Guofan Shao

Professor

Department: Forestry and Natural Resources
Phone: 765.494.3630
Fax: 765.494.9461
Office: PFEN 221A
E-mail: shao@purdue.edu
Personal Web Page

Area of Expertise: Forest Measurement and Assessment/GIS
Curriculum Vitae

Research Group	Facilities	Areas of Excellence	Related Centers
Forest Measurement and Assessment/GIS	John S. Wright Center Forest Informatics and Landscape Monitoring Lab (FILM)	Partnering for Land Use Sustainability Sustaining Hardwood Ecosystems	Center for the Environment Purdue Climate change Research Center Purdue Interdisciplinary Center for Ecological Sustainability Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing Purdue Terrestrial Observation

Dr. Guofan Shao is a professor of the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) at Purdue University. Dr. Shao received his PhD in ecology from Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1989, received his post-doctorial education from the Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia between 1991 and 1994, and received professional trainings in remote sensing and GIS technologies from world-geospatial leaders, such as ESRI and ERDAS, in the 1980-1990s. Dr. Shao is the Director of Forest Informatics and Landscape Monitoring (FILM) Laboratory at the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, and also serves at the Laboratory for Application of Remote Sensing (LARS) at Purdue University. Dr. Shao teaches Digital Remote Sensing and GIS (FNR 558), Fundamental Remote Sensing (FNR 357), and Forest Resources Practicum (FNR 330). Dr. Shao is adjunct research professor at two institutes of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is honorary dean of Jilin Changbai Mountain Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Shao’s overall research interest is digital forestry technologies (DFT), including remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), forest modeling, and forestry decision-support systems (DSS). Shao applies DFT in better understanding forest landscape changes and sustaining the management of forest resources. Dr. Shao is especially interested in developing algorithms for accurate land use and land cover mapping with remote sensing, developing web-based GIS protocols for land use analysis and forest conservation, developing applicable forest simulation models for forestry professionals, and developing user-friendly forestry DSS for assisting forestry decision making. Dr. Shao is conducting research projects for the temperate forest ecosystems in the Midwest of the United States and northeastern China. Dr. Shao has published over a hundred scholarly works. His book, “Forest Dynamics Modeling”, is one of few forestry books that have received national-level awards in China. His journal publications, such as that published in Science, have been widely cited. His new book, titled Computer Applications in Sustainable Forest Management, represents his interdisciplinary strength and collaborative achievement.

- Recent Publications

Lang, R., G. Shao, B. Pijanowski, & R. Farnsworth (2008). Optimizing unsupervised classifications of remotely sensed imagery with a data-assisted labeling approach. Computers & Geosciences, 34, 1877-1885.

Zhao, J., Y. Zhu, G. Shao, & D. Ness (2008). Coping with an urbanising world: interdisciplinary research towards sustainability. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 15(4), 302-308.

Shao, G., T. Qian, Y. Liu, & B. Martin (2008). The role of urbanisation in increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations: Think globally, act locally. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 15(4), 302-308.

Martin, B., G. Shao, R. Swihart, G. Parker, & L. Tang (2008). Implications of shared edge length between land cover types for landscape quality: The case of Midwestern U.S., 1940-1998. Landscape Ecology, 23, 391-402.

Shao, G., & J. Wu (2008). On the accuracy of landscape pattern analysis using remote sensing data. Landscape Ecology, 34, 1877-1885.

Shao, G. (2005). A neural network approach for enhancing information extraction from multispectral image data. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 31(6), 432-438.

Shao, G. (2005). Integrating stand and landscape decisions for multi-purposes of forest harvesting. Forest Ecology and Management, 103(1), 47-50.

Shao, G. (2005). Digital Forestry: A White Paper. Journal of Forestry, 103(1), 47-50.

Shao, G. (2005). The impacts of logging operations on understory plants for the broad-leaved/Korean pine mixed forest on Changbai Mountain, China. Journal of Forestry Research, 16(1), 27-30.

Shao, G. (2004). FORESTAR: A Decision-Support System for Forest Management.