We use informatics and geospatial information technology to enhance community resilience, improve public health, and promote sustainability

The growing global population and climate change pose new challenges to communities worldwide. For example, wildfires have caused significant loss of life and property in the wildland-urban interface communities in many countries (e.g., the U.S., Chile, Canada, Australia, and Greece) in recent years; many coaster communites are suffering from an increasing risk of hurricanes (tropical cyclones) and sea level rise. The rapid development of informatics and geospatial information technology provides new opportunities to address these problems. 

The Disaster Informatics and Geospatial Information Technology (DIGIT) Lab is a research group in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Alabama. ​Our research group is dedicated to employing informatics (e.g., software engineering, machine learning, and mobile computing) and geospatial information technology (e.g., GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis) to address the pressing problems our communities are facing today. We are working closely with community stakeholders to conduct community-engaged research and maximize the impacts of our research. Although our current research is focused on the communities in the U.S., we try to promote open science (e.g., open data and open-source software) to make our research outcomes more transferrable. You can check the Research page for more information on our research areas. 

Besides research, we are also dedicated to training the next generation of GIS professionals at the University of Alabama. Our lab offers advanced GIS courses such as Web GIS and Spatial Databases to help the students be well-prepared for job hunting. The students in our lab will receive systematic training in informatics and geospatial information technology. Our graduates are very competitive on the job market. ​

Are you enthusiastic about informatics and geospatial information technology? Do you want to use modern information technology to save people’s lives in disasters, protect the environment, and build more sustainable communities?  If so, consider joining the DIGIT Lab! Please check the Opportunities page for more information.