Francisco Artigas
About Us
Francisco Artigas, PhD
Chief Scientist
Meadowlands Research & Restoration Institute
Francisco J. Artigas was born in Concepción, Chile.
He attended the Universidad de Concepción, where he earned a B.S. in Biology. He was accepted into the Environmental Biology Program at The Ohio State University, where he studied soil chemistry and plant ecology, earning an M.S. degree in Environmental Biology. He was accepted into the Ph.D. program in Environmental Science at The Ohio State University, where he studied geographical information systems, ecosystem ecology, hydrology, soil chemistry, and computer modeling, earning a Ph.D. in Environmental Science.
As part of his education, he spent a year in the Netherlands and Tanzania, where he obtained a certificate in Farming Systems Research from the International Center for Research in Agriculture, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International Development Bank, and the European Economic Community, he advised and developed environmental, agricultural, and food security-oriented geographical information systems for the governments of Brazil, El Salvador, and Bolivia.
During his tenure as a Research Associate Professor at Rutgers University, he directed the activities of the Rutgers University NASA Regional Application Center.
He is currently a Visiting Research Associate Professor at Rutgers University, Newark, and chief scientist of the Meadowlands Research and Restoration Institute.
Publications
Yao Yin, Xinting Wang, Fangzhou Liu, Wen Zhang Francisco J. Artigas and Yuan Gao. (2025). Distributions and partitioning of airborn Per- and Polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS) in urban atmosphere of Northern New Jersey. Science of the Total Environment. 970 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179037).
Yao, Y., Artigas, F. J., Fan, S., & Gao, Y. (2022). Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Air Quality in Metropolitan New Jersey. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 233(8)https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-022-05764-w
Francisco J. Artigas . Joseph Grzyb . Ying Yao (2021). Sea level rise and marsh surface elevation change in the Meadowlands of New Jersey. Wetlands Ecol Manage https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-020-09777-2
Francisco J. Artigas1,2 · Ying Yao1,2 · Joseph Grzyb1 Yefm Levinsky (2020) Metal contamination pathways of a restored marshland in an industrial estuary. SN Applied Science 2:1767 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03577-2
Francisco Artigas, Ji Meng Loh, Jin Young Shin, Joe Grzyb, Ying Yao (2017). Baseline and distribution of organic pollutants and heavy metals in tidal creek sediments after Hurricane Sandy in the Meadowlands of New Jersey Environmental Earth Sciences 76(7):293.
Artigas, Francisco J.; Stephanie Bosits; Saleh Kojak; Dominador Elefante and Ildiko Pechmann. (2016). Conveying hazard risk through spatial modeling: A case study for hurricane Sandy-affected communities in northern New Jersey. Environmental Management Vol58(4), pp 636-644.
Chun, S. A., & Artigas, F. (2015). Participatory Environmental Planning Platform. (In) Silva, C. N. Emerging Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities in Urban E-Planning, Hershey-New York: IGI-Global, pages 69-91.
Schäfer, Karina V.R.; Tripathee, Rajan; Artigas, Francisco; Morin, Tim H.; Bohrer, Gil (October, 2014). Carbon dioxide fluxes of an urban tidal marsh in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. 119(11):2065-2081.
Artigas, Francisco; Shin, Jin Young; Hobble, Christine; Marti-Donati, Alejandro; Schäfer, Karina V.R.; Pechmann, Ildiko (September, 2014). Long term carbon storage potential and CO2 sink strength of a restored salt marsh in New Jersey. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 200: 313-321.
Ho Yu, Chang; Huang, Lihui; Shin, Jin Young; Artigas, Francisco; Fan, Zhi-hua (Tina); (May, 2014). Characterization of concentration, particle size distribution, and contributing factors to ambient hexavalent chromium in an area with multiple emission sources. Atmospheric Environment, 94:701-708.
Shin, Jin Y., Artigas, Francisco, Hobble, Christine, Lee, Yung-Seop (March 2013). Assessment of anthropogenic influences on surface water quality in urban estuary, northern New Jersey: multivariate approach. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 185 (3), 2777-2794
Chun, Soon Ae., Artigas, Francisco (2012). Sensors and Crowdsourcing for Environmental Awareness and Emergency Planning. International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), 1 (1).
Jung, Kyung-Hwa., Artigas, Francisco., Shin, Jin Young (2011). Personal, indoor, and outdoor exposure to VOCs in the immediate vicinity of a local airport. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 173 (1), 555-567.
Artigas, Francisco and Pechmann, Ildikó C. (2010). Balloon Imagery Verification of Remotely Sensed Phragmites australis Expansion in an Urban Estuary of New Jersey, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning, 95 (3), 105-112.
Artigas, Francisco (2010). Emerging Challenges and the Future of Surface Water Quality Monitoring. Water in the Environment, Water Challenges and Solutions for the Next Decade. Posted Online, Johns Hopkins University. Global Water Program. July 25, 2010.
Yang, J., Artigas, F., (2010). Mapping Salt Marsh Vegetation by Integrating Hyperspecttral and LiDAR Remote Sensing. in Wang, Y. (ed), Remote Sensing of Coastal Environments, CRC Press .
Artigas, Francisco., Elefante, Dom., Marti, Alex (2009). Geographic Information Sharing: A Regional Approach in Northern New Jersey, USA. Information Polity, 14 (1-2).
Artigas, F., Marti, A., Yao, N., Pechmann, I. (December 2008). Chlorophyll Detection and Mapping of Shallow Water Impoundments Using Image Spectrometry. Research Letters in Ecology, v. 2008 4 pages.
Yang, J., Artigas, F.J., Wang, Y.(2008). Mapping Salt Marsh Vegetation Using Hyperspectral Imagery. In W. Ji (ed) Wetland and Water Resource Modeling and Assessment: A Watershed Perspective, Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Yang, J., Artigas, F.J..(September 2008). Estimating Impervious Surfaces Area of Urban Watersheds Using ASTER Data Journal of Environmental Informatics, 12 (1), 1-8.
Mansoor, N., Slater, L., Artigas, F.J., Auken, E. (July-August 2006). Case History: High-resolution geophysical characterization of shallow-water wetlands Geophysics , 71(4), B101-B109.
Artigas, F.J., Yang, J.S. (March 2006). Spectral Discrimination of Marsh Vegetation Types in the New Jersey Meadowlands, USA. Wetlands , 26(1), 271-277.
Artigas, F.J., Yang, J.S. (December 2005). Hyperspectral remote sensing of marsh species and plant vigour gradients in the New Jersey Meadowlands. International Journal for Remote Sensing , 26(23), 5209-5220.
Artigas, F., Yang, J. (2004). Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Habitat Heterogeneity Between Tide-restricted and Tide-open Areas in New Jersey Meadowlands. Urban Habitats, 2(1)
Richard D. Holowczak., Nabil R. Adam., Francisco J. Artigas, and Irfan Bora (2003). Data warehousing in environmental digital libraries, Communication of American Computing Machinery (CACM) 46(9): 172-178.
Holowczak, R.D., Artigas, F.J., Chun, S.A., Cho, J., Stone, H.S. (2002). An Experimental Study On Content-Based Image Classification For Satellite Image Databases. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 40(6), 1338-1347.
Artigas J. Francisco. Update of GIS land use attributes from land surface texture information using SIR-C images (1999). Conference Proceedings, EPA/625/R-00/010 August 2000. United States Environment Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research laboratory, Cincinnati, OH.
Boerner E.J. Ralph., Michael DeMers., John W. Simpson., Francisco J. Artigas, Alejandra Silva and Leslie A. Berns (1996) Markov models of inertia and dynamism on two contiguous Ohio Landscapes. Geographical Analysis, v. 28:1, 56-6.
Artigas F.J. (1996). Applications of a Geographical Information System to the generation and transfer of agricultural technology. ABECAFE. Publicaciones S.A. de C.V. San Salvador,
DeMers, M.N., Simpson, J.W., Boerner, R.E.J., Silva, A., Berns, L.A., and Artigas, F.J. (1995) Fencerows, edges, and changes in connectivity: a case study from two rural Ohio landscapes. Conservation Biology 9:1159-1168
Artigas F.J. (1993). The effect of landscape structure and change on the fluxes of materials and water between patches of different ecosystem types in the Hocking Hills of Ohio. Doctoral dissertation. The Ohio State University
Artigas F., J. Avendano., T. Delobel., B. Gurung., E. Manang., R. Metsh and R. Moss (1991) Analysis of a coffee based farming system in the Matengo Highlands, Mbinga District. Tanzania. International Center for Development Oriented Research in Agriculture. Wageningen. The Netherlands,
Artigas F.J. and R.E.J. Boerner, “Advance regeneration and seed banking of woody plants in Ohio pine plantations: Implications for landscape change”, Landscape Ecology . Vol 2:139-150. 1989
Papers Presented at Conferences
Grzyb Joseph and Francisco Artigas (October 26, 2017). Baseline and Distribution of Organic Pollutants and Heavy Metals in Tidal Creek Sediments after Hurricane Sandy in the Meadowlands of New Jersey. Superstorm Sandy Five Years Later Conference. Lyndhurst, New Jersey.
Artigas Francisco and Joseph Grzyb (October 24, 2014). The Role of Hydrodynamics and Geomorphology on Sediment Movement in a Fragmented Micro-Tidal Estuary: Implications for Coastal Flood Resilience Planning. The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of MACURISA: 17th Regional GIS Conference, Atlantic City, NJ. Oct 22-24.
Artigas Francisco. (June, 18 2014). Spatial Analytics for Open Government Data. 15th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research. Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE), Aguascalientes City, Aguascalientes, Mexico
Artigas Francisco. (January, 27 2014). Sensor networks and terrain data visualization as a forensic and planning tool after super storm Sandy. New Jersey Association of Landscape Architects Conference, Atlantic City, NJ
Chun Soon and Francisco Artigas (June 17-20, 2013). Tide Gate Sensor Network as a Forensic Tool: Establishing Facts during Superstorm Sandy. International Conference on Digital Government Research, Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Artigas Francisco and Soon Chun (June 17-20, 2013). Visual Analytics for Open Government Data. International Conference on Digital Government Research, Université Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Bosits Stephanie and Artigas, Francisco (April 25, 2013). Real-Time Based Superstorm Sandy Surge and Inundation Model for Moonachie, Carlstadt, and Little Ferry: Bergen County, New Jersey (Poster Presentation).
Chun Soon and Artigas, Francisco (March 8, 2013). A Sensor-Based Tide Gate Monitoring System for Flood Warnings and Forensics (Poster Presentation). Superstorm Sandy Forum, College of Staten Island, Staten Island NY
Artigas Francisco and Ross M. Feltes (October 1, 2012). Restoration and Monitoring of an Urban Estuary in Northern New Jersey. Eco Summit 2012 – Ecological Sustainability, Columbus, OH.
Artigas Francisco (September 20, 2012). Municipal Shared Services in the Meadowlands District. New Jersey Water Environment Association – 2012 Fall Technology Transfer Seminar, Eatontown, NJ.
Artigas Francisco, Jin Y Shin and Yuan Gao (June 2, 2010). Monitoring Air Toxic Particulate Pollutants from Heavily Trafficked New Jersey Turnpike. U.S. EPA Air Pollution Training Institute
Fan Tina, Yu Chang, Jin Y. Shin, Christine Hobble and Francisco Artigas. (October 26, 2010). Airborne Hexavalent Chromium Concentration and Particle Size Distribution in NJ Meadowlands District-A Pilot Study. AAAR 29th Annual Conference. Portland, OR
Shin Jin Y and Francisco Artigas (June 23, 2010). Monitoring of Air Toxic Particulate Pollutants from Heavily Trafficked New Jersey Turnpike: An Urban Community (Poster Presentation). A&WMA’s 103rd Annual Conference & Exhibition. Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Artigas Francisco, Soon Ae Soon and Yogi Sookhu, Y. (2009) Real-time Ocean Surge Warning System, Meadowlands District of New Jersey. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Digital Government Research. Puebla, Mexico.
Qi Feng and Francisco Artigas (November 17, 2009). Interactive and Animated Visualization of Highway Air Pollution. 24th International Cartographic Conference. Santiago, Chile.
Artigas Francisco. (November 5, 2009). Air Quality at Increasing Distances from a High Traffic Highway in New Jersey. 2009 National Ambient Air Monitoring Conference. Nashville, TN.
Artigas Francisco (October 7, 2009). Enhancement and Management of Wildlife Habitats in an Urban Environment. 2009 Watchable Wildlife Conference. Avalon/Cape May, NJ. Program
Artigas Francisco and Nicholas Agnoli (March 2, 2009). Spatially Explicit Flood Warning System for the Meadowlands District of New Jersey. Coastal GeoTools 2009. Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC.
Artigas Francisco and Ildiko Pechmann (April 7-9, 2008). Balloon Imagery for Assessing Wetland Sites and Invasive Species Distribution. Mid-Atlantic Chapter of URISA’s 14th Regional GIS Conference. Burlington County College, Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Artigas Francisco, Ildiko Pechmann and Jason Yang, (November 6-8, 2008). Determining Wetland Sediment Chemical Conditions Using Hypespectral Remote Sensing. 60th Anniversary Meeting of the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society. Fairfax, Virginia.
Jain Ari, Francisco Artigas, Christine Hobble and Ildiko Pechmann (May 19-21, 2008). Modeling of Sediment Chemistry and Biometric Measurements Based on Remote-Sensor Images. Frontiers in Applied and Computational Mathematics, FACM ’08. New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey.
Jung K, Jin Y Shin and Francisco Artigas (June 24-27, 2008). Characteristics of Ambient Particulate Pollutants Near a Heavily Trafficked New Jersey Turnpike (Poster Presentation). AAWMA 101st Annual Conference. Portland, Oregon.
Marti Alejandro, Francisco Artigas, Dom Elefante and D. Martin, J. (April 7-9, 2008). Mapping Sewer and Storm-Water Pipelines: A Case Study. Mid-Atlantic Chapter of URISA’s 14th Regional GIS Conference. Burlington County College, Mount Laurel, New Jersey
Pechmann Idiko and Francisco Artigas (October 16, 2008). Balloon Imagery Verification of Remotely Sensed Phragmites Australis Expansion in Wetlands of the Hackensack Meadowlands. Third Passaic River Symposium. Montclair State University, Montclair New Jersey.
Yang Jason, Francisco Artigas and F. Venugopal (July 3-11, 2008). Characterization of Salt-Marsh Vegetation by Integrating LiDAR and Hyperspectral Remote Sensing. The XXI Congress, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Beijing, China.
Francisco Artigas and Nicholas Agnoli (March 2, 2009). Spatially Explicit Flood Warning System for the Meadowlands District of New Jersey. Coastal GeoTools 2009. Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC.
Francisco Artigas and Ildiko Pechmann (April 7-9, 2008). Balloon Imagery for Assessing Wetland Sites and Invasive Species Distribution. Mid-Atlantic Chapter of URISA’s 14th Regional GIS Conference. Burlington County College, Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Francisco Artigas, Ildiko Pechmann and Jason Yang (November 6-8, 2008). Determining Wetland Sediment Chemical Conditions Using Hypespectral Remote Sensing. 60th Anniversary Meeting of the Atlantic Estuarine Research Society. Fairfax, Virginia.
Jain Ari, Francisco Artigas, Christine Hobble and Ildiko Pechmann (May 19-21, 2008). Modeling of Sediment Chemistry and Biometric Measurements Based on Remote-Sensor Images. Frontiers in Applied and Computational Mathematics, FACM ’08. New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey.
Jung K., Jin Y Shin and Francisco Artigas (June 24-27, 2008). Characteristics of Ambient Particulate Pollutants Near a Heavily Trafficked New Jersey Turnpike (Poster Presentation). A&WMA’S 101st Annual Conference. Portland, Oregon.
Jain Ari, Ken Johnson, Francisco Artigas and Christine Hobble (February 22-23, 2007). Continuous Water Quality Data Modeling for Hackensack River. International Conference on Storm water and Urban Water Systems Modeling. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Artigas Francisco, Alejandro Marti, Ildiko Pechmann and Norman Yao (September 26, 2006). Hyperspectral Remote Sensing: Assessing the Trophic Conditions of an Urban Estuary. 7th Coastal and Estuarine Shallow Water Science and Management Conference. Atlantic City, NJ.
Adam Nabil, V. Atluri, Soon Chun, Francisco Artigas, Irfan Bora and Robert Ceberio (May 21-24, 2006). Constituent-Centric Municipal Government Coalition Portal. The 7th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research, dg.o 2006 (Poster Presentation). San Diego, CA.
Adam Nabil, Francisco Artigas, V. Atluri, Soon Chun and Edward Konsevick, (March 9, 2005). Geospatial Tool for Managing the Ecological Risk of the Contaminated Wetlands Sediments. Coastal Geo-Tools ’05. Myrtle Beach, SC. Conference Proceedings
Artigas Francisco, Jason Yang, Robert Ceberio, Irfan Bora and Edward Bulmer, (March 7-10, 2005). Detection of Wetland Vegetation and Vegetation Change Using High Resolution Hyperspectral Remote Sensing. Coastal GeoTools ’05. Myrtle Beach, SC. Conference Proceedings
Chun Soon, Nabil Adam and Francisco Artigas (November 24-26, 2005). Mobile Web for Environmental Information Guide: Case for New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems for a Ubiquitous Society, KMIS 2005 p. 236-239. Jeju Island, S. Korea.
Adam Nabil, V. Atluri, Soon Chun, A. Paliwal, Robert Ceberio, Irfan Bora, Francisco Artigas and Christine Hobble (October 25-28, 2004). SCIOP: Spatially Integrated Coastal Permitting Assistant: Technology Transfer and Adoption. Seventh Annual Watersheds & Wetlands Workshop. Atlantic City, NJ.
Francisco Artigas and Dom Elefante (November 17-19, 2004). Connecting Communities in the Meadowlands Using Geographical Information Systems. New Jersey State League of Municipalities, 89th Annual Conference. Atlantic City, NJ.
Francisco Artigas and Christine Hobble (November, 2004). Water Resources Information System for Watershed Management Area 5 of Northeastern New Jersey. American Water Resources Association’s 2004 Annual Conference. Orlando, FL.
Artigas Francisco and Debbie Lawlor (April 2004). Land Use Trends of a New Jersey Post-Industrial Landscape: 1969 to 2002. The American Planning Association’s 2004 National Planning Conference. Washington, DC.
Yang Jason and Francisco Artigas. (March 2004). Vigor Gradients of Phragmites australis in the Meadowlands District. Conference of the Association of American Geographers. Philadelphia, PA.
Adam Nabil, Francisco Artigas, V. Atluri, Irfan, Robert Ceberio, Soon Chun and A. Paliwal (July 2003). Spatially Integrated Coastal Permitting System (SICOP), in the Proceedings of the Coastal Zone 03 (CZ 03), Baltimore, Maryland
Adam Nabil, V. Atluri, Francisco Artigas, Pietro Mazzoleni, Soon Ae Chun (September, 2002). Customized Visualization of Geo-Spatial Government Regulations. The Second National Conference on Digital Government (dg.o 2002).
Artigas Francisco, Irfan Bora and Robert Ceberio (July 15-19, 2001). A Coastal Decision Support System for the Hackensack Meadowlands. Proceedings of the 12th. Biennial Coastal Zone Conference. Cleveland, Ohio.
Holowczak Richard, Soon Chun, Francisco Artigas and V. Atluri (November 9-10, 2001) Customized Geospatial Workflows for E-government Services. Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, (ACM-GIS 2001), Atlanta, GA, USA, pp 64-69.
Nabil Adam, Francisco Artigas, Vijayalakshmi Atluri, Soon Ae Chun, Sue Colbert, Melania Degeratu, Adel Ebeid, Vasileios Hatzivassilloglou, Richard Holowczak, Odysseus Marcopolus, Pietro Mazzoleni, Wendy Rayner and Yelena Yesha (May 20-23, 2001) E-Government: Human-Centered systems for Business Services. Proceedings of the First National Conference on Digital Government Research. Los Angeles, California. pp 48-55.
Artigas Francisco, Robert Ceberio and Irfan Bora. (January 2001)The Hackensack Meadowlands Coastal Management Decision Support System. Proceedings of the 2nd. Biennial Coastal GeoTools ’01 Conference, Charleston, SC.
Artigas Francisco and Irfan Bora (April 2000). A Paradigm Shift and the New Role of Geographic Information Systems in Public Administration. 2000. Proceedings of the Visions 2000 American Society of Public Administrators Conference, San Diego.
Artigas Francisco and Richard Holowczak (March 19th. 2000). Asthma distribution patterns and their relationship with the urban Landscape and social conditions in Newark NJ. International Health Geographic Conference, Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Artigas Francisco. (March 14, 2000). A Decision Support System for the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission. 1999. MAC URISA/ NJ SMAC 2000 Conference. Rutgers University Busch Campus Center, New Brunswick, NJ.
Artigas Francisco and R.E.J. Boerner (1992) Quantification of land use patterns between and among clusters of ecosystems in the Hocking Hills. The Ohio Journal of Science, Vol. 92(2):14,
Artigas Francisco and R.E.J. Boerner (1990) Geo-statistical and regression based approaches to estimating above ground biomass of surface mine lands. The Ohio Journal of Science Vol. 90(2):4,
Artigas Francisco and R.E.J. Boerner ( 1988) Influence of seed bank on early successional vegetation in recent clear cut pine plantations in southern Ohio. The Ohio Journal of Science Vol. 88(2):4
Artigas Francisco and R.E.J. Boerner (1987) Hardwood regeneration under Ohio pine plantations The Ohio Journal of Science Vol. 87(2):4,
Artigas Francisco and R.E.J. Boerner (1987) Patterns of hardwood regeneration under Ohio pine plantations. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. Vol.38:13.
- Estuarine Ecology
- Hyperspectral Remote Sensing
- Geographic Information Systems
- Continuous water and air quality monitoring systems
- Environmental data visualization