Research interests focus on land use change and its effects on ecosystems and on human vulnerability. This work connects a computer-based simulation (e.g., agent-based modeling) of land-use-change processes with GIS and remote sensing based data on historical patterns of landscape change and social surveys. We are working to couple these models with GIS-based data and other models to evaluate consequences of change. We are also working to understand the ways in which land-use decisions are made. Collaborative research investigate the effects of spatial and social neighborhoods on the physical and social risks on human health.

Though most of my earlier work has been in the US, my work is becoming increasingly international, with projects in China, Africa, and India.

Research on land-cover and land-use change is funded by the NASA Land-Cover Land-Use Change Program and by programs at the National Science Foundation on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) and the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) and conducted in collaboration with colleagues in SNRE and in the Center for the Study of Complex Systems. Research on spatial aspects of public health is conducted in collaboration with colleagues in the School of Public Health and funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Teaching Interests

Teaching on conceptual and practical aspects of geographic information system (GIS), spatial analysis and modeling, and remote sensing applied to ecological and environmental questions, especially landscape ecology.

Current/Recent Teaching

• Principles of GIS
• Environmental Spatial Data Analysis
• GIS and Landscape Modeling
• GIScience Seminar

Selected Publications

• Robinson, D.T., Brown, D.G., and Currie, W. 2009. Modelling carbon storage in highly fragmented and human-dominate landscapes: Linking land-cover patterns and ecosystem models. Ecological Modelling, 220(9-10): 1325-1338.
• Qi, S., Brown, D.G., Tian, Q., Jiang, L. Zhao, T., and Bergen, K. 2009.  Inundation extent and flood frequency mapping for the Poyang Lake, China, floodplain using Landsat TM and DEM.  GIScience and Remote Sensing, 26(2): 256-367.
• Peterson, L., Bergen, K.M., Brown, D.G., Vaschuk, L., and Blam, Y. 2009. Forested land-cover patterns and trends over changing forest management areas in the Siberian Baikal Region. Forest Ecology and Management, 257: 911-922.
• Zellner, M.L., Page, S.E., Rand, W., Brown, D.G., Robinson, D.T., Nassauer, J., and Low, B. 2009. The emergence of zoning policy games in exurban jurisdictions: Informing collective action theory. Land Use Policy, 26(2): 256-367.
• Jiang, L., Bergen, K.M., Brown, D.G., Zhao, T., Tian, Q., and Qi, S., 2008. Land-cover change and vulnerability to flooding near Poyang Lake, Jiangxi Province, China. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 74(6): 775-786.
• An, L. and Brown, D.G. 2008. Survival analysis in land-change science: Integrating with GIS and remote sensing in Southeastern Michigan. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98(2): forthcoming.
• Brown, D.G., Robinson, D.T., An, L., Nassauer, J.I., Zellner, M., Rand, W., Riolo, R., Page, S.E., and Low, B. 2008. Exurbia from the bottom up: Confronting empirical challenges to characterizing complex systems. GeoForum, 39(2): 805-818.
• Zhao, T., Brown, D.G., and Bergen, K.M. 2007. Increasing gross primary production (GPP) in the urbanizing landscape of Southeastern Michigan. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 73(10):1159-1168.
• Duh, J.D., and Brown, D.G. 2007. Knowledge-informed Pareto simulated annealing for multi-objective spatial allocation. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 31(3): 253–281.
• Burnicki, A., Brown, D.G., and Goovaerts, P. 2007. Error propagation in land-cover change analysis: The implications of temporal dependence. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 31(3):282-302.
• Robinson, D.T., Brown, D.G., Parker, D.C., Schreinemachers, P., Janssen, M.A., Huigen, M., Wittmer, H., Gotts, N., Promburom, P. Irwin, E., Berger, T., Gatzweiler, F., and Barnaud, C. 2007. Comparison of empirical methods for building agent-based models of land and resource use. Journal of Land Use Science, 2(1): 31-55.
• Brown, D.G., Robinson, D.T. 2006. Effects of heterogeneity in preferences on an agent-based model of urban sprawl. Ecology and Society, 11(1): 46. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art46/
• Brown, D.G., Johnson, K.M., Loveland, T.R., and Theobald, D.M. 2005. Rural land use change in the conterminous U.S., 1950-2000. Ecological Applications, 15(6): 1851–1863.
• Bergen, K.M., Brown, D.G., Rutherford, J.F., and Gustafson, E.J. 2005. Change detection with heterogeneous data using ecoregional stratification, statistical summaries and a land allocation algorithm. Remote Sensing of Environment, 97: 434-446.
• Brown, D.G., Riolo, R., Robinson, D.T., North, M., and Rand, W. 2005. Spatial process and data models: Toward integration of agent-based models and GIS. Journal of Geographical Systems, 7(1): 25-47.
• Brown, D.G., Page, S.E., Riolo, R.L., Zellner, M., and Rand, W. 2005. Path dependence and the validation of agent-based spatial models of land-use. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 19(2): 153-174.
• Brown, D.G., Page, S.E., Riolo, R.L., and Rand, W. 2004. Agent based and analytical modeling to evaluate the effectiveness of greenbelts. Environmental Modelling and Software, 19(12): 1097-1109.
• Brown, D.G. and Duh, J.-D. 2004. Spatial simulation for translating between land use and land cover. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 18(1): 35-60.
• Brown, D.G. 2003. Land use and forest cover in private parcels in the Upper Midwest USA, 1970-1990. Landscape Ecology, 18(8): 777-790.