As a graduate student in 1966, Armond Joyce traveled to Costa
Rica to participate in an advanced research project involving
the detailed measurements of vegetation on 46 forest sites.
Aerial photography was taken of each site, the interpretation
of which played an important role in Joyce's master's and doctoral
research. More than 30 years later, Joyce, an adjunct associate
professor of Geography from the University of New Orleans, was
awarded a Fulbright grant to revisit the forest sites, determine
how they had changed and collect socio-economic information
relevant to land use modeling.
The research component of Joyce's grant involved comparing
the 1966 data to more recent data gathered from satellite imagery
of the same forest. Documentation of the composition of the
forest three decades ago made it possible for Joyce and his
host country colleagues to determine how the forest had changed
and how the use of the land had evolved over the years. Determining
patterns of land usage is important in the creation of models
that predict how the forest will change in the future. Joyce
and his colleagues worked at drawing connections between the
social, economic and political changes in Costa Rica and the
modifications in land use and preservation. Determining and
revisiting the location of the undisturbed sites of the original
46 made it possible to target those areas for future collaborative
research projects between the University of New Orleans and
Joyce's host institutions. Joyce plans for continued collaboration
with both of his faculty hosts, Dr. Edgar Oritz at the Technological
Institute of Costa Rica and Dr. Carlos Quesada at the University
of Costa Rica.
In addition to working directly with the students and faculty
at the University of Costa Rica and at the Technological Institute
of Costa Rica in the interpretation of data from satellite imagery,
Joyce taught courses in the use of satellite remote sensing
for environmental monitoring
