Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology

Sucharita Gopal

My research interests are in the area of spatial analysis, GIS and neural networks. I have used neural networks for pattern classification, change detection and estimation. I have developed measures based on fuzzy sets for accuracy assessment of thematic maps. I am also currently working in areas of Information Technology in spatial modeling and visualization, multiscale modeling, and public health.

Funded Projects
1. POWRE: Artificial Neural Networks for Spatial Aggregation and Disaggregation Problems (PI: S. Gopal)

2. A Multi-scale Framework for Spatial Modeling in Geography (PI: E. Kolaczyk)

Gopal, S. and Fischer, M. (1996). Learning in single hidden layer feedforward neural network models: backpropagation in a spatial interaction modeling context, Geographical Analysis, 28 (1), 38-55.
Gopal, S., and Woodcock, C. (1994). Theory and methods for accuracy assessmentof thematic maps using fuzzy sets, Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 60, 2, 181-188, 1994. 1995 Winner of The ERDAS Award for Best Scientific Paper in Remote Sensing by the American Society for Photogrammetery and Remote Sensing. Woodcock, C.E. and Gopal, S. (2000). Fuzzy set theory and thematic maps: accuracy assessment and area estimation, International Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 14(2), 153-172.
Abuelgasim,A., Ross, W. D., Gopal, S., and Woodcock, C.E. (1999). Change detection using adaptive neural networks: Environmental damage assessment after the Gulf War, Remote Sensing of the Environment, 70 (2), 208-223. Gopal, S. and Woodcock, C. E. (1996). Remote sensing of forest change using artificial neural networks, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 34 (2), 398-404.
Moody, A. and Gopal, S.and Strahler, A. H. (1996). Sensitivity of neural networks to subpixel land-cover mixtures in coarse-resolution satellite data, Remote Sensing of Environment, 58, 329-343. Carpenter, G., Gopal, S., Martens, S., and Woodcock, C. (1999). A Neural Network Method for Mixture Estimation for Vegetation Mapping, Remote sensing of the Environment. 70 (2), 138-152.
Gopal, S. and Fischer,M. (1997). Fuzzy ARTMAP - A Neural Classifier for Multispectral Image Classification, in Fischer, M.M. and Getis, A. (eds.): Recent Developments in Spatial Analysis: Spatial Statistics, Behavioural Modelling and Computational Intelligence, pp. 306-35. Springer, Heidelberg. Gopal, S., Woodcock, C. and Strahler, A. (1999). Fuzzy ARTMAP classification of global land cover from the 1 degree AVHRR data set', Remote Sensing of the Environment, 67, 230-243.
Gopal, S., Liu, W., and Woodcock, C. (2000). Visualization based on the Fuzzy ARTMAP neural network for mining remotely sensed data, to be published in Harvey J. Miller and Jiawei Han (eds.) Discovering geographic knowledge in data-rich environments, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.
Albert, W., Reinitz, M., Beusmans, J. and Gopal, S. (1999). The role of attention in spatial learning during simulated route navigation, Environment and Planning A, 31, 1459-1472.
Liu, Weiguo, Karen Seto, Elaine Wu, Sucharita Gopal and Curtis Woodcock (2004). ART-MMAP: a neural network approach to sub-pixel classification, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 42(9).
Proctor SP, Gopal S, Imai A, Wolfe J, Ozonoff D, White RF
(2005). Spatial Analysis of 1991 Gulf War Troop Locations in Relationship with Postwar Health Symptom Reports Using GIS Techniques Transactions in GIS, Vol. 9, No. 3. (June 2005), pp. 381-396.
Kolaczyk, E.D., Ju, J., and Gopal, S. (2005).Multiscale, multigranular statistical image segmentation. Journal of the American Statistical Association, (to appear).
Ju, J., Gopal, S., and Kolaczyk, E.D. (2005). On the choice of spatial and categorical scale in remote sensing land cover characterization. Remote Sensing of Environment, 96(1):62-77.
Liu, W., Gopal,S., and Woodcock, C. (2005). Multisensor Fusion Framework with an ARTMAP Neural Network for Sub-pixel Level Land Cover Classification. Submitted to Remote Sensing on Environment.