VISTAS Pubs & Presentations

To read about the current state of VISTAS software, see About VISTAS Software.  To cite VISTAS, please use one of the following:

T. Mutch, N. Molnar, J. B. Cushing, M. Bailey, D. Lach, C. Zanocco, G. Orr, P. Drake. 2017.From Visualization to Visual Analytics for Environmental Science. VisWeek 2017 (Paper, Poster TBA), October 1-6, 2017, Phoenix, AZ.

J. B. Cushing, N. Molnar, V. Ratanasangpunth, M. Bailey, J. Bolte, A. Brookes, D. Lach, J. Mangue, B. McKane, G. Orr, Emily Platt, K. Schmal, S. Stafford, C. Thomas, P. Wingo, K. Winters, D. Witherspoon. 2014.  Visualizing Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in 3D.  VisWeek 2014 (Paper (.pdf), Poster, Video, Video Words), November 11-18, 2014, Paris, France.

Papers, presentations, and posters by VISTAS project team:

Cushing, Judith Bayard, Nalini Nadkarni, Barbara Bond, Roman Dial.  How trees and forests inform biodiversity and ecosystem informatics. Computing in Science & Engineering 5:32-43.  This paper describes in part the Canopy Database Project, a precursor of VISTAS.

Judy Cushing.  2011. VISTAS Overview, Evergreen Faculty Symposium, September 2011.

Cushing, J.B. et al: What you see is what you get? Data Visualization Options for Environmental Scientists (poster).  Ecological Informatics Management Conference September 28-29, 2011.

J. Cushing, E. Hayduk, J. Walley, L. Zeman, K. Winters, M. Bailey,  J. Bolte, B. Bond, D. Lach, C. Thomas, S. G. Stafford, and N. Stevenson-Molnar. 2012. (IN?)Extricable Links between Data and Visualization. SSDBM June 2012, 613-617.

Judith B. Cushing, E. Hayduk, J. Walley, K. Winters, D. Lach, M. Bailey, S. G. Stafford, Christoph Thomas. 2012. Which Visualizations Work, for What Purpose, for Whom?  Evaluating Visualizations of Terrestrial and Aquatic SystemsBELIV ’12 (VisWeek October 14 – 15, 2012, Seattle, WA, USA).
(
Selected for Proceedings of the 2012 BELIV Workshop: Beyond Time and Errors – Novel Evaluation Methods for Visualization ACM.doi>10.1145/2442576.2442579 )

J. B. Cushing, N. Molnar, V. Ratanasangpunth, M. Bailey, J. Bolte, A. Brookes, D. Lach, J. Mangue, B. McKane, G. Orr, Emily Platt, K. Schmal, S. Stafford, C. Thomas, P. Wingo, K. Winters, D. Witherspoon. 2014.  Visualizing Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in 3D.  VisWeek 2014 (Paper (.pdf), Poster, Video, Video Words), November 11-18, 2014, Paris, France.

J.B. Cushing, K. Winters, D. Lach.  2015. “Software for Scientists facing Wicked Problems Lessons from the VISTAS Project,” 16th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, dg.o, Phoenix, AZ, May 27-30, 2015.
(Selected as a “best paper”, for submission to Information Polity – Winters 2016.)

J. B. Cushing, N. Molnar, T. Mutch, M. Bailey, D. Lach, J. Bolte, J. Halama, C. Thomas, K. Winters, K. Winters, C. Zanocco, G. Orr, R. McKane, A. Brookes, S. Stafford.  Visualizing Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in 3D – Stills, Fly-throughs and Animations of Complex Topography . Poster and Demo: H.J. Andrews LTER Annual Symposium, Corvallis OR. May, 2016.

J. B. Cushing, D. Bachelet, N. Molnar, T. Mutch, M. Bailey, D. Lach, J. Orr, K. Winters, C. Zanocco. Visualizing Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in 3D – Learning about Climate Change on Tribal Trust Lands?  Poster and Demo: Teaching Native Cases Institute, Little Creek, WA.,  June 18-19, 2016.

Judith B. Cushing, Nik Molnar, Ken Ferschweiller, Mike Bailey, Denise Lach, Chad Zanocco. Visualizing Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems in 3D, Poster presented at the NW Database Society Annual Meeting, Seattle WA, January 5, 2018.

Judith B. Cushing, Denise Lach, Chad Zanocco, Jonathan Halama.  Scientific Visualization and Reproducibility for “Open” Environmental Science.  Paper presented at Open Science in Big Data Workshop, IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Seattle WA.  December 10-13, 2018.  (Slides)

Haduk, E, J Walley, J Cushing, K. Winters, M Rao.   2012 How Ecologists “Visualize” Research Results in Publications:VISTAS Project Ecology Journal Survey, Poster, Ecological Society of American Annual Conference, Portland OR, 2012.

Jonathan J. Halama, Penumbra: A Spatiotemporal Shade – Irradiance Analysis Tool with External Model Integration for Landscape Assessment, Habitat Enhancement, and Water Quality Improvement.  Ph.D. Dissertation, Oregon State University, January, 2017.   Jonathan’s thesis contains a number of VISTAS visualizations to “present stand-alone results…, which fluently renders the complex light phenomena that Penumbra simulates (Cushing et al., 2015)” (p. 11).

Hayduk, E, J Walley, J Cushing, K. Winters, M Rao.   2012. How Ecologists “Visualize” Research Results in Publications:VISTAS Project Ecology Journal Survey, Abstract, Poster. 97th ESA (Ecological Society of America) Annual Convention, Portland OR, 2012.

Evan Hayduk.  Using LiDAR Data to Estimate Effective Leaf Area Index,Determine Biometricsand Visualize Canopy Structure in a Central Oregon Forest with Complex Terrain.  Master’s Thesis (Environmental Studies, The Evergreen State College) December, 2012.    (Evan worked with VISTAS Collaborators Fox Peterson, Barbara Bond, and others at the HJ Andrews LTER, and was supported by VISTAS).  Figures 37-55 of the thesis contain VISTAS visualization prototypes created using FUSION and TreeVaW.)

D. Lach, J.B. Cushing.  2015.  Engaging Researchers and Decision Makers to Develop Usable Climate Information. Plenary Panel: 16th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, dg.o  Phoenix, AZ, May 27-30, 2015.

J. Mullins,S. Richardson, P. Drake.  Identifying Clouds with Convolutional Neural Networks (poster).  Lewis & Clark Summer Student Research Forum.  August 2017.  See also GitHub Code Repository.

T. Mutch, N. Molnar, J. B. Cushing, M. Bailey, D. Lach, C. Zanocco, G. Orr, P. Drake. 2017. From Visualization to Visual Analytics for Environmental Science. VisWeek 2017 (Paper, Poster, Video), October 1-6, 2017, Phoenix, AZ.

Myers, James D., Judith B. Cushing, Peter Lynn, Noah Weiner, Anna Ovchinnikova, Nalini Nadkarni, Anne McIntosh. 2015.  Curating and Preserving the Big Canopy Database System: An Active Curation Approach using SEAD.  Poster: AGU, IN13A-1827, Fall, 2015.

Peters, Debra P. C., K. M. Havstad, J. Cushing, C. Tweedie, O. Fuentas, N. Villanueva-Rosales. 2014.  Harnessing the power of big data: infusing the scientific method with machine learning to transform ecology, ESA Ecosphere, 5 June 2014.  DOI 10.1890/ES13-00359.1

Peters, D. P.C., J. B. Cushing, K. M. Havstad, C. Tweedie, O. Fuentas, N. Villanueva-Rosales. Revised from Peters (below).  Infusing the Scientific Method with Machine Learning in Ecology (paper).  Workshop on Data Systems for Interactive Analysis.  VisWeek 2015 .

Peterson, Fox, E. Hayduk, J.B. Cushing.  2013.  Cataloging and Visualizing Complex Forest Stands Using LiDAR Data.  Poster and Presentation,  NW Scientific Association Annual Conference, Portland OR, March 2013.

Kendra A. Schmal, 2013. Visualizing wind flow at H.J. Andrews Long Term Ecological Research Forest, Senior Thesis, Willamette University, December 9, 2013.

K.A. Schmal, C. Thomas, J. Cushing, G. Orr. 2015.  Visualizing Valley Wind Flow.  SigGraph 2015.  Paper, Poster Presentation.

Susan Stafford, Judith Cushing, Theresa Valentine. 2015.  3D Scientific Visualization (Terrain Mapping) for ecological and environmental research and outreach  
Final Report.  LTER All Scientists Meeting (Working Group), Estes Park CO, August 30-September 3, 2015.  Final Report.  See Documents relating to the Working Group (Agenda, Participant Questionnaire, etc.).

Walley, Jerilyn.  VALLEY CIRCULATION EXPERIMENT:A CLASSIFICATION OF WIND FLOW IN THE H.J. ANDREWS EXPERIMENTAL FOREST  Master’s Thesis (Environmental Studies, The Evergreen State College) June, 2013.    Here are some sample visualizations from Jerilyn’s thesis presentation (Jerilyn worked with VISTAS Collaborator Christoph Thomas, and was supported by VISTAS).

Winters K. (2012). Mental model interviewing. Oral presentation, Social Coasts Forum, Charleston, SC.  See Mental Models Interviewing for More-Effective Communication (A Primer) by Joe Cone and Kirsten Winters (Oregon Sea Grant) 2011 Oregon State University.

Winters, K. 2013. “The VISTAS Project: Creating Tools for Visualizing Big Data.”   Oral presentation, International Symposium on Society and Resource Management (ISSRM), Estes Park, CO.

Winters, K., Lach, D., Cushing, J. 2014. Considerations for Characterizing Domain Problems, BELIV ’14, IEEE VisWeek, Nov.10 2014, Paris, France.  Presentation Notes.
(Selected for Special Issue of Information Visualization – see Winters 2015.)

K. Winters.  Visualization in environmental science, Ph.D. Dissertation, Oregon State University, Janaury 2015.

Winters Kirsten M., Denise Lach, Judith B. Cushing.  A conceptual model for characterizing the problem domain”, (near fnal copy only) Information Visualization, vol. 15:4. October 8, 2015.  pp. 301-11. doi: 1473871615608902 

K. Winters, J.B. Cushing, D. Lach.  Designing visualization software for super-wicked problemsInformation Polity 21 (2016) 399-409. DOI 10.3233/IP-160400. IOS Press.

Witherspoon, Dani (Evergreen Undergraduate).  2014.  Where is the Toad?  Submitted to Creative Geography.

Zanocco, C., J.B. Cushing, M. Bailey, D. Lach, N. Molnar, T. Mutch, J. Orr, P. Drake. VISTAS:  Visualization of Terrestrial  & Aquatic Systems – Exploring data on topographically complex landscapes.  Invited presentation,  Exploring Visualization Tools for Communicating Natural Resource Management Information (Visualization Tools Forum sponsored by the USFS Region 6 Landscape Architecture and Ecology Programs and the USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station), Portland State University Visualization Studio.  April 19, 2017.

Zanocco, Chad, Judy Cushing, Denise Lach, Nik Molnar.  2017y.  Connecting Communities Through Data, Visualizations & Decisions Visualization for Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems (VISTAS).   Poster and Video (Sample Visualizations at 2:47, 3:34, 4:08, 4:30.) for the 8th Annual Cyber-Physical Systems PI’s Meeting, Alexandria, VA.  November 13-14, 2017.

Zanocco, Chad, Denise Lach, Judith Cushing.  Co-producing software for complex environmental data visualization.  Doctoral Colloquium, 19th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, Delft, Netherlands.  May 30-June 1, 2018.

Zanocco, Chad. Co-producing Software for Environmental and Ecological Visualization, Ph.D. Dissertation, Oregon State University, 2019.

Other (as yet unpublished) Papers

K. Winters, J Cushing, Lach, D, Haduk, E, J Walley.   (in preparation).  Visualization in Ecology.  State of Practice:  How Ecologists use Visualizations in Publications: Journal Survey.

J Cushing, K. Winters, Lach, D, Stafford, S., Valentine T.   (in preparation).  Visualization in Ecology.  State of the Art:  Visualization Strategies for Environmental Science. Introduction.

Chad Zanocco, Denise Lach, Judith Cushing, Jonathan Halama, Nik Molnar.  Too Many Buttons–Why Not Domain-Specific Scientific Visualization?  (A Case Study).  2019.

Judith Cushing, Denise Lach, Chad Zanocco, Jonathan Halama.  Scientific Visualization and Replication in Environmental Science (revised version of 2018 OSDB Big Data paper).  2019.