Jane Ma, Ph.D.

Dr. Ma has 6+ years of experience in geospatial data creation/management, remote sensing images processing, environmental/ecological model design and implementation, decision support system (DSS) design and development. Dr. Ma has a strong interdisciplinary background in geosciences, computer sciences, and civil/environmental engineering. Her scientific expertise is principally in the areas of water resources management, with an emphasis on the GIS applications. Her study involves with aquatic habitat evaluation, wetland vulnerability assessment, headwater wetland mitigation, low-impact Best Management Practices (BMPs) design, and watershed-scale ecological restoration study. Dr. Ma is highly skilled in spatial analysis and GIS programming. She has developed numerous desktop and web-based GIS applications customized to meet the requirements of different projects.

Ji W, Ma J, Twibell RW, Underhill K. Characterizing urban sprawl using multi-stage remote sensing images and landscape metrics. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 2006; 30(6):861–879, November.

Ji W, Twibell RW, Ma J. A decision support GIS for the Clean Water Act permit review analysis. Proceedings, International Environmental Modeling and Software Society Conference Lugano, Switzerland, June 24–27, 2002.

Published Abstracts of Presentations

Ma J, Wahab-Twibell RA, Adegoke JO, Ji W. Sensitivity of landscape indices to satellite-derived urban heat island phenomenon: a case study of Lee’s Summit, MO. Proceedings, ASPRS Specialty Conference: from Imaging to Decision Making, Kansas City, MO, September 12–16, 2004.

Ma J, Ji W. Decision support GIS for assessing the vulnerability of waters to potential human impacts. Paper presented at Centennial Meeting of Association of American Geographers (AAG), Philadelphia, PA, March 2004.

Ji W, Wahab Twibell RA, Ma J. A GIS approach for the Clean Water Act Permitting across spatial scales. 17th Annual Symposium International Association for Landscape Ecology, Lincoln, NE, April 2002.

Ma J, Fan H, Chen X. A case study on change detection from Thermatic Mapper (TM) data for monitoring land resource in mountainous region. Paper presented at the 3rd Korea-China Workshop on Spatial Information Technology Application for Sustainable Development, Kongju, Korea, Republic of (South), November 2000.

Book Chapters

Ji W, Ma J. Geospatial decision models for rapidly assessing the vulnerability of wetlands under potential human impacts. In: Wetland and Water Resource Modeling and Assessment: A Watershed Perspective. Ji, et. al. (eds), Science Press, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 2007.

• Research Assistant, University of Missouri – Kansas City, 2001–2006
• GIS Analyst/Programmer, Applied Ecological Services, Inc., 2005–2006
• Environmental Specialist II, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, 2005
• Research Assistant, Peking University, China, 1998–2001

Provided GIS support to the Cargill project in Oklahoma. Delineated drainage basins and performed aerial photos interpretation for land use characterization. Maintained the Cargill webtool.

Developed a webtool for the Ottawa River, Ohio. Provided documents and data search functionality in the webtool and developed a web-based GIS for map display and query.

Developed a webtool for the Exxon Valdez database. Provided efficient and powerful searching and reporting functionalities for the chemical compounds. Developed a web-based GIS for the mapping and summarization of field surveys.

Provided remote sensing support to the Prestige project. Performed shoreline type interpretation using Google Earth and studied the adverse impacts of Prestige oil spill (2002) to the shoreline habitats in Spain.

Provided GIS support for the Ecuador project. Delineated drainage basins and created customized maps for the expert report.

Maintained the Exxon Bayway and Bayonne webtool. Interpreted historical aerial photos in Bayway and Bayonne, New Jersey.

Developed a web-based VAST tool – a Validation, Analysis and Storage database for Environmental investigation. Provided a great deal of flexibility in data storage and summarization capability, as well as information delivery via Internet.

Provided GIS programming for the Habitat Equivalency Analysis (HEA). The product was delivered as a stand-alone GIS application developed with ArcEngine in Visual Basis environment.

• Association of American Geographers—AAG
• American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing—ASPRS
• International Association for Landscape Ecology—IALE