Mark Fonstad

Mark Alan Fonstad (born September 21, 1973 in Neenah, WI) is an American geographer. He specializes in the physical geography of rivers, the fusion of physical geography with geographic information science, geomorphology, hydrology, and remote sensing. Fonstad is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. His educational training included secondary education at Lourdes Academy (Oshkosh, WI), a B.S. in Geography at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), a M.A. in Geography at Ohio University (Athens, OH), and, in 2000, a Ph.D. in Geography from Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ). He is the son of geographer Todd Fonstad and cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad.

Some of Fonstad’s accomplishments include the HAB Transform for converting images of rivers into maps of water depth, the SATS treeline ecotone model, a cellular automata model of instream hydrodynamics (with Jay Parsons), and the Critical Riverbank Conjecture, for which he received (with W. Andrew Marcus) the 2005 G.K. Gilbert Award for Excellence in Geomorphic Research. His more recent work has focused on the high-resolution remote sensing of river habitats, modeling of river dynamics and ecotones, and work on the upcoming NASA SWOT satellite mission. He also co-organized the 2007 Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium on the subject of Complexity in Geomorphology, and the 2008 European Geosciences Union and the 2009 and 2010 American Geophysical Union special sessions on the Remote Sensing of Rivers.

Beginning in January 2010, Mark has been the Environmental Science Editor of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

(Hopefully) Useful Documents:

Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Why I am a Geographer
Fifteen Pillars Towards Becoming a Successful Geography Graduate Student
Tips on Giving a Short Geography Presentation
The Active Lecture

Current Teaching Activities:

Fall 2010: GEO 7313 Environmental Systems Analysis

Current Research Projects:

The Remote Sensing of Rivers - Current projects are centered around the Texas Hill Country, Yellowstone National Park, St. Margaurite River in Quebec, and the Willamette Valley of Oregon. We are looking for tools, methods, and applications to inventory river habitats from remote platforms including satellites, airplanes, blimps, and poles. Imaging systems range from ordinary digital cameras to imaging spectrometers. The observations are being used to test classical river theories and identify key habitats.

mtnstreams

Dynamics of Mountain Streams - Current projects are centered around Yellowstone National Park and the Oregon Coast Range. We are analyzing the spatial and temporal patterns by which mountain streams expend their energy, move sediment and wood, and create unstable geomorphic zones. As these patterns grow, change, and diminish, they produce physical habitate templates for aquatic organisms, another aspect of our observations and simulations.

ecotone

Ecotone Dynamics - Current projects are centered around Glacier National Park and the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda. We are looking at how mountain ecotones (transitions from one ecosystem to another) react to climate change and other factors, and the sensitivity of ecotones to various internal and external processes. This research combines fieldwork, remote sensing, and numerical simulations such as the SATS treeline ecotone model..

beaded

The Beaded Stream - Currently, the project is centered on the Alaska North Slope. I am beginning to study this unusual stream pattern, formed where fluvial processes mix with thermokarst processes in areas of continuous permafrost. These streams slow down meltwater floods and alter arctic stream ecosystems, and they are likely to be very sensitive to climate change in the United States, Canada, and Russia. This research combines fieldwork, remote sensing, and numerical simulations.

swot

NASA's SWOT: Surface Water Ocean Topography - Currently my work is focused on the SWOT surface hydrology group. The satellite under design by NASA and CNES will be a polar-orbiting interferometric radar that will map the existence, elevation, and slope of surface water around the world at the resolution of tens of meters. The mission group and the hydrology subgroup are tasked with taking data that SWOT will (hopefully!) produce and extract hydrologically meaningful information, such as river discharge, floodwave extents and speeds, water volumes, and geomorphically meaningful hydraulics measures.

Contact Information:

E-mail: mfonstad@txstate.edu
Phone (with voice mail): 512-245-7809
Department:
office phone: 512-245-2170
office fax: 512-245-8353

Mailing address:

Department of Geography

Texas State University

601 University Drive

San Marcos, TX 78666

USA

Street address:
Department office: Room 139 Evans Liberal Arts
My office: Room 383 Evans Liberal Arts

The page last updated July 31, 2010
Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666
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