ApexRMS

Well it’s a wrap! My first AGU conference is over. What an experience! Key takeaways: ➡️ 35,000 people at #AGU24… I never thought I would enjoy a megaconference so have tended to avoid ones even close to this size. But I was actually pleasantly surprised to discover a major upside: so many attend that you are bound to find people you know! I spent much of my time reconnecting with folks that without the conference I would not have reached out to. ➡️ I kind of drew the short straw with my poster logistics – an 8:30am session in the far corner of a massive hall. Traffic was slow. But as they say, it only takes one meaningful connection to make it all worthwhile. For me, that moment came when I connected with a representative from the @Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative. A conversation I won’t soon forget! ➡️ The logistics around the conference – at least in D.C. – were amazing. I never felt overwhelmed by the number of people. Great hotel, good food, classic D.C. sights, all within walking distance. All in all I would highly recommend AGU to those who haven't experienced it before. And thanks all of you that I was able to reconnect with! Eric J Ward, PhD Jennifer Costanza Terry Sohl Zhiliang Zhu Sara Murrill Michelle Stern, PhD David Saah Michael Dietze Lisamarie Windham-Myers Kim Wickland

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of facilitating a workshop on land cover change modeling and its role in sustainable land management with members of the Swan River First Nation and Trevor Wiens of Apropos Information Systems Inc. We were hosted by Swan River First Nation and connected with members of the community to listen to their insights into management of their traditional territory. We engaged in meaningful discussions about balancing conservation, traditional land use, and development priorities. Together, we explored #SyncroSim and the LOUIS Toolkit, highlighting their potential for forecasting landscape outcomes and identifying priority areas to protect from industrial resource extraction. We are incredibly grateful for the insights, collaboration, and warm welcome from members of the Swan River First Nation community. Their input will guide future refinements to ensure these tools meet community needs effectively. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to making this workshop a success! #conservation #landmanagement

What happens when ecological journals DON'T have a code-sharing policy? Reproducibility potential is close to zero. In 2020, we showed that studies published in ecological journals WITH a code-sharing policy showed a 21% reproducibility potential at max (Culina et al. 2020, https://lnkd.in/eVm69-Q7) We've now investigated journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy. The results are worrying. We report our results in our new preprint: https://lnkd.in/eeMXyypg Code- and data-sharing in journals WITHOUT a code-sharing policy is as low as 5% and 37%, respectively, severely limiting reproducibility potential. We also looked into software (reporting) predictors of reproducibility and found much room for improvement, something that should be rather easy to fix by authors, journals and founders. Great collaboration with Aya Bezine, Marija Purgar and Antica Culina

ApexRMS will be joining 25,000 other participants from 100+ countries at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Conference in Washington, D.C., this December 9-13. Our president, Colin Daniel, will be showcasing an innovative tool to help predict the carbon impacts of wetland restoration projects. Wetlands can store large amounts of carbon in vegetation and soils, making their restoration a cost-effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Using the Land Use and Carbon Simulator (LUCAS), we’re modeling how restoring wetlands can sequester carbon across the lower 48 states. From National Park Service lands to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetland Reserve Easements in Kentucky and Tennessee, our work is driving smarter land management for a greener future. If you’re at AGU, stop by and connect with us! Do you use LUCAS or any other products to predict the carbon budget of wetlands? #AGU2024 #Carbon #Wetlands

This week, the ApexRMS team was in northern Alberta, collaborating with the local community to discuss plans for sustainable land management. Using #SyncroSim, we’re building a land-change model to forecast how land development, wildfire, and restoration practices shape the landscape over time. We’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from the community and receive great feedback on how to improve our models. More to come in the next few weeks as we share about the invaluable feedback we received. #alberta #wildfire #conservation

A great resource for open science and reproducibility

That’s a wrap! Last week, we had the privilege of co-hosting the Wildfire Risk Modeling using BurnP3+ workshop in Kelowna, BC, alongside the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Canadian Forest Service. We’re thrilled to share that the workshop was a success and feedback from participants has been incredibly encouraging. In this workshop, participants were introduced to BurnP3+, an open-source #SyncroSim package for wildfire risk modeling. We were especially excited to see individuals applying BurnP3+ to their own data and even building their own SyncroSim packages by the final day of the workshop. We’re also pleased by how recent software developments for SyncroSim Studio and the BurnP3+ package have improved the quality and experience of our wildfire modeling workshops. Thank you to our partners at NRCan, our hosts at UBC Okanagan, and all the participants who made this event a success! #WildfireModeling #Forestry #SyncroSim

We are launching a new project with the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust! Starting in early 2025, we are partnering with the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust on an innovative wetland classification project using our soon-to-be-released ecoClassify #SyncroSim package. The project will apply machine learning methods to map wetlands in Haliburton County (Ontario, Canada) using diverse data sources including aerial imagery, digital elevation models, and water flow rates. We are also collaborating with local partners to ground-truth the classifier. This initiative will enhance our understanding of local wetlands by contributing valuable data for conservation efforts. We will share more details as they come in. #Conservation #Wetlands #MachineLearning

A huge win and a model for conservation stewardship with indigenous governments

Yesterday, we participated in a great workshop at University of Toronto Scarborough kicking off a massive project, Toward Sustainable Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture for Net-Zero Food Systems. Our team members Alessandro Filazzola and Hannah Adams presented an initial inventory of urban agriculture for Toronto, sparking a discussion on sustainable agriculture strategies. It was a pleasure connecting with experts across disciplines, all working to make urban agriculture a reality for resilient, net-zero cities. #urban #SustainableFarming #NetZero