Specialization Area: 

Geographic Information Science and Technology

Biography:

Tony Giarrusso is a Principal Research Scientist and Associate Director of the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization in the College of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga. His teaching, research, and consulting activities focus on GIS-based planning solutions for land conservation, coastal and marine resource management, urban planning and environmental protection. Over the past twenty-four years, Mr. Giarrusso has been Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on more than 30 research projects, with research sponsors including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the State of Georgia (DNR and DHR), The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, Morehouse School of Medicine, The Diane Fossey Gorilla Fund International, and the City of Atlanta. 

Apart from his research activities, Mr. Giarrusso has been an instructor at Georgia Tech for the last twenty-one years, primarily teaching introductory GIS classes to undergraduates.

Teaching Interest:

Professor Giarrusso's teaching is focused on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, urban planning, and sustainable development. He primarily teaches at the undergraduate level. He is co-lead of the Rwanda Study Abroad in Sustainable Development, an embedded study abroad program offered during spring break. He also co-teaches a VIP class on Assistive Technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Research Interest:

Professor Giarrusso's research interests is focused on the use of GIS and Remote Sensing as planning decision-support for local and state government, primarily focused on environmental and land use issues.

List of Recent Scholarly Work:

Recent Research Articles:

1. Alice Favero, Matthew Realff, Maria Lucas, Anthony Giarrusso, and Karl Lang (2023), Geo-Spatial Economic Assessment of the Potential Development of Bioenergy Combined with Direct Air Carbon Capture (BEDAC) in the USA.
Environmental Science & Technology 2023 57 (51), 21681-21690 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c06975

2. Evans, Kathryn A.; Giarrusso, Anthony J.; and Zaparanick, David (2023), Perpetual Protection for Atlanta’s High-Quality Forested Land in the City, Cities and the Environment (CATE): Vol. 13: Iss. 1, Article 29.

3. Fahr, S., Powell, J., Favero, A., Giarrusso, A.J., Lively, R.P. and Realff, M.J. (2022), Assessing the physical potential capacity of direct air capture with integrated supply of low-carbon energy sources. Greenhouse Gas Sci Technol, 12: 170-188. https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.2136

4. Portela G.T., Leong T., Webster A.,Giarrusso A.J., Fridkin S., Ray S., Swerdlow D. (2021), Immergluck L. Risk factors for non-invasive (skin and soft tissue) and invasive Staphylococcus aureus infections among children and adults living in southeastern USA: a retrospective cohort study BMJ https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/8/e059327.info

Recent Research Projects:

1. Georgia's Coastal Canopy - https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a24f7f9055174d35adb15dab8116a734
2. Georgia's Changing Forest - https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8a8fe7ff6b5d4113929d7a5f20044be6
3. Georgia Historic and Projected Land Cover Database - https://arcg.is/11bTaq
4. Thrive Regional Infrastructure Portal (TRIP) - https://trip-thrive-geohub.hub.arcgis.com/
5. Atlanta's Urban Tree Canopy - https://geospatial.gatech.edu/AtlantaUTC/
6. Georgia Wetlands Restoration Access Portal (G-WRAP) - https://geospatial.gatech.edu/G-WRAP/

Degrees with Year of Award:

Masters of City Planning (2000) -Georgia Institute of Technology    
Bachelor of Science in Biology (1993) - Georgia State University