My name is Ben Sleeter. I am a Research Geographer at the U.S. Geological Survey where I lead a small team of scientists conducting a variety of scientific research focused on understanding changes in land use and land cover and how those changes affect various ecosystem processes. My research relies heavily on observations collected from the Landsat series of satellites, which have been providing continuous monitoring of the Earth’s surface since the early 1970s. Landsat data are then interpreted, using a rare of manual and automated methods, to characterize how the Earth’s surface is changing due to natural and human processes.
Recently, a large portion of my work has focused on developing a modeling framework called LUCAS, short for the Land Use and Carbon Scenario Simulator. I developed LUCAS to help understand how future changes in land use and land cover might impact the ability of ecosystems store carbon. You can read more about my research here. The LUCAS model has been used in a wide variety of applications and across different spatial and temporal scales. LUCAS was recently used to assess future changes in land use and carbon storage for the State of Hawaii in support of the USGS Biological Carbon Sequestration Assessment. I have also used LUCAS to develop future land use projections for the State of California in support of the state’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment. Those projections are now being used to model ecosystem carbon storage and flux across a range of alternative climate and land use change scenarios. In another project, LUCAS was used to project changes in exposure the tsunami hazards along the pacific coast of the United States. You can read more about my current research projects here.
Outside of work I am the very proud father of two awesome boys, Matthew and Daniel. We spend a lot of time playing baseball, football, soccer and in the winter skiing.
The views expressed on this website are my own and do not reflect those of the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Interior or the Federal government.