ISSE Staff
Thomas E. Burley
Research Associate, Environmental Sustainability Program
Office Phone: (865) 974-4086
Email: tburley@utk.edu
B.A. (Cum Laude), Geography, University of Tennessee
B.S. (Cum Laude), Business Admin. – Marketing, Logistics, and Transportation, University of Tennessee
Thomas Burley has been a full-time Research Associate with the University of Tennessee since January 2005. Mr. Burley is a geographer with a broad background in human and physical geography as well as the logistics and transportation/supply chain management field. Mr. Burley’s current work and interests encompass geospatial applications and GIScience; standards and data management; and the connections between anthropogenic environmental impacts and water resources. He is currently working with the National Biological Information Infrastructure-Southern Appalachian Information Node (NBII-SAIN) program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on biological informatics and natural resource focused projects. He also co-conducts workshops with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)/NBII Metadata Training Program.
Mr. Burley is also currently completing a Master of Science degree in Geography at the University of Tennessee. His graduate work entails an analysis of the spatiotemporal variations of water quality and their connection with land-cover change in two Tennessee watersheds.
His hobbies include spending time with his fiancé and their two cats, golf (both regular and disc), weightlifting, and playing drums with local musicians.
Current Project Info
Data and Information Management for Adaptive Management of the Roan Mountain Massif
The NBII-SAIN Roan Mountain project addresses a long-standing critical need for a standard methodology approach for management of biological, geospatial, and management data and information on Roan Mountain, a high elevation hotspot of rare and threatened species. The Data Management Toolkit is meant to address common data and information management issues associated with geospatial and natural resource initiatives. Elements of the toolkit include data and project management fundamentals, spatial data considerations, FGDC-NBII compliant metadata creation and proper documentation, an approach for data modeling, data acquisition specifications for promoting interoperability of datasets between project partners, Quality Assurance/Quality Control procedures and methodology, as well as data stewardship considerations.
The Data Management Toolkit can be found here: NBII-SAIN Data Management Toolkit
An Analysis of Spatiotemporal Variations of Water Quality in the Little River Watershed and Their Connection with Land-Cover Change
Understanding the temporal and spatial patterns in water quality and their relationship with land-cover change is imperative for the development and implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). This study will develop an analysis framework to address those issues in support of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) TMDL program. The framework includes three components: (1) a systematic scheme including a set of multivariate statistical techniques to analyze the temporal and spatial patterns in water quality; (2) practical and effective remote-sensing techniques for land-cover change detection suitable for TMDL purposes; and (3) models that relate water quality to land cover. In tangible terms, the proposed study will enhance the TMDL program in the Little River and Harpeth River watersheds. Methodologically, the comprehensive analysis framework developed in this study will benefit TMDL efforts at other watershed in Tennessee in terms of cost-benefit and integrated science.