Office: Department of Geography and Earth
Resources
Residence: 406 W 1330 N
Utah State University Logan, Utah 84341
Logan, UT 84341
Phone: (435) 792-4131
E-mail: laura@cnr.usu.edu
Degrees
1996 Ph.D. Geography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
1992 M.A. Geography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
1988 B.A. English, San Diego State University, San Diego,
California. Cum Laude.
Doctoral Dissertation
Impact of Military Maneuvers on Mojave Desert Surfaces:
A Multiscale Analysis.
Master's Thesis
Riparian Habitat Changes in Cibola National Wildlife Refuge:
1959 - 1991.
Major Fields
Human impacts on the physical environment, physical geography,
geomorphology, physical aspects of arid lands, watershed management in
arid lands, remote sensing and geographic information systems.
Honors and Awards
1997 Honored as an outstanding teacher-scholar at the Presidential Reception at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Ft. Worth, Texas, 6/97.
1997 Women in Gender Research Institute travel award for course development in remote sensing applications.
1994 The University of Arizona Foundation's Meritorious Performance in Teaching.
1992 Social and Behavioral Science Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award (nominee), University of Arizona.
1/2001 - Present LECTURER/DEVELOPER - Utah State University. Responsibilities include development, coordination and implementation of the first 4 courses (RS/GIS) for an on-line Master's of Natural Resources offered through the College of Natural Resources.
8/96 - 12/2000 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
- Utah State University. Responsibilities include teaching
cartography
and undergraduate and graduate remote
sensing courses, human impact on the environment, physical geography
and guiding master's students in their thesis research.
Certified instructor for ESRI's
ArcView and PC ARC/INFO software.
1994 - 5/96 RESEARCH ASSISTANT - University of Arizona, Department of Geography and Regional Development. Responsibilities include: teaching physical geography lectures and labs and developing lab exercises; teaching introductory remote sensing lectures and labs and developing lab exercises; lead T.A.
1992 ARC/INFO ANALYST - Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation, Flagstaff, Arizona. Responsibilities included: creating GIS overlays and assisting in developing a model for cultural resource location in the Sanders Rural Community, Arizona.
1992 LECTURER - College of Extended Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Responsibilities included: developing and teaching a physical geography course for bilingual students in the Accelerated Teaching Credential Program.
1990 TEACHING ASSISTANT - Hoover High School, San Diego, California. Responsibilities included assisting in the development and implementation of English courses for grades 10 - 12.
1990 TEACHING ASSISTANT FOR
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
1987 -'88 Department of
Academic Skills, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. Responsibilities
included: teaching two courses per semester of writing development and
essay writing to students whose native language was other than English.
O'Brien, Laura E.; Schmidt, John C.; Coleman, Andre; and Brandy Blank. 2000. Testing the Application of Digital Photogrammetry to Monitor Sandbar Evolution in the Colorado River Corridor of the Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, Flagstaff, Arizona.
McCarthy, Laura E. 1996. Impact of Military Maneuvers on Mojave Desert Surfaces: A MultiScale Analysis. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
McCarthy, Laura E., Lee, Christopher, and Stuart E. Marsh. 1996. Identification of Disrupted Surfaces Due to Military Activity at the Ft. Irwin National Training Center: An Aerial Photograph and Satellite Image Analysis. Proceedings of the Eleventh Thematic Conference and Workshops on Applied Geologic Remote Sensing. Las Vegas, Nevada, February 27 - 29, 1996. (Invited paper.)
Lee, Christopher and Laura E. McCarthy. 1995. Correlation of Biodiversity With Landforms at the National Training Center: A Remote Sensing Analysis. Final Report submitted to the Nature Conservancy and U.S. Army National Training Center, Directorate of Public Works. California State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, California.
McCarthy, Laura E. 1995. Identification of Disrupted Surfaces Due to Military Activity at the Ft. Irwin National Training Center: An Aerial Photograph and Satellite Image Analysis. Interim Report submitted to the Nature Conservancy and U.S. Army National Training Center, Directorate of Public Works. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
McCarthy, L.E. 1995. Physical Geography 104B Lab Manual. Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
Berlin, G. L., Saxe, G., Warburton, M., Ortiz, D., and L.E. McCarthy. 1994. GIS Applications for Archaeological Assessments: Sanders Rural Community, Arizona. GIS/LIS 1994 Annual Conference and Exhibition Proceedings. The American Society on Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. Phoenix, Arizona, October 25-27.
Berlin, G.L., Warburton, M., Ortiz, D., Saxe, G.M., and L.E. McCarthy. 1993. GIS Applications for the Study of Cultural Resources in the Sanders Rural Community, Arizona ,Volume II. Report Prepared for the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation, Flagstaff, Arizona.
Bey, G., Bently-Johnston, S., Buys, L., Laituri, M., McCarthy, L., and D. McTaggart. 1992. Wildlife Water Enhancement. In ESRI 1992 Map Book. ESRI, Redlands, California.
McCarthy, L.E., and B.J. Sommers. 1992. Introduction to Physical Geography: Geography 104B Lab Manual. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.
McCarthy, Laura E. 1992. Riparian Habitat Changes
in Cibola National Wildlife Refuge: 1959 -1991.
Master's Thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
"Testing the Application of Digital Photogrammetry for Monitoring Sandbar Evolution." Association of American Geographers, Honolulu, Hawaii, March 16-20, 1999.
"Teach Your Children Well: The Art of Image Interpretation."
Association of American
Geographers, Boston, Massachusetts, March 24-28, 1998.
"Identification of Disrupted Surfaces Due to Military Activity at the Ft. Irwin National Training Center: An Aerial Photography and Satellite Image Analysis." Association of American Geographers, Charlotte, North Carolina, April 9-13, 1996.
"Identification of Disrupted Surfaces Due to Military Activity at the Ft. Irwin National Training Center: An Aerial Photography and Satellite Image Analysis." Invited presenter for the Eleventh Thematic Conference and Workshops on Applied Geologic Remote Sensing, Las Vegas, Nevada, February 27-29, 1996.
"Children's Environmental Perceptions: The Influence of Social Forces." Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, Tucson, Arizona, Sept., 1991.
"Children's Environmental Perceptions: The Influence of Social Forces." Southwest Social Science Association, San Antonio, Texas, March, 1991 (with Theresa Millitte).
"Impact of Military Maneuvers on Mojave Desert Surfaces." Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. March 13, 1997.
"Mojave Desert Ecosystem Initiative" Wildlife and Natural Resources Annual Conference, Washington D.C., March 14-17, 1997.
"Impact of Military Maneuvers on Mojave Desert Surfaces." Department of Earth Resources, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO. March 21, 1997.
PI:"Digital
Photogrammetry for Monitoring Sandbar Evolution on the Colorado River of
the Grand Canyon."
Funded by the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center
for $19,000. Research explores the application of digital photogrammetry
(using the ERDAS Imagine software OrthoMAX ) for monitoring
changes in sandbar environments along the Colorado River Corridor of the
Grand Canyon. Work is linked to the following project.
Co-Pi: "An integrated historical analysis of flow, sediment transport, and channel-side sediment storage between Lees Ferry and Middle Granite Gorge in Grand Canyon." Funded by the Grand Canyon Monitoring Center for approximately $199,000 for 2 years. Lead PI is Dr. Jack Schmidt, Department of Geography and Earth Resources, Utah State University. One month per year allocated to the project. Research participation involves the creation of a geographically-referenced bibliography for the area and the creation of geomorphic change maps from aerial photos and field data.
Co-Pi: "Watershed scale variability of inorganic soil nitrogen dynamics in the Southern Appalachians." Funded by USDA for $399,386 for 3 years. Joint project with the University of Victoria and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Lead PI is Dr. Helga Van Miergroet, Department of Forest Resources, Utah State University. One month per year allocated to the project. Research participation involves the use of a GIS to predict nitrogen sources and sinks.
Co-Pi: "Detection of critical thresholds of change using remote sensing indicators of land degradation." Funded by the Department of Defense for approximately $1.5 million for 3 years. Join project with the University of Nevada - Reno, the University of Illinois, the US Army CERL, and Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Lead PI is Dr. Paul Tueller, University of Nevada, Reno. One month per year allocated to the project. Research participation includes the analysis of satellite imagery in conjunction with field work to ascertain the impact of military maneuvers on various ecosystems.
Consultant: Mojave
Ecosystem Database Program. Funded by the Department of Defense
this program functions as a shared scientific database to facilitate data-driven
land management decisions within the Mojave ecoregion. This multi-agency
project goal (to be completed in the summer of 1998) is the development
and implementation of a database to support collection, storage, transfer,
sharing and analysis of data by all agencies.
Working with the Utah State University Honors program by designing individual contracts with Honors students in my courses.
Completion (6/97) of certified ERDAS IMAGINE Essentials, Professional and Advantage courses on the utilization of this image processing software for research and teaching.
Member of the Committee for Remote Sensing and GIS in the College of Natural Resources, Utah State University.
Association of American Geographers
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing