IFPRI senior researcher Gerald Nelson received an award yesterday at a major gathering of agricultural economists for an innovative 1997 publication that demonstrates how satellite images and other geographic data can be used to predict land use.
The paper, Do Roads Cause Deforestation? Using Satellite Images in Econometric Analysis of Land Use, which Nelson wrote with Daniel Hellerstein, outlines techniques for turning satellite imagery into economic data, opening up a vast, unexploited data set for the analysis of environmental issues.
He and Hellerstein received the Publication of Enduring Quality Award on Monday, July 25 in Pittsburgh at a ceremony during the AAEA and NAREA Joint Annual Meeting (July 24-26).