Spatial Analysis Research Laboratory (SARL)
SARL pursues insights into human social dynamics over a range of spatial and temporal scales through advanced geospatial modeling and analysis.
Director: Steven Wernke
SARL pushes frontiers in geospatial modeling and analysis, including large scale satellite and aerial imagery remote sensing, AI-assisted imagery analysis, geophysical survey and analysis, close range and low altitude photogrammetry, spatial network analysis, suitability analysis, modeling of movement and visual perception, and merging GIS and Remote Sensing with immersive virtual reality. As a geospatial computational facility, SARL provides advanced workstations and mass storage systems for analyzing large datasets and executing computationally-intensive geospatial processing chains. SARL also houses a pool of field instrumentation. SARL also fosters trans-disciplinary research by serving as the physical home of the Vanderbilt Institute for Spatial Research (VISR). The collaborative geospatial research we foster through VISR addresses historical and contemporary world problems in a number of fields, including archaeology, history, education, public health, epidemiology, medicine, earth and environmental science.