The NASA Land Cover/Land Use Change (LCLUC) Program awarded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a three-year grant in the amount of $720,000 to examine the effects of social and ecological factors, particularly, human migration and tourism on the environment and on the sustainability of island ecosystems. The principal investigator is Stephen J. Walsh, Lyle V. Jones Distinguished Professor of Geography at UNC and director of the Center for Galápagos Studies.
News on college website: http://college.unc.edu/2017/12/02/nasa-grant/