Di Vittorio Lab

Remote Sensing and Hydrologic Modeling to Support Water Resources Management

Wake Forest University - Department of Engineering

Example of estimating Chlorophyll-a from satellite imagery

Google Earth Engine App that allows users to interact with and analyze satellite-derived Chl-a estimates

Google Earth Engine App that allows users to view land cover changes in US Atlantic and Gulf Coast wetlands from 1985 to 2022

Our Work

The amount and quality of publicly available satellite-based information is increasing rapidly, and exciting opportunities exist to use this information to manage our water resources more proactively and sustainably. The successful adoption of satellite data into decision-making processes requires an iterative research approach that is guided by collaboration with stakeholders and water managers. We therefore strive to make satellite-based products and tools that provide relevant information in the context of current policy and regulation. We engage stakeholders throughout the research and design process with the hope that they integrate these products and tools into operational management procedures.

The Di Vittorio lab works in three separate but interrelated areas of research: the development of satellite-based data products, new hydrologic modeling and calibration procedures, and decision support for water management. While an individual research project may focus on one of these areas, we try to connect them through stakeholder-driven applications. We currently have three active research projects: a large-scale study of coastal marsh changes on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts that will inform global ocean-climate models, a local application of satellite imagery for improved lake water quality monitoring and management, and a statistics-focused project that aims to develop a new spatiotemporal Bayesian model for categorical data that will be applied to forecast the US Drought Monitor.

Dr. Di Vittorio is also a member of the HydroLearn management team and works with faculty fellows to create and disseminate high-quality open-source learning materials on hydrology and water resources engineering topics. HydroLearn is currently supported by CIROH and new modules are being developed for river forecasters to help bridge the gap between research and operations.

Wake Forest University is committed to the Teacher-Scholar Ideal, where research is integrated into undergraduate education. Our research team is therefore composed of scholars at various levels, but many of them are undergraduate research students. We align our research with the University motto, "Pro Humanitate (For Humanity)", a calling to use knowledge, talents, and compassion to better the lives of others. The Di Vittorio Lab strives to produce research-based products that ultimately benefit humanity, through the lens of social, environmental, and economic impacts. Pro Humanitate is also integrated into the Engineering curriculum and the courses we design; we teach students technical skills in the context of real-life applications that have societal impact.

Updates & Announcements

Dr. Di Vittorio worked with an interdisciplinary team to run another HydroLearn Hackathon event (Jan 6 - 10, 2025), where 18 fellows developed 9 new high-quality education and training materials focused on operational hydrologic forecasting. The modules use Hurricane Helene as a case study, emphasizing the need for enhancing prediction capabilities and modeling extreme events. This effort is funded by CIROH.
Eden Wasehun (from NC A&T) led the publication of a new manuscript in Ecological Informatics, focused on a comparative analysis of Sentinel-2 and PlanetScope imagery for chlorophyll-a predictions in inland water bodies. This research is part of the North Carolina lake water quality monitoring project.
WFU graduate statistics student Saeed Movahedi and undergraduate engineering student Scarlett Johnson join Dr. Di Vittorio at the 2025 Fall AGU in Washington D.C.
The Di Vittorio lab releases a new coastal wetland change data product for the US Atlantic and Gulf Coasts! This was a highly collaborative effort that engaged several WFU graduate and undergraduate students. View and interact with the data on the Google Earth Engine web application, and read about the methodology in the manuscript published in Remote Sensing of Environment: Applicaitons to Society.
Dr. Yasin Rabby and Dr. Di Vittorio published a paper in the Wetlands Ecology and Management journal that compares US national wetland inventories to guide managers on mapping changes in wetland land cover.
The drought research team (WFU Statistics and WFU Engineering) published a paper on a new dataset they developed to support data-driven drought modeling in Nature Scientific Data.
Dr. Di Vittorio joins the Yadkin Riverkeeper Advisory Board
Eden Wasehun, NCAT PhD student working on the lake water quality project, publishes a new paper in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment that reviews UAV and satellite remote sensing for inland water quality assessments
Dr. Di Vittorio joins the North Carolina Lake Management Society Board
Dr. Di Vittorio, Michael Moerk, and Bill Kreutzberger co-author a publication in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association, titled Enhancing perspectives on lake impairments using satellite observations: A case study on High Rock Lake, North Carolina.
Former graduate research assistant Bailey Hill, in collaboration with Brandon Gesser, releases a short film documenting our in-situ water quality sampling campaigns at High Rock Lake, NC.
Dr. Di Vittorio & Dr. Young contribute High Rock Lake water quality data collected to a global database that will be used to develop satellite-based water quality models, called GLORIA. Check out the journal article and blog post.
Summer undergraduate research fellows Amelia Suhocki and Michael Huang were featured by Wake Forest University for their work on the lake water quality project. Check out this video they made
April 2022: In collaboration with WFU Statisticians Dr. Rob Erhardt and Dr. Staci Hepler, and Engineering professor Dr. Lauren Lowman, Dr. Di Vittorio receives an NSF grant to create better drought prediction tools.
Dr. Di Vittorio presents research on High Rock Lake water quality at the 2021 Fall AGU. See the full recorded presentation here.
November 2021: New study on trends of Ammonia Air Pollution in Africa published in Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Dr. Di Vittorio co-authored this work and contributed to findings on how the Sudd Wetland flooding cycles impact ammonia concentrations. See the NASA press release.
October 2021: The Di Vittorio Lab, in collaboration with Dr. Kyana Young (WFU Engineering), Dr. Chris Zarzar (NCCU), and Dr. Leila Hashemi Beni (NCAT) is being awarded a $250,000 Environmental Enhancement Grant from the Attorney General's Office. This project will engage the Yadkin Riverkeeper and the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin Association in nutrient management planning while educating and empowering young citizen scientists.
September 2021: "Hydrologic Modeling of the Sudd Wetland Using Satellite Based Data" (Di Vittorio and Georgakakos) was published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.
July 2021: Dr. Yasin Rabby joins the Di Vittorio lab as a postdoctoral research scholar to work on NASA coastal marsh project.
April 2021: Wake Forest Engineering graduates inaugural class - see Regan O'Donnell's speech at convocation
April 2021: Dr. Di Vittorio wins a $550,000 grant in collaboration with NASA scientists to study coastal marsh changes and implications for global ocean and climate modeling.
July 2020: Dr. Di Vittorio wins a pilot grant to study water quality at High Rock Lake using satellite and UAS imagery.
July 2020: Di Vittorio Lab installs CrowdHydrology stream gauge at Lake Katharine, on Wake Forest's Campus.
June 2020: Dr. Di Vittorio releases HydroLearn Module - a project-based education module that teaches students how to model rainfall-runoff processes using PCSWMM. This was developed in collaboration with Mr. Di Vittorio and Dr. Zhudi Aljobeh through an NSF-sponsored Summer Hackathon.

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