Department of Botany

College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources

Education

• Ph D: Forestry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 2002
• M S: Environmental Science & Policy, University of Wisconsin Green Bay, 1995
• M Phil: Environmental Science, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India, 1992
• M Sc: Environmental Studies, Cochin University of Science & Technology, India, 1990

• B Sc: Physics, PSG College of Arts & Science, Coimbatore, India, 1987 

Courses 

• BOT5130/4130: Remote Sensing for Agricultural Management
• BOT5150: Research in Remote Sensing
• ENR3900: Environmental & Social Issues of the Developing World Seminar

• RNEW 4990: Digital Image Processing for Natural Resource Management

Research Emphasis

Use of remotely sensed data collected from aerial and satellite platforms for mapping and monitoring natural resources.

Current Research Projects

Mapping Wyoming shrublands with aerial and satellite imagery
Mapping locust habitats in Central Asia with satellite imagery
Monitoring crop growth using high resolution aerial imagery
Mapping and monitoring water bodies using satellite imagery and data fusion methods.

Selected Publications

Sivanpillai, R., Claypool, D.A., Siloju, R., 2012. Relating AEROCam-derived NDVI to apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) for corn fields in Wyoming, USA.  Remote Sensing Letters 3(1):49-56

Edmunds, J., Tootle, G., Kerr, G., Sivanpillai, R., Pochop, L., 2012.  Glacier variability (1967-2006) in the Teton Range, Wyoming, USA.  Journal of the American Water Resources Association (Article in press: DOI: 10.1111 ⁄ j.1752-1688.2011.00607.x)

Zhang, X., Kim, H., Streeter, C., Claypool D.A., Sivanpillai, R., Seelan, S. Near Real-Time Meter-Resolution Airborne Imagery for Precision Agriculture: AEROCam. GeoCarto International (Article in press: DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2011.600463) 

Sivanpillai, R., Miller, S.N., 2010. Improvements in mapping water bodies using ASTER satellite data. Ecological informatics 5(1):73-78 

Sivanpillai, R., Prager, S.D., Storey, T.O., 2009.  Estimating sagebrush cover in semi-arid environments using Landsat data.  International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 11(2):102-106