Pardha Teluguntla Lead Author on Best Scientific Paper in GIS

BAERI’s Pardhasaradhi Teluguntla (Pardha) (first author) and his co-authors have received the first place 2026 Esri Award in the category Best Scientific Paper in GIS. They were recognized for their work, “Landsat-derived rainfed and irrigated-area product for Conterminous United States for the year 2020 (LRIP30 CONUS 2020) using supervised and unsupervised machine learning on the cloud.”

Teluguntla and his co-authors used novel techniques that involved satellite data and machine learning to map croplands in the contiguous US and distinguish irrigated croplands from those that are rainfed. These data are reportedly the most accurate to date and are extremely useful for “assessing global food and water security.”

The awards ceremony took place on February 17 in Denver, CO, as part of the 2026 ASPRS Annual Conference at Geo Week. Congratulations to Pardha and his fellow authors!

You can find the paper at this link.