UMD Scientist Awarded $1.2M to Monitor Tropical Land-Use Change

A University of Maryland researcher has received a $1.2 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to advance global monitoring of tropical land cover and assess patterns of land-use change.

The foundation, which supports scientific discovery and environmental conservation, has a long history of funding projects that address global challenges and promote sustainable practices. The Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) lab, led by Department of Geographical Sciences Professor Matthew Hansen, will implement the research.

Hansen and his team will use satellite data to track how forests and other natural areas across the tropics are being cleared for crops such as soybeans in Brazil and palm oil in Indonesia, mining and other uses.

“These conversions occur at the expense of important natural capital, such as rainforests that harbor the highest terrestrial biodiversity, regulate climate and are home to Indigenous populations,” he said.

The project is part of the foundation’s Conservation and Markets Initiative, which aims to separate commodity production from deforestation. Hansen’s team is collaborating with a wide network of researchers including economists, conservation biologists and other remote sensing scientists who study where commodities are grown, where they end up and how those supply chains affect forests.

In the project’s first phase, running through early next year, the team will build an integrated land-use mapping system that depicts tropical drivers of conversion, including forestry, surface mining, pasture, sugar cane and rice cultivation. It will show when and where land is being converted, and augment current data sets being made by the GLAD team.

The results will support policies such as the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation as well as the industry commitments that seek to limit sourcing products from newly cleared lands, Hansen said.

This article by Renata Johnson was published in Maryland Today

Published on Fri, Oct 24, 2025 - 10:00AM