The Scene From Above Podcast

S15E3: Is the future of geospatial in the cloud? A conversation with Swetha Kolluri

In this episode, we speak with Swetha Kolluri, who works on AI and Digital Innovations at the World Bank. Previously serving as Head of Experimentation at UNDP in India, Swetha has dedicated her career to applying frontier technologies to social and environmental challenges. With her background spanning rural development, data science, and sustainability initiatives across India and the US, she brings unique perspectives on transformative solutions using AI and cloud computing.
In this conversation, Swetha shares insights from her work designing innovative development experiments, and her vision for how earth observation, citizen science and AI can address global challenges such as environmental degradation and climate change. She also shares some tips managing cloud costs for organisations who may have low resource bases.
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Sign-up for thriveGEO's Cloud-Native Geospatial 101 training and use the exclusive discount code CNGPODCAST - https://bit.ly/geospatial_cloud
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More about Swetha:
LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/swetha-kolluri/
 
Projects that Swetha mentioned in the episode:
GeoAI for brick kilns in India. This digital innovation applied AI to detect 48,287 brick kilns from satellite data with an accuracy of 96%, empowering environmental regulators in India to expedite climate action. 
https://geo-ai.undp.org.in/
 
DiCRA (Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture) is an accredited digital public good (DPG) that has democratized satellite data for informing climate finance in agriculture. This innovation provided data and intelligence on climate resilience across 50 million hectares of agriculture land across 7 states in India.
https://github.com/undpindia/dicra
 
‘VAYU – OpenAir’ with open software, open algorithms and open data collected on air pollution produced through hyperlocal mapping of air pollution in two cities - Patna and Gurgaon. This dataset is used to map point sources of air pollution and enable cities take action on specific sources. 
https://github.com/undpindia/VAYU_OpenAir
 
More about thriveGEO - https://thrivegeo.com/

S15E2: Is the future of geospatial in the cloud? A conversation with Dr. Brianna R. Pagán

Welcome to Season 15, during which we will host a series of conversations around the question: 'Is the future of geospatial in the cloud?' With ever increasing amounts of satellite data and computational power available, moving geospatial workflows to the cloud opens the doors to powerful insights. But what does it take to really switch to doing things in a cloud-native way? Let's find out together.
In this episode, we talk to Dr. Brianna R. Pagán, Deputy Manager of the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data Information Centre. In her current role, Brianna is responsible for orchestrating the transition to the cloud while managing various engineering, science, and data curation teams. She has also recently been appointed as an Editorial Board member of the Cloud-Native Geospatial Forum. Brianna shares about her career trajectory, her reflections on the intersection of technology, climate change and social justice, why she believes that the future of geospatial is all about collaboration and how the cloud is one piece of the puzzle…
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Sign-up for our Cloud-Native Geospatial 101 training and use the exclusive discount code CNGPODCAST - https://bit.ly/geospatial_cloud  
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More about Brianna:
Website - https://www.briannapagan.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianna-r-pagán-phd-8a49a46b 
More about Openscapes - https://openscapes.org/  
More about the NASA TOPS initiative - https://science.nasa.gov/open-science/tops/ 
 
Watch this episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/HB9ycjEsg0M 
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Season 15 of Scene from Above is brought to you by thriveGEO. 

S15E1: Is the future of geospatial in the cloud? A conversation with Jed Sundwall

Welcome to Season 15, during which we will host a series of conversations around the question: 'Is the future of geospatial in the cloud?' With ever increasing amounts of satellite data and computational power available, moving geospatial workflows to the cloud opens the doors to powerful insights. But what does it take to really switch to doing things in a cloud-native way? Let's find out together.
In the first episode, we talk to Jed Sundwall, the Executive Director of Radiant Earth. Jed has been instrumental in bringing open geospatial data to the cloud. Under Radiant Earth, he started two initiatives, the ‘CNG - the cloud-native geospatial forum’ and the ‘source cooperative’. In this conversation, Jed will shed some light on where he sees the geospatial industry heading...
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Sign-up for our Cloud-Native Geospatial 101 training and use the exclusive discount code CNGPODCAST - https://bit.ly/geospatial_cloud  
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Github discussion about the definition of cloud-native geospatial data - https://github.com/cloudnativegeo/cloudnativegeo.org/issues/18 
More about Jed:
Website - https://jed.co/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jedsundwall/ 
More about Radiant Earth - https://radiant.earth/ 
More about the Cloud-Native Geospatial Forum (CNG) - https://cloudnativegeo.org/ 
 
Watch this episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-86IH4DouY 
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Season 15 of Scene from Above is brought to you by thriveGEO. 

S14E1: European Union Deforestation free Regulation (EUDR) with Dr.Vivian Ribeiro

In the first episode of Season 14, we talk to Dr. Vivian Ribeiro about the challenges and opportunities of the new European Union Deforestation free Regulation (EUDR) in the Earth Observation Sector. Dr. Vivian Ribeiro is a senior data scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute and currently leads the spatial intelligence team in the Trase - Intelligence for Sustainable Trade initiative. She is also the co-founder and technical coordinator of the Do Pasto ao Prato app, a collaborative initiative aimed at increasing transparency in the Brazilian meat industry. Vivian holds degrees in biology from the University of Goias and masters and Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Brasilia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vivihrbr
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivian-ribeiro-276357a8/
 
Shownotes:
Do Pasto ao Prato: https://www.dopastoaoprato.com.br/
Trase: www.trase.earth
 
Season 14 of Scene from Above is brought to you by Geoawesomeness. Be sure to check out the EO Hub article by Muthukumar featured on S14E1: https://bit.ly/EUDREarthObservation
 
News Correspondent: 
Rafaela Tiengo: https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Subscribe to Rafaela’s Newsletter! https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
 
Hosts, co-host and organizers:
Dr. Flávia de Souza Mendes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fl%C3%A1via-de-souza-mendes-phd-1456362b/
Dr. Yhasmin Mendes de Moura https://www.linkedin.com/in/yhasmoura/
Dr. Michelle Picoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-picoli-234709a2/
 
Editor and translation:
Dr. Flávia de Souza Mendes
 
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
 

S13E6: Forest Carbon Monitoring with Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo

In the last episode of Season 13, we talk to Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo about SAR, LiDAR, passive multispectral data, mangroves, biomass estimation, carbon stocks, payment ecosystem services, science communication & much more.  Dr. Lola Fatoyinbo, is a NASA scientist!! She is Research Scientist in the Biospheric Sciences Lab at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center based in Maryland, USA, where she studies forest ecology and ecosystem structure with multi-source remote sensing. Dr. Fatoyinbo has a Doctorate in Environmental sciences from University of Virginia, with a focus on Forest Ecology and Remote Sensing of Mangrove Wetlands. She serves on the GEDI and ICESat-2 Mission Science Teams and is Principal investigator on NASA Earth Science research. 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EarthToLola
Research: https://mangrovescience.org/
NASA Directory Page: https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/lola.fatoyinbo 
 
Season 13 of Scene from Above is brought to you by Geoawesomeness and UP42. Be sure to check out the EO Hub article by Ishveena Singh featured on S13E6: https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/esa-biomass-maps-climate-change/ 
 
Stay tuned for a bonus episode this summer to round out Season 13 of Scene From Above recapping the season and prospecting what comes next. And as always, thanks for listening!
 
Shownotes:
Dr. Fatoyinbo’s 2011 Presidential Early Career Award: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/releases/2012/12-064.html 
Minecraft Mangrove Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkR6xX_v0pw
Mangrove Science Data Portal: https://mangrovescience.org/data-portal-2/
Global Mangrove Dataset: https://daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/dsviewer.pl?ds_id=1665
NASA Biodiversity: https://cce.nasa.gov/biodiversity/ Dr. Sassan Saatchi: https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/saatchi/ 
Dr. Marc Simard twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcLovesEarth
Dr. Woody Turner: https://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/about/our-team/woody-turner 
 
S13E6 News Links:
A new web-based mapping application: Sentinel-2 Land Cover Explorer:https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/imagery/global-land-cover-revealed/?adusf=twitter&aduc=esri_conserv&adut=341c8636-83a0-4da0-859d-54ffafe29c71 
ESA's wind mission helps to investigate the nature of volcanic plumes:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-27021-0#Abs1 
Landsat 9 Thermal Infrared Sensor Anomaly:https://www.usgs.gov/landsat-missions/news/recent-landsat-9-tirs-anomaly-pauses-processing-new-landsat-9-data 
ESA Biomass satellite will be launched in 2024:https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2023/02/24/esa-biomass-satellite-set-to-map-earths-essential-old-growth-forests/amp/ 
 
News Correspondent: 
Rafaela Tiengo: https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Subscribe to Rafaela’s Newsletter! https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
 
Hosts:
Dr. Gopika Suresh: https://twitter.com/Go__pika 
Dr. Flávia de Souza Mendes: https://twitter.com/flasmendes 
Dr. Morgan Crowley: https://twitter.com/morganahcrowley 

S13E5: Empowering geospatial innovation with Sabrina Szeto

This episode features Sabrina Szeto, who is a geospatial consultant who empowers organizations to use geospatial data and technology. She is a Google Developer Expert for Earth Engine. Sabrina has a Masters in Forestry from Yale University and a BA in Anthropology from Princeton University. She also is the co-founder and former Director of Women+ in Geospatial and is currently based near Munich, Germany.
Website: https://sabrinaszeto.com/our-work
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SabrinaSzeto
Mastodon: https://fosstodon.org/@sabrinaszeto
Season 13 of Scene from Above is brought to you by Geoawesomeness and UP42. Be sure to check out the EO Hub article by Aleks Buczkowski: ‘https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/understanding-the-earth-observation-value-chain/’
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Show notes:
Earth Engine User Meetup YouTube: https://youtube.com/@EarthEngineUserMeetup
Fostering user-driven learning communities in-person and virtually: Examples from Earth Engine meetups: https://figshare.com/articles/poster/Fostering_user-driven_learning_communities_in-person_and_virtually_Examples_from_Earth_Engine_meetups/21803250
Earth Engine Community Tutorials:
https://sabrinaszeto.com/talks-and-outreach/creating-community-tutorials-for-earth-engine
https://github.com/google/earthengine-community/tree/master/tutorials
Ten Steps to Build an Inclusive Future for the Geo for Good Community: https://medium.com/google-earth/ten-steps-to-build-an-inclusive-future-for-the-geo-for-good-community-9f808000ab28
Women+ in Geospatial:
Women+ in Geospatial Website: https://www.womeningeospatial.org/
Women+ in Geospatial Twitter: https://twitter.com/geospatialwomen
Women+ in Geospatial LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-geospatial/
 
Hosts:
Dr. Flavia de Souza Mendes https://twitter.com/flasmendes
Dr. Gopika Suresh https://twitter.com/Go__pika
Dr. Morgan Crowley https://twitter.com/morganahcrowley
News correspondent:
Rafaela Tiengo https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Rafaela's newsletter: https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
 
Previewing our next guest on S13E6:
They are a remote sensing research scientist with NASA,
They have used SAR, LiDAR and passive optical data in their research,
They created the first 3D mangrove forest structure map for Africa.

S13E4: GNSS to study natural hazards with Dr. Lujia Feng

This episode features Dr. Lujia Feng, a Principal Research fellow at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She  is a geodesist who is trained as a geologist and geophysicist and now explores the atmosphere. In her research, Dr. Feng uses GNSS to study natural hazards related to tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and climate. Listen in as Dr. Gopika Suresh talks to Dr. Lujia Feng about Southeast Asia, seismology, atmospheric water vapour from GNSS, challenges of being an immigrant and how diverse voices bring diverse perspectives to remote sensing. 
Dr. Lujia Feng: EOS page https://earthobservatory.sg/about-us/our-people/feng-lujia
Dr. Lujia Feng's Email: lfeng@ntu.edu.sg 
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Show notes:
Research paper about Earthquake in Costa Rica: 
The paper before the earthquake: 
Feng, L., Newman, A. V., Protti, M., González, V., Jiang, Y., & Dixon, T. H. (2012). Active deformation near the Nicoya Peninsula, Northwestern Costa Rica, between 1996 and 2010: Interseismic megathrust coupling. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 117. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JB009230
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2012jb009230
A paper describing the story after the earthquake
Protti, M., González, V., Newman, A. V., Dixon, T. H., Schwartz, S. Y., Marshall, J. S., et al. (2014). Nicoya earthquake rupture anticipated by geodetic measurement of the locked plate interface. Nature Geoscience, 7(2), 117–121. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2038
https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo2038
SuGAr Network: https://earthobservatory.sg/research/tectonics/geodesy-group/sumatran-tectonic-geodesy-sugar-
Exploring the Application of GPS for Climate Research
https://earthobservatory.sg/news/blog/exploring-the-application-of-gps-for-climate-research
Dr. Feng's role model: Prof. Kristine M. Larson (https://www.kristinelarson.net/)
What is GPS?
https://earthobservatory.sg/earth-science-education/earth-science-faqs/miscellaneous/what-is-gps
What are the uses of GPS?
https://earthobservatory.sg/earth-science-education/earth-science-faqs/miscellaneous/what-are-the-uses-of-gps
Earth Science FAQs - Geology and Tectonics
https://earthobservatory.sg/earth-science-education/earth-science-faqs/geology-and-tectonics
Hosts:
Dr. Flavia de Souza Mendes https://twitter.com/flasmendes
Dr. Gopika Suresh https://twitter.com/Go__pika
Dr. Morgan Crowley https://twitter.com/morganahcrowley
News correspondent:
Rafaela Tiengo https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Rafaela's newsletter: https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
 
Season 13 of Scene from Above is brought to you by Geoawesomeness and UP42. Be sure to check out the EO Hub article by Aleks Buczkowski: ‘https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/understanding-the-earth-observation-value-chain/’
 
Our next speaker:
They are a self-employed Earth observation expert,
They are a long-time user of Google Earth Engine,
They cofounded Women+ in Geospatial.
 
 

S13E3: Deforestation in the Amazon biome with Dr. Tahisa Kuck and Prof. Tatiana Pará

This episode features Dr. Tahisa Kuck, Science and Technology Analyst at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Brazilian Air Force and Professor Tatiana Pará, professor at the Federal Institute of Pará. 
Professor Tatiana has a master's degree in development and management of the Amazon. She works with university extension taking geoprocessing tools to remote communities, promoting inclusion of girls and women in the world of STEM. She founded the group MENINAS DA GEO  and is entrepreneurial with stewardship activities and collaborative mapping. She mentors the Youthmappers IFPA chapter and has several research activities regarding monitoring deforestation in the Amazon. Her focus is to insert new people into basic education that can use geotechnologies as a tool for decision making.
Dr. Tahisa has a PhD in Applied Geosciences from University of Brasilia, Master in Remote Sensing from the National Institute for Space Research - INPE. Bachelor of Architecture and Urbanism. Member of the research group RSATE (Remote Sensing Applied to Tropical Environments). She works with research in the area of microwave remote sensing (SAR) and machine learning for tropical forests. At Institute for Advanced Studies, she is part of the PITER-N project team, whose research focuses on the autonomy of night flights of drones based on computer vision.
Listen to hosts Dr. Flávia de Souza Mendes and Dr. Yhasmis Mendes talk to them about this and more in this episode. 
 
Season 13 of Scene from Above is brought to you by Geoawesomeness and UP42. Be sure to check out the EO Hub that we featured on the episode this week: https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/
Shownotes:
Dr. Tahisa Kuck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tatakuck
Dr. Tahisa Kuck on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahisakuck/
Tatiana Pará on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tatiparah/
Meninas da Geo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meninasdageo/
Paper "Carbon loss from forest degradation exceeds that from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon": https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01026-5
Prefeitura de Ananindeua investe na capacitação de mulheres ribeirinhas: https://www.ananindeua.pa.gov.br/semcat/noticia/71/prefeitura-de-ananindeua-investe-na-capacitacao-de-mulheres-ribeirinhas
Meninas e mulheres da ciência fazem a diferença no IFPA e no Pará: https://ifpa.edu.br/ultimas-noticias/1436-meninas-e-mulheres-da-ciencia-fazem-a-diferenca-no-ifpa-e-no-para
Brazil’s Amazon Soy Moratorium reduced deforestation: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-020-00194-5
TerraBrasilis (PRODES/DETER): http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/en/home-page/
RSATE (Remote Sensing Applied to Tropical Environments) on twitter: https://twitter.com/rsategroup
Geoawesomeness EU hub: https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/
 
 
Hosts:
Dr. Flávia de Souza Mendes: https://twitter.com/flasmendes
Dr. Yhasmin Mendes de Moura: https://twitter.com/yhasmoura
 
News correspondent:
Rafaela Tiengo https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Rafaela's Newsletter https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
 
Edition: Dr. Flávia de Souza Mendes
 
Three facts for the next episode:
Our guest is a structural geologist
Resides in what is commonly called 'the little red dot'
We will talk about the importance of GNSS for monitoring different Earth processes like tectonic motion & atmospheric water vapour monitoring!

S13E2: Drones with Dr. Karen Joyce

This episode features Dr. Karen Joyce, an Associate Professor at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. Dr. Joyce is an innovator of all things Earth Observations from science to creating community. In her research, she explores novel usages of drone platforms building upon her experience in the military. Outside of her research, she is an entrepreneur who has led the development of the GEONadir drone data sharing and processing platform as well as created an educational network and resources for introducing young girls to UAVs called Shemaps. She is also a founder of the Dames of Drones network! Listen to hosts Dr. Morgan Crowley and Dr. Gopika Suresh talk to her about this and more in this episode. 
Season 13 of Scene from Above is brought to you by Geoawesomeness and UP42. Be sure to check out the EO Hub article by Justyna Więcławska that we featured on the episode this week: https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/how-satellite-data-helps-us-understand-climate-change/ 
Shownotes:
Dr. Karen Joyce at James Cook University: https://research.jcu.edu.au/portfolio/karen.joyce/
Dr. Karen Joyce on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrKJoyce 
Dr. Karen Joyce’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrKJoyce 
GEONadir: https://geonadir.com/ 
Shemaps: https://shemaps.com/ 
Dames of Drones: https://twitter.com/DamesOfDrones
Discovering inclusivity in Remote Sensing: https://doi.org/10.3389/frsen.2022.869291 
Dr. Karen Joyce’s episode on The Geoholics podcast: https://thegeoholics.podbean.com/e/145-final/ 
GEE ebook: https://www.eefabook.org/ 
ICEYE public archive: https://www.iceye.com/lp/iceye-18000-public-archive 
GEDI User Case Studies: https://twitter.com/GEDI_Knights/status/1593260979692998658?s=20&t=GhTgq9MRzQzWGSiBWz7tZw 
Pecora: https://pecora22.org/ 
Geo4Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIk8MC0kA2o 
This episodes hosts are:
Gopika: https://twitter.com/Go__pika 
Morgan: https://twitter.com/morganahcrowley 
News correspondent:
Rafaela Tiengo https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Rafaela's Newsletter https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
 
Three facts for the next episode:
These ladies are from the same south american country experiencing rapid deforestation but also contributing cutting edge remote sensing knowledge
They frequently collaborate in a forest remote sensing cooperative
The episode will be recorded in their shared native language with over 280 million native speakers

S13E1:New hosts!

Ladies of Landsat & Sisters of SAR take over the podcast so expect the unexpected.
In this first episode, we tell you about us, our organisations & our missions & visions. You will get to know our contributors and collaborators a little better, learn about their lives, careers and journeys in the field of Remote Sensing and hear about challenges they experienced. You will also hear from our news correspondent, Rafaela Tiengo as she tells you about the latest in Remote Sensing and GIS. 
Shownotes:
Ladies of Landsat - https://twitter.com/LadiesOfLandsat
Sisters of SAR - https://twitter.com/SistersofSAR
Sisters of SAR website: https://sistersofsar.wixsite.com/sistersofsar
Rafaela Tiengo’s Weekly Remote sensing and Geoscience news: https://rafaelatiengo.substack.com/
This episode is sponsored by: Geoawesomeness: https://geoawesomeness.com/
UP42: https://up42.com/
Geoawesomeness article about our Living Planet Symposium session: https://geoawesomeness.com/recapping-cultivating-an-inclusive-future-in-remote-sensing-and-earth-observation-at-living-planet-symposium-2022/
Previous Scene from Above episodes with Ladies of Landsat & Sisters of SAR:
https://scenefromabove.podbean.com/e/s12e5-takeover-2-inclusive-futures/
https://scenefromabove.podbean.com/e/s9e3-sos/
https://scenefromabove.podbean.com/e/s6e1-ladies-of-landsat/
The speakers:
Dr. Antara Dasgupta: https://twitter.com/ant_dasgupta
Dr. Flavia de Souza Mendes: https://twitter.com/flasmendes
Dr. Gopika Suresh https://twitter.com/Go__pika
Dr. Kate Fickas https://twitter.com/katefickas
Dr. Laura Dingle Robertson https://twitter.com/LDR1
Dr. Morgan Crowley https://twitter.com/morganahcrowley
Rafaela Tiengo https://twitter.com/RafaelaTiengo_
Sarah Banks https://twitter.com/SAR_ahBanks
Hints for S13E2.
Our next speaker:
Was in the military
Works with drones
We’ll talk about Sea Cucumber poop!