Kate Johnson
National Climate Assessment online presence and GIS support
Phone: 828.271.4570
Email: katharine.johnson@ncsu.edu
Orcid: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7530-762X
Biography
Dr. Katharine (Kate) Johnson joined NCICS in October 2019. She has been part of the Assessments Technical Support Unit (TSU) since August 2016, where she supports the National Climate Assessment and sustained assessment activities as a web developer and GIS specialist. With other members of the web team, Kate has developed websites and provided technical support for several reports, including the Fourth and Fifth National Climate Assessments and NOAA’s State Climate Summaries.
Kate began her career path as a field archaeologist after double majoring in Anthropology and Art History at the University of Rhode Island for her bachelor’s degree (2006). She worked on field crews for various projects in New England and Iceland while working towards her MA in Historical Archaeology at UMass Boston (2009). While there, she began learning GIS and eventually earned her GIS Certificate (2011) while working for the Massachusetts Historical Commission in their GIS lab. Kate went on to earn her PhD in Geography from the University of Connecticut (2016) where she also worked as a GIS specialist and web developer at the Map and Geographic Information Center (MAGIC). Her dissertation research examined the applications of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) for analyzing the spatial distribution of historical land use features (primarily stone walls) in southern New England and reconstructing associated historical forest cover. Her work has been featured in National Geographic and on NPR.
Kate has more than 16 years of experience in GIS and more than 10 in web development, and she has combined her experience to create web maps and data visualizations that are accessible via web applications. She is passionate about incorporating accessibility and effective design into her products. Her research interests broadly include understanding the dynamics between human settlement and the environment and how these complex feedbacks can be mapped, analyzed, and visualized using GIS and web data visualization tools.
In her free time, Kate enjoys birding, watching sports, and playing the piano. She also serves as Secretary on the board for Blue Ridge Audubon and maintains their website.
Publications
Kunkel, K.E., X. Yin, L. Sun, S.M. Champion, L.E. Stevens, and K.M. Johnson, 2022: Extreme Precipitation Trends and Meteorological Causes Over the Laurentian Great Lakes. Frontiers in Water, 4. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2022.804799
Johnson, K. M., and W. B. Ouimet, 2021: Reconstructing historical forest cover and land use dynamics in the northeastern USA using geospatial analysis and airborne LiDAR. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111 (6), 1656-1678. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1856640
Johnson, K.M., T.H. Ives, W.B. Ouimet, and S.P. Sportman, 2021: High-resolution airborne Light Detection and Ranging data, ethics and archaeology: Considerations from the northeastern United States. Archaeological Prospection, 28 (3), 293-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arp.1836
Johnson, K.M., W.B. Ouimet, S. Dow, and C. Haverfield, 2021: Estimating Historically Cleared and Forested Land in Massachusetts, USA, Using Airborne LiDAR and Archival Records. Remote Sensing, 13 (21), 4318. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/21/4318
Suh, J.W., E. Anderson, W. Ouimet, K.M. Johnson, and C. Witharana, 2021: Mapping relict charcoal hearths in New England using deep convolutional neural networks and LiDAR data. Remote Sensing, 13 (22). http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs13224630
Kunkel, K. E., D. R. Easterling, T. R. Karl, J. C. Biard, S. M. Champion, B. E. Gleason, K. M. Johnson, A. Li, S. Stegall, L. E. Stevens, S. E. Stevens, M. Squires, L. Sun, and X. Yin, 2020: Incorporation of the Effects of Future Anthropogenically Forced Climate Change in Intensity-Duration-Frequency Design Values: Final Report. North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, North Carolina State University, 104 pp. https://precipitationfrequency.ncics.org/pdfs/RC_2517_Final_Report_version2_Sep_04_2020_clean.pdf
Witharana, C., W. B. Ouimet, and K. M. Johnson, 2018: Using LiDAR and GEOBIA for automated extraction of 18th-late 19th century relict charcoal hearths in southern New England. GIScience and Remote Sensing, 55 (2), 183-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/15481603.2018.1431356
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2018: An observational and theoretical framework for interpreting the landscape palimpsest through airborne LiDAR. Applied Geography, 91, 32-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.12.018
Raab, T., F. Hirsch, W. Ouimet, K. M. Johnson, D. Dethier, and A. Raab, 2017: Architecture of relict charcoal hearths in northwestern Connecticut, USA. Geoarchaeology, 32 (4), 502-510. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21614
Beach, T., K. M. Johnson, M. M. Hill, S. Munoz, and M. Peros, 2016: The view from the ‘Anthropocene’: new perspectives in human-induced environmental change. Anthropocene, 15: 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2016.09.004
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2016: Physical properties and spatial controls of stone walls in the northeastern USA: implications for Anthropocene studies of 17th to early 20th century agriculture. Anthropocene, 15: 22-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2016.07.001
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2014: Rediscovering the lost archaeological landscape of southern New England using airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Journal of Archaeological Science, 43, 9-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.12.004
Trigg, Heather B., D. Bolender, K. M. Johnson, M. Patalano and J. Steinberg, 2009: Note on barley found in dung in the lowest levels of the farm mound midden at Reynistadur, Skagafjordur, Iceland. Archaeologia Islandica, 7, 64-72.
Presentations
Johnson, K. M., 2020: From Data to Decisions: Use of NOAA Datasets in the Fourth National Climate Assessment. 2020 NOAA Environmental Data Management Workshop, Virtual, August 20, 2020.
Johnson, K. M., 2020: Applications of LiDAR for historical land use studies and archaeology. Robert S. Peabody Museum for Archaeology and Massachusetts Archaeological Society speaker series, Virtual, August 5, 2020.
Johnson, K. M., D. R. Easterling, and K. E. Kunkel 2018: Developing a website for the National Climate Assessment’s Climate Science Special Report. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers Meeting, New Orleans, LA. April 2018.
Ouimet, W. B. and K. M. Johnson, 2018: Reconstructing 17th to early 20th century forest cover and land use dynamics in the northeastern US using airborne LiDAR. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers meeting, New Orleans, LA. April 2018.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2017: Anthropocene landscape change and land use dynamics in post-17th century southern New England. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers meeting, Boston, MA. April 2017.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2016: Investigating the spatial distribution of 18th to early 20th land use dynamics in Connecticut and implications for the Anthropocene in southern New England. Poster presented at the American Association of Geographers meeting, San Francisco, CA. April 2016.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2015: Impacts of terrain roughness on 18th-20th century land use distribution and sediment mass transfer in southern New England. GSA Abstracts with Programs 47(7): 239. Paper presented at the Geological Society of America national meeting, Baltimore, MD, Nov.2015
Ouimet, W. B., D. P. Dethier, K. M. Johnson, M. Kotikian, and W. Wicherski, 2015: Quantifying 18th to early 20th century human impacts on hillslopes and sediment mobilization in southern New England Colorado Front Range. GSA Abstracts with Programs 47(7): 240. Paper presented by W.B. Ouimet at the Geological Society of America national meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 2015.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2015: Quantifying the Anthropocene: physical and cultural controls on stone wall construction in southern New England. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers meeting, Chicago, IL. April 2015.
Johnson, K. M., W. B. Ouimet, and Z. Raslan, 2015: Geospatial and LiDAR-based analysis of 18th to early 20th century timber harvesting and charcoal production in southern New England. GSA Abstracts with Programs 47(3): 65. Paper presented at the Geological Society of America Northeastern Section meeting, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. March 2015.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet,2014: “Butted and bounded as followeth”: LiDAR and the historical division of the landscape in southern New England. Paper presented at the Society for Historical Archaeology annual meeting, Quebec City, Canada. January 2014.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2013: Uncovering the past: GIS analysis of archaeological features under New England forests using high resolution topographic data (LiDAR). Poster presented at the Northeast ArcGIS User group meeting, Amherst, MA. May 2013.
Johnson, K. M. and W. B. Ouimet, 2013: Archaeological applications of LiDAR in southeastern New England. GSA Abstracts with Programs 45(1): 101.Paper presented at the Geological Society of America Northeastern Section meeting, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. March 2013.