Welcome to the Swenson lab

William & Mary's Center for Geospatial Analysis and Data Science Program​
Support the Center for Geospatial Analysis's work in spatial education, training & research here! 

Ecological and human-induced changes with
​remote sensing and geospatial analysis 

Seasonal ephemeral water for wildlife migrations, Southern Africa (Shaffer-Smith et al 2022)

​Blue wave ephemeral water viewer            
Project storyMap 

Left: VA Lime disease cases driven by NDVI                 Right: Summer Vegetation Optical Depth (SMOS)   
  (Lantos et al. 2021)                   

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​Research Themes:  

• Biodiversity patterns and climate-induced changes
• Ecosystem shifts and stress (deforestation/degradation, drought stress, afforestation, surface water changes)      
• Three-dimensional forest attributes for wildlife habitat
• Land use policies & health

Recent papers:                                                       Google Scholar page

• Swenson, J. J., & Runfola, D. (2026). Satellite-based detection of unique sociocultural communities: the case of Mennonite colonies in Bolivia. Remote Sensing Letters, 17(3), 253–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/2150704X.2026.2616622
• Domec, JC, Johnson, DM, & JJ Swenson. 2025. A leaf-level field physiological tool linking non-invasive leaf gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence measurements applicable at larger ecophysiological scales. Tree Physiology https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpae171
• Qiu, T, JS Clark, KR Kovach, PA Townsend, & JJ Swenson. 2024. Remotely Sensed Crown Nutrient Concentrations Modulate Forest Reproduction across the Contiguous United States. Ecology 105(8): e4366. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4366
• Journe, V, .... [many authors] JJ Swenson ... CLark, JS. 2024. The relationship between maturation size and maximum tree size from tropical to boreal climates Ecology letters 
• Qiu, T., A. Bell, J. J. Swenson, and J. S. Clark. 2023. Habitat-trait interactions that control response to climate change: North American ground beetles (Carabidae). Global Ecology and Biogeography
• Rico-Straffon J, Z Wang, S Panlasigui, CJ Loucks, JJ Swenson, A. Pfaff. 2023. Forest concessions and eco-certifications in the Peruvian Amazon: Deforestation impacts of logging rights and logging restrictions. J of Env Econ & and Mngmt
• Shaffer-Smith et al. 2022. Tracking a blue wave of ephemeral water across arid southern Africa. Environmental Research Letters​

Teaching:       Introduction to Remote Sensing
Past course storymaps, e.g. Maritime Forest volume: lidar vs. imaging drones, Distribution Model for the Lar gibbon, Corridors and habitat for Bobcats, NC. 
Past courses (at Duke) Remote Sensing for Environmental Analysis, ​Lidar Remote Sensing, Intro to QGIS, Geospatial Analysis for Land & Water Management.
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​Some of the awesome TAs of the CGA!

With the Clark Lab 2019 @ Duke

​The lab in their remote sensing T's (2018)













​Contact: [email protected]
Assoc. Prof. Data Science
Director- Center for Geospatial Analysis
William & Mary

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Who's been here