the Colorado Plateau. The research objectives of the project are:
1. Identify endemic plant species of the Colorado Plateau that are within or near wilderness areas,
2. Accumulate current distribution data of species. Locate and gather known species occurrence data, environmental layer data for model (e.g., soils, land use) and convert to Kepler data file structure.
3. Model current distributions of species using MaxEnt to determine current day potential distributions.
4. Life history comparison with projected occurrence data.
5. Model future climate change projections using MaxEnt for each species to determine future potential distributions.
6. Locate areas of intense loss or gain of endemic species. Identify how species may move into and out of protected areas.
7. Provide conservation strategies for the regions preservation.
Drought Impacts on Regional Ecosystems Network (DIREnet) and DotNetNuke Portal 
https://mprlsrvr1.bio.nau.edu/direnet/
Regional drought in the last nine years is rapidly and dramatically altering Southwest ecosystems. The drought has become a catalyst, bringing researchers and land managers together to assess drought impacts. DIREnet enables researchers to address specific questions that can not be addressed without effective pan-regional coordination. This network fosters collaborations of researchers from academia and land management agencies. To help facilitate cooperation and collaboration amongst researchers involved and interested in drought-related ecosystem effects, a DotNetNuke web portal has been created. This portal provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, events, datasets, articles, images and other modules. Register and check it out!
Framing Research for Adaptive Management of Ecosystems (FRAME)
http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/frame/
 This project is a partnership among the US Geological Survey, National park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado State University, Prescott College, and the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research and the Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystem Study Unit (CPCESU) at Northern Arizona University. The goal of the FRAME Project is to more effectively link science to the needs of natural resource management on public lands. The FRAME Project’s focus is to develop collaborative approaches to address natural resource management issues using modeling as a tool to aid resource management planning. Key to the success of the collaborative modeling approach is a continuous engagement of resource managers, physical modelers, and scientific experts, from the initial ‘framing’ of the issues within the resource management decision context, to developing the appropriate physical models to address these issues.
Beaver Creek Environmental Atlas –
http://beavercreek.nau.edu/
 This site is intended to create an interface between education and research. It consists of an online digital atlas of the Beaver Creek Watershed that provides educational resources and promotes research coordination and collaboration. The major theme for this project is "Conserving Water Through the Ages", reflecting the influence of both culture and nature on the ecological history of the watershed. The atlas contains a wealth of information on various aspects of the Beaver Creek Watershed, including archeology, biology, climate, geology, conservation and land use.
Greater Grand Canyon - San Francisco Peaks Ecosystem
 http://www.mpcer.nau.edu/canyon_peaks/
This website is currently under construction, but will ultimately
provide a wealth of information on the archeology, biology, climate,
geology and hydrology of this diverse region. Additional information
on conservation, land use, education and research will also be made
available via this website.
PJ Wood: A Database of PJ Woodland Treatmentshttp://www.mpcer.nau.edu/pj/pjwood/
 This website makes available a comprehensive database of pinyon-juniper treatments on BLM lands across the Colorado Plateau. Variables collected for the database include a variety of details on the application process such as time, location, methods used, geographic and ecological descriptions of the site, seeded species, administrative designations, cooperators, and financial data.
PJ Win: Pinyon-Uniper Woodlands Information Networkhttp://www.mpcer.nau.edu/pjwin/
 PJWIN is a collaboration between the Southwest Information Node, the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research and the Bureau of Land Management. This collaboration provides important information on Pinyon-Juniper woodlands spanning the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin. Pinyon-Juniper woodlands comprise over 40% of land administered by the BLM. This website is currently under construction, with more content being added in spring-summer 2007.
|
