Sabrina Szeto

Sabrina Szeto

Geospatial Consultant + Business Owner

Posts by Collection

portfolio

Stratifi

Cloudbased stratification app for generating sampling points built on Google Earth Engine. Co-developed by Charlie Bettigole.

publications

Reimaging the potential of earth observations for ecosystem services assessments

Published in Science of the Total Environment, 2019

The benefits nature provides to people, called ecosystem services, are increasingly recognized and accounted for in assessments of infrastructure development, agricultural management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable sourcing. These assessments are often limited by data, however, a gap with tremendous potential to be filled through Earth observations (EO), which produce a variety of data across spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Despite widespread recognition of this potential, in practice few ecosystem services studies use EO. Here we identify challenges and opportunities to using EO in ecosystem services modeling and assessment. Some challenges are technical, related to data awareness, processing, and access. These challenges require systematic investment in model platforms and data management. Other challenges are more conceptual but still systemic; they are byproducts of the structure of existing ecosystem services models and addressing them requires scientific investment in solutions and tools applicable to a wide range of models and approaches. We also highlight new ways in which EO can be leveraged for ecosystem services assessments, identifying promising new areas of research. More widespread use of EO for ecosystem services assessment will only be achieved if all of these types of challenges are addressed. This will require non-traditional funding and partnering opportunities from private and public agencies to promote data exploration, sharing, and archiving. Investing in this integration will be reflected in better and more accurate ecosystem services assessments worldwide.

Recommended citation: Carlos Ramirez-Reyes, Kate A. Brauman, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Gillian L. Galford, Susana B. Adamo, Christopher B. Anderson, Clarissa Anderson, Ginger R.H. Allington, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Michael T. Coe, Anna F. Cord, Laura E. Dee, Rachelle K. Gould, Meha Jain, Virginia A. Kowal, Frank E. Muller-Karger, Jessica Norriss, Peter Potapov, Jiangxiao Qiu, Jesse T. Rieb, Brian E. Robinson, Leah H. Samberg, Nagendra Singh, Sabrina H. Szeto, Brian Voigt, Keri Watson, T. Maxwell Wright, Reimagining the potential of Earth observations for ecosystem service assessments, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 665, 2019, Pages 1053-1063, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.150 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.150

talks

Google Earth Engine Lightning Talks @ Connecticut GIS Day

Published:

I organized and led an Earth Engine Lightning Talk session during Connecticut GIS Day in November 2017 where presenters shared their work using the Google Earth Engine platform. Co-organizers include Tirthankar “TC” Chakraborty and Diego Ellis Soto.

GIS and Remote Sensing Lightning Talks @ Yale GIS Day

Published:

I organized and introduced a Lightning Talk session at Yale GIS Day 2018 that showcased work done by students and researchers at Yale. A diversity of platforms and software were featured including ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, R, Circuitscape and more. Co-organizers include Natalie Schultz and Tirthankar “TC” Chakraborty.

Spatial Fair @ Yale GIS Day

Published:

I convened the first-ever Spatial Fair at Yale University that brought together programs and lab groups who use geospatial and remote sensing analysis in their work. Co-convener: Natalie Schultz (Yale Center for Earth Observation)

GeoMeet @ Geo for Good Summit

Published:

Women in Geospatial and Ladies of Landsat co-organized a geospatial career networking session for participants at Google’s Geo for Good Summit. Over 60 people attended over the course of the one-hour session.

teaching

Google Earth Engine

Guest Lecture, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 2019

  • Taught an 1 hour introductory class on Google Earth Engine with TC Chakraborty. About 30 graduate and undergraduate students were attending.