Yeonju Kim

Yeonju Kim

PhD candidate in the MDIH Lab at the University of Connecticut.

Drone-Based Thermal Mapping of the Black Warrior River

Published:

Summer Visiting Scholar Fellowship, USGS FLOW (Future Leaders in Observation of Water) Academy — Jun 2026 – Jul 31, 2026

Conducted drone-based thermal mapping of a 1,600-meter reach of the Black Warrior River, collecting aerial thermal imagery to analyze spatial water temperature distributions across the watershed. Processed and orthorectified UAV imagery using Pix4D and Agisoft Metashape to generate high-resolution RGB and thermal orthomosaics. Completed hands-on workshops in microcontroller programming, edge computing, camera calibration, and AI-based water sensing (object detection and segmentation). Collaborated with USGS scientists and industry partners to translate water sensing research into operational tools, presenting findings at bi-weekly report-outs and the FLOW Tech Showcase.

GitHub: iamkimyeonju/black-warrior-river-thermal-mapping

Field & Drone Work

Drone flight over the Black Warrior River
Drone flight over the Black Warrior River.
Field work along the river
Field work along the river.

Thermal & RGB Imagery

Thermal image of the river
Thermal image of the river.
RGB image of the river
RGB image of the same site.
Thermal image of the river, second site
Thermal image of the river, second site.
RGB image of the river, second site
RGB image of the same second site.

Processing Software

Pix4D orthomosaic processing
Pix4D orthomosaic processing.
Agisoft Metashape processing
Agisoft Metashape processing.
ArcGIS analysis
ArcGIS analysis.