K. Adem Ali

Associate Professor and Director, Graduate Program in Environmental and Sustainability Studies

Address: SSMB 246
Phone: 843.953.0877
E-mail: alika@cofc.edu
Personal Website: http://blogs.cofc.edu/alika/


Education

Kent State University

Ph.D., 2011

Research Interests

Aquatic remote sensing, Water quality of the Case 2 waters, Geostatistics

My research focuses on developing satellite based algorithms that can accurately retrieve biogeochemical constituents in optically complex aquatic environments. Aquatic sensing using satellite observations will increase our capacity to understand real time aquatic processes at a wide variety of scales that will contribute to climate research. Moreover, the technology will enhanced our capability to understand the role of marine primary production and dissolved organic carbon in the global carbon budget and the couplings between physical and biological processes.  I have carried out a comprehensive research on methodologies that can retrieve optical characteristics of the various biogeochemical constituents in the optically complex aquatic environments including Western Basin of Lake Erie and the coastal water of South Carolina. The developed satellite algorithms may be used by resource managers to monitor and quantify the physical and biological constituents of the Lake at real time. One critical local application is monitoring the seasonal Harmful algal blooms.

I use various space based optical sensors including HICO, VIIRS, MODIS, OLI, MERIS, Landsat 8 (LDCM), and SeaWiFS.

Currently I have ongoing projects in the US Virgin Islands, Coastal waters of South Carolina and in the US Great Lakes (Lake Erie).

Courses Taught

GEOL 103/103L Environmental Geology

GEOL 240 Geology and Environment of South Africa

GEOL 291/291L Water Resources

GEOL 303 Independent Study in Geology (Undergraduate)

GEOL 365 Geology and Environment of South Africa (Field Studies)

GEOL 395 Special Topics: Engineering Geology

GEOL 438/438L Advanced Hydrogeology (Graduate)

GEOL 449/449L Geographical Information Systems (Undergraduate)

EVSS 638/638L  Advanced Hydrogeology (Graduate)

EVSS 649/649L  Geographical Information Systems (Graduate)

EVSS 691 MST: Ocean Color (Graduate)

EVSS 693 IS: Remote Sensing (Graduate)

Honors and Awards

  • NASA Rapid 3 grant $ 100,000, “Enhanced Spectral Optimization Tools for monitoring the development and dynamics of Harmful Algal Blooms and coral bleaching. Funded $100,000.00 (2020- 2021)
  • National Geography $60,000, “Capacity Building for Ocean Color Remote Sensing in Support of Fisheries Management in the Northern Benguela Current”. 2020- 2021
  • NASA EPSCoR $30,000,  “Experimenting the feasibility of optical remote sensing in characterizing and monitoring coral reefs in shallow to moderately deep Case 1 type waters – using a Pacific Island (Guam) as a natural laboratory 2019
  • NASA’s SC Space grant Consortium $18,000, “Benchmarking water quality measures in storm water ponds with remote sensing-capable methods. Funded $18,000.00 (2018) –by NASA’s SC Space grant Consortium”. 2019
  • NASA Achievement Award – NASA Headquarters, 2015
  • NASA-South Carolina Space Grant, $23,000, "Detection, quantification and monitoring of water quality parameters in the coral reef ecosystem of the US Virgin Islands using NASA's Ocean Color Sensors", 2016
  • NASA Grant, $750,000, "Using NASA's Ocean Color Sensors to Identify Effects of Watershed Development and Climate Change on Coastal Marine Ecosystems of the US Virgin Islands", 2015
  • NASA-South Carolina Space Grant, $21,000, "Monitoring coral reefs ecosystem in USVI using NASA’s ocean color sensors", 2015
  • CofC SURF internal grant, $6,500, "Satellite Remote Sensing of water quality parameters in the coastal waters of the US. Virgin Islands", 2015
  • NASA_South Carolina Space Grant, $23,000, "Remote sensing of Coastal Ocean. Alternative data adaptive methods of retrieving phytoplankton and suspended sediments in optically complex Case 2 waters using NASA’s satellite sensors", 2014
  • NOAA-OH Seagrant, $10,000, "HPLC-measured Pigment and Growth Response of the Harmful Algal Species Microcystis (Cyanophyceae) to Variable Environmental Conditions", 2014
  • Ohio’s Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF), $14,000, "Water Quality Monitoring by VNIR Derivative Spectroscopy", 2014 
  • NOAA-South Carolina Sea Grant, $10,000, "Evaluating water quality parameters in the coastal waters of South Carolina using satellite data", 2014
  • NASA-South Carolina Space Grant, $23,000, "Application of Satellite Remote Sensing techniques for determining Water Quality Parameters in the optically complex waters of the Western Basin of Lake Erie", 2012
  • NOAA-Ohio Sea Grant, $26,473, "Ship time support for improving techniques of water quality monitoring in the Western Basin of Lake Erie", 2012
  • CofC SURF internal grant, $6,500, "Remote Sensing and mapping of color producing agents in the optically complex Western Basin of Lake Erie", 2012
  • NOAA-Ohio Sea Grant, $14,934 for water quality research on Lake Erie, 2010
  • Selected fellow for the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship, $30,000, 2010
  • Graduate Student Senate (GSS), best research award, selected from university wide, Kent State University $1,000

Publications

Select
*Student co-authors
  • S. Jombo, Elhadi Adam, Marcus Byrne, Ali, K.A. (In print). Exploring the potential of feature selection methods in the classification of urban trees using filed spectroscopy data. International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research.
  • Kristi Kerrigan and Ali, K.A. (2020). Monitoring the effect of watershed development and climate on coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands using satellite based sensors. Submitted to the International Journal of Remote Sensing 41:15, pages 5645-5652.
  • Ali, K.A., Abiye, T.A., Elhadi, A., Adam, A.O. (2019). “Assessing the utility of using current generation high resolution satellites (Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8) to monitor large water supply Dam systems in South Africa." for the AGU Fall Meeting 2019.
  • Mayer, C & Ali, K. A. (2017). Field Spectroscopy as a Tool for Enhancing Water Quality Monitoring in the ACE Basin, SC. Journal of SC water resources. 
  • Ali, K. A., Ortiz, J., *Bonini, N., *Shuman, M., & *Sydow, C. (2016). Application of Aqua MODIS sensor data for estimating chlorophyll a in the turbid Case 2 waters of Lake Erie using bio-optical models. GIScience & Remote sensing Journal, 53(4), pp.483-505
  • *Ryan, K., & Ali, K. (2016). Application of a partial least-squares regression model to retrieve chlorophyll-a. Ocean Science Journal, 51(2), 209-221
  • *Kerrigan, K. L., & Ali, K. (2016). Development of a regional bio-optical model for water quality assessment in the US Virgin Islands. Ocean Science meeting- New Orleans
  • *Hollister, K., Ortiz, J., *Avouris, D., Ali, A., & *Kerrigan, K. (2016). Historic Water Quality Trends in the US Virgin Islands and Future Implications on Coral Reef Health, KSU
  • Ali, K. A. (2015). Monitoring the effect of watershed development and climate on coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands using satellite based sensors. AGU Fall Meeting. San Francisco
  • *Fink, Sam, Ali, K.A. (2015). "Classification and change detection of land cover types in St. Thomas, US. Virgin Islands using Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+ and OLI data," Oral - Geological Society of America, Baltimore, MD
  • Ali, K.A., and Ortiz, J.D. (2014). Multivariate approach for chlorophyll-a and suspended matter retrievals in Case II waters using hyperspectral data. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 61(1), pp.200-213
  • Ali, K.A., Witter, D.L., Ortiz, J.D. (2013). Application of empirical and semi-analytical algorithms to MERIS data for estimating chlorophyll a in Case 2 waters of Lake Erie. Journal of Environmental Earth Sciences, 71(9), pp.4209-4220
  • Ortiz, J.D., Witter, D.L., Ali, K.A., *Nathan Fela, *Michael Duff and *Lonnie Mills. (2013). Evaluating multiple color producing agents in Case II waters from Lake Erie, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 34 (24), 8854-8880, 2013
  • Ali, K., Witter, D., Ortiz, J.D. (2012). Multivariate approach to estimate color producing agents in Case 2 waters using first-derivative spectrophotometer data. Geocarto International, 29(2), pp.102-127
  • Ali, K.A., Ortiz, J.D. (2013). Multivariate approach for chlorophyll-a and suspended matter retrievals in Case II waters using hyperspectral data. American Geophysical Union, Oral, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • *Harrington, J.E., Ali, K.A. (2013). Using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Models to Determine Phytoplankton Density in the Coastal Waters of Long Bay, South Carolina. American Geophysical Union, Oral, San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Ali, K.A. Witter, D.L., and Ortiz, J.D. (2011). Application of wavelets transformation to detect cyanobacteria bloom using hyperspectral data, American Geophysical Union, Oral, (04-09, Dec 2011), San Francisco, CA, USA
  • Ali, K.A. Witter, D.L., and Ortiz,  J.D. (2011). Monitoring cyanobacteria in the Western Basin of Lake Erie using MERIS satellite data. International Association of Great Lakes Research Conference, Oral, (5-10 May 2011), Duluth, MN, USA
  • Ali, K.A, Witter, D.L and Ortiz, J.D. (2010). Application of VIR-NIR spectral radiometry techniques to estimate chlorophyll a in turbid waters. Geol. Soc America, Bulletin Vol. 42, No. 5, p.273
  • Ali, K.A, Witter, D.L and Ortiz, J.D (2010). An improved method for optical-feature extraction from multi-spectral data. International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR)- 53nd  Annual conference (18-22 May 2010), Toronto, OT, Canada
  • Ali, K.A, Witter, D.L and Ortiz, J.D. (2009). Assessing full resolution MERIS products in monitoring chlorophyll a and suspended matter in the Western Basin of Lake Erie. Geol. Soc America, Bulletin Vol. 41, No. 7, p.276
  • Ali, K.A, Witter, D.L and Ortiz, J.D (2009). Multivariate assessment of remotely derived water quality parameters in Western Basin of Lake Erie. International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR)- 52nd  Annual conference (18-22 May 2009), Toledo, OH, USA