James W. Merchant
Welcome! I’m Jim Merchant, Professor and Research Coordinator for the School of Natural Resources, and Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Land Management Information Technologies (CALMIT).
I also hold appointments in the Department of Anthropology and Geography and the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. And, since 2001, I have served as Editor-in-Chief of Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, the scholarly journal of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, the leading U.S. professional society for remote sensing and GIS.
By training I am a geographer. I received a B.S. from Towson University in Maryland and completed both the M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. My primary interests are in the applications of geospatial information technologies (remote sensing and geographic information systems [GIS]). I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in both these areas, including, each Fall, NRES 412/812, Geographic Information Systems, and NRES 418/818, Introduction to Remote Sensing.
During the past several years my research has focused on 1) the development of strategies for land cover characterization using digital multi-spectral satellite data; spatial and contextual analysis of digital images; and 3) the design of spatial models that can be employed in GIS to aid in the management of natural resources.
Among other things, I have worked on the development of a global 1-km land cover database derived from satellite imagery, assessment of the status of biodiversity protection under the Nebraska Gap Analysis Project, methods for incorporating land cover data in weather forecast models and techniques for using GIS in lake water quality assessment. These projects are currently funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Personnel Information
| Name | James W. Merchant |
| University Title | Professor |
| Address | 306 Hardin Hall, Lincoln NE 68583-0973 |
| Affiliation (index) | CALMIT |
| Phone | 402-472-7531 |
| Fax | 402-472-2946 |
| jmerchant1@unl.edu | |
| Related Websites | http://www.calmit.unl.edu/ |
Go to Jim's Full Profile
Key Publications
- Henebry, G. and J.W. Merchant. 2002. Geospatial Data in Time: Limits and Prospects for Predicting Species Occurrences, Chapter 23 in Predicting Species Occurrences (J. Scott and P. Heglund, eds.), Covelo, CA: Island Press, 291-302.
- Vogelmann, D. Helder, R. Morfitt, M. Choate, J. Merchant and H. Bulley. 2001. Effects of Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-7 ETM+ Radiometric and Geometric Calibrations on Landscape Characterization, Remote Sensing of Environment, 78 (1-2), 55-70.
- Crawford, T. M., D. J. Stensrud, F. Mora, J. W. Merchant, and P. J. Wetzel. 2001. The Insertion of a High-resolution Land Cover Dataset into MM5/PLACE. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 2 (5), 453-468.
- Loveland, T., B. Reed, J. Brown, D. Ohlen, Z. Zhu, L. Yang and J. Merchant. 2000. Development of a Global Land Cover Characteristics Database and IGBP DISCover from 1-km AVHRR Data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 21,1303-1330.
