Hansen, Matthew C.

Bio

Prof. Matthew Hansen is a remote sensing scientist with a research specialization in large area land cover and land use change mapping. His research is focused on developing improved algorithms, data inputs and thematic outputs which enable the mapping of land cover change at regional, continental and global scales. Such maps enable better informed approaches to natural resource management, including deforestation and biodiversity monitoring and can also be used by other scientists as inputs to carbon, climate and hydrological modeling studies. Prof. Hansen's work as an Associate Team Member of NASA's MODIS Land Science Team included the algorithmic development and product delivery of the MODIS Vegetation Continuous Field land cover layers. His current research includes taking the global processing model for MODIS and applying it to the Landsat archive. Exhausting mining of the Landsat archive has been used to map forest disturbance in the Congo Basin, Indonesia, European Russia, Mexico, Quebec and the United States. The methods developed in these efforts will be used to test global-scale disturbance mapping with Landsat data. Other current research efforts focus on improving global cropland monitoring capabilities, for example global soybean cultivated area estimation using MODIS, Landsat and RapidEye data sets.

For a more in depth look at his research lab's projects, research focus and publications, visit the Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab here. 

 

Dr. Hansen's Science paper is accessible from this webpage following the links below:
High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change
M.C. Hansen, P.V. Potapov, R. Moore, M. Hancher, S.A. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina, D. Thau, S.V. Stehman, S.J. Goetz, T.R. Loveland, A. Kommareddy, A. Egorov, L. Chini, C.O. Justice, and J. R. G. Townshend
Science 15 November 2013: 342 (6160), 850-853. [DOI:10.1126/science.1244693]

Full text can be found here; abstract only; reprint version here.

 

Degrees

  • Geography - Ph.D

  • Geography - MA

  • Civil Engineering - MS

  • Electrical Engineering - BS

Areas of Interest

  • Land cover

Research Topics

  • Geospatial Information Science and Remote Sensing
  • Land Cover - Land Use Change

I believe teaching cultivates and challenges the curious mind. In doing so, independent thinking and problem-solving skills are developed. I hope to empower curious and open minds to both identify and solve the environmental sustainability challenges of our time.

My primary goal in quantifying land cover extent and change is to bring improved information to natural resource monitoring, management and modeling. I seek to develop research ideas that are tested and validated and then judged to be of practical value. The most rewarding outcome of my research is the adoption of our methods in operational contexts. I also believe in an interdisciplinary research approach. The task of improving land cover monitoring requires engineering skills in terms of data calibration and processing, geographic domain knowledge concerning land cover types and the drivers of land change, and understanding of the value of land information to downstream science applications.

  • Potapov, P., Siddiqui, B.N., Iqbal, Z., Aziz, T., Zzaman, B., Islam, A., Pickens, A., Talero, Y., Tyukavina, A., Turubanova, S., Hansen, M.C. (2017) Comprehensive monitoring of Bangladesh tree cover inside and outside of forests, 2000–2014. Environmental

  • Zalles, V., Hansen, M. C., Potapov, P. V., Stehman, S. V., Tyukavina, A., Pickens, A., ... & John, N. (2019). Near doubling of Brazil’s intensive row crop area since 2000. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(2), 428-435.

  • Khan, A., Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Adusei, B., Pickens, A., Krylov, A., Stehman, S.V. Evaluating Landsat and RapidEye Data for Winter Wheat Mapping and Area Estimation in Punjab, Pakistan, Remote Sensing (2018)

  • Jantz, S. M., Pintea, L., Nackoney, J., & Hansen, M. C. (2016). Landsat ETM+ and SRTM data provide near real-time monitoring of Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) habitats in Africa. Remote Sensing, 8(5), 427.

  • Nackoney J, Molinario G, Potapov P, Turubanova S, Hansen M C and Furuichi T 2014 Impacts of civil conflict on primary forest habitat in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1990–2010 Biological Conservation 170 321–8

  • Molinario G, Hansen M C and Potapov P V 2015 Forest cover dynamics of shifting cultivation in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a remote sensing-based assessment for 2000–2010 Environ. Res. Lett. 10 094009

  • Molinario G, Hansen M C, Potapov P V, Tyukavina A, Stehman S, Barker B and Humber M 2017 Quantification of land cover and land use within the rural complex of the Democratic Republic of Congo Environ. Res. Lett. 12 104001

  • Ying, Q., Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P. V., Tyukavina, A., Wang, L., Stehman, S. V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., 2017. Global bare ground gain from 2000 to 2012 using Landsat imagery. Remote Sens. Environ. 194, 161–176. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.022

  • Song, X.P., Potapov, P.V., Krylov, A., King, L., Di Bella, C.M., Hudson, A., Khan, A., Adusei, B., Stehman, S.V. and Hansen, M.C., 2017. National-scale soybean mapping and area estimation in the United States using medium resolution satellite imagery and

  • Molinario, G., Hansen, M. C. & Potapov, P. V. Forest cover dynamics of shifting cultivation in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a remote sensing-based assessment for 2000–2010. Environ. Res. Lett. 10, 94009 (2015).

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CV(s)

Matthew C. Hansen

Matthew C. Hansen
Professor

| 4600 River Road, Suite 361 (send mail to 2181 LeFrak)

| mhansen@umd.edu

| (301) 405-2284