Environmental Sustainability and Climate Systems

Environment Research

Our physical environment is a complex dynamic system, which is based on the continuous interactions of atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. Proper understanding of this unique, interactive, and intricate system requires a multi-disciplinary knowledge base in conjunction with geospatial and computational tools and algorithms.

In the environment thrust we develop interdisciplinary and collaborative research initiatives involving faculty, researchers, and students across the UTC using the computational resources available at the SimCenter.

The current focused areas of research includes the applications of geospatial and computation   modeling to solve different environmental problems associated with geological hazards such as landslides, flooding, and sinkholes, hydrological variables such as precipitation, runoff, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, groundwater flow, interaction of surface water with groundwater, and quality and quantity of surface and groundwater, and climate change and urbanization such as urban heat island impact.

Some ongoing projects conducting research on the integration of satellite observations with numerical watershed and hydrodynamic models for surface water quality studies, developing landslide prediction model using artificial neural network coupled with geospatial technology, mapping urban growth and evaluating its potential impacts on stream impairment using GIS and remote sensing, and investigating urban heat island (UHI) impact for the City of Chattanooga, TN using GIS and remote sensing.

Collaborators

Researchers in environment thrusts already have developed strong collaborations with different local institutions and offices such as Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservations (TDEC), City of Chattanooga, and Hamilton County Emergency Management Center. We are in the process of forming a research consortium “Southeastern Computational and Geospatial Environmental Hydrology” to conduct research and develop research opportunities for joint pursuit between the university of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the University of Mississippi, and Tennessee Technological University. Last year a day-long workshop was organized involving faculty, researchers, and students from all three universities. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is currently being prepared to institutionalize this effort.

Research Thrust Leads:

Team and Potential Members

Dr. Mark Schorr, Dr. Hope Klug, Dr. Jennifer Boyd, Dr. Fernando Alda, Dr. Francesca Leasi, Dr. Stephani DeVries, Dr. Hong Qin, Mr. Charlie Mix, Ms. Nyssa Hunt, Dr. Abi Arabshahi and  Other Faculty from College of Engineering and Computer Science

Current Projects

Mapping Urban Growth and Evaluating its Potential Impacts on Stream Impairment Using GIS and Remote Sensing

Integration of Satellite Observations with Numerical Watershed and Hydrodynamic Models for Surface Water Quality Studies

Developing Landslide Prediction Model using Artificial Neural Network Coupled with Geospatial Technology

Computer Modeling for Integrated Management of Urban Water Resources

Other Activities

Develop a consortium called “Southeastern Computational and Geospatial Environmental Hydrology” to conduct research and develop research opportunities for joint pursuit.

• NSF RCN proposal – UM, TTU, MTSU

Developing in-house geospatial database for climate variables for investigating the impact of climate change on plant rarity, rule of life.

• Hope Klug, Jennifer Boyd

Impact of Temperature and Humidity on Coronavirus spreading

• NSF RAPID

Hyperscptral Remote Sensing for plant contamination study

• Currently collaborating with Spelman College

Biological Big Data

• Hong Qin

Selected Publications

1. Bathi, Jejal Reddy & Wright, Laura & Khan, Eakalak. (2022). Critical Review of Engineered Nanoparticles: Environmental Concentrations and Toxicity. Current Pollution Reports. 1-21. 10.1007/s40726-022-00237-4.
2. Bathi, Jejal Reddy & Roy, Shuvashish & Tareq, Syed Mohammed & Potts, Gretchen & Palchoudhury, Soubantika & Sweck, Sam & Venkataramana, Gadhamshetty. (2022). Dispersion and Aggregation Fate of Individual and Co-Existing Metal Nanoparticles under Environmental Aqueous Suspension Conditions. Materials. 15. 6733. 10.3390/ma15196733.
3. Bathi, Jejal Reddy & Moazeni, Faegheh & Upadhyayula, Venkata Krishna & Chowdhury, Indranil & Palchoudhury, Soubantika & Potts, Gretchen & Venkataramana, Gadhamshetty. (2021). Behavior of engineered nanoparticles in aquatic environmental samples: Current status and challenges. Science of The Total Environment. 793. 148560. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148560. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721036329)
4. Dey, Preyanka, Roy, Shuvashish, Bathi, Jejal Reddy, Mishra, Anurag, Leasi, Francesca, and Hossain, A., (2021). Parameter Sensitivity Analysis of the HSPF Model on a Pervious Landcover Dominated Watershed. World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2021, 561-574. 10.1061/9780784483466.051.
5. Hall, J.; Hossain, A. Mapping Urbanization and Evaluating Its Possible Impacts on Stream Water Quality in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Using GIS and Remote Sensing. Sustainability 2020, 12, 1980.