Degrees & Credentials: 

• B.I.M., Tribhuvan University, Nepal, Bachelor’s degree in Information Management
• M.S., Mississippi State University, Geosciences
• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, Environment and Resources

Research Area(s): 

• Agricultural Remote Sensing
• Agroecosystem Modeling
• Precision Agriculture
• GIS and Data Analytics

Biography: 

Dr. Khanal’s research is focused on developing decision support systems to encourage stakeholders including farmers, environmentalists and policymakers to promote and adopt sustainable agricultural production practices. In addition to using freely available data on weather and landscape, her lab uses advanced and emerging technologies such as GIS, global position system and remote sensing (e.g., sensors on broad drones, aircraft, satellite, and ground) to collect data. Her lab uses machine vision, advanced image processing, machine learning and ecosystem models to understand and quantify ecosystem services (e.g., crop and soil health, biomass, water quality, greenhouse gas emission) under various land management practices at geographic scales, ranging from field to watershed to regional to national scales. Her group’s vision is of an agricultural landscape in which farmers produce more food and feedstocks while respecting nature and mitigating environmental problems.