Current Research
I have broad interests in geography - spanning activity that lies in the social sciences (e.g. on the motivations, ability and potential of volunteers/citizen sensors to advance geographic research), the environmental sciences (e.g. on land cover changes on the carbon cycle and patterns of biodiversity) and technology/engineering (e.g. on machine learning methods for image analysis). My main research interests focus on the interface between remote sensing, informatics and ecology/environmental science. A major recent focus of work built on these interests is on studying 'slavery from space' linked to the University's Rights Lab.
I have been fortunate to work on a variety of projects with a range of collaborators, including 50 research students who have worked under my supervision. This work has been supported by research funding from a variety of bodies. Since 2014, the major awards I have been an investigator on:
- ESRC IAA Mode B, Operationalising a sargassum monitoring service, PI, £10,000, 2022-2023.
- UoN KE Strategic Fund, continuation of SargAssure project, PI, c.£40,000, 2022.
- UKRI ODA and FTX Foundation, Co-I, £45,000, 2022-2023.
- UK Space Agency, SargAssure, IPP Technology Development Programme, Principal Investigator, £279,050, 2021-2022.
- GCRF, Validating sargassum detection, Principal Investigator, £158,533, 2020-2021.
- GCRF, Brick kilns of the south Asia Brick Belt: optimising a research and impact platform to address objects of UN SDG intersectionality, Co-I, £94,232, 2020-2021.
- UK Space Agency, International Partnerships Programme, SAtellite Sargassum Monitoring System (SASAMS) - developing real-time monitoring service for Mexico's Caribbean coast, Principal Investigator, £290,057, 2020-2021.
- UK Space Agency, International Partnerships Programme, Anti-trafficking support system for Uganda's sustainability (AstUS), Co-I, £283,357, 2020-2021.
- BBSRC, Citizen science for Earth observation (Citizens 4EO), Co-I, £16,507, 2019.
- NERC, Spatio-TEmporal Dynamics of forest response to ENSO Drought (STEED), Co-I, 2018.
- British Academy, Remote sensing to inform sustainable development, Principal Investigator, c. £24,600, 2018.
- EPSRC, Satellite remote sensing of sites associated with slavery, Principal Investigator, c. £12,000, 2018.
- EU, Final Action dissemination grant, Principal investigator, c. €9,400, 2017
- EU, Lead of workpackage 5 of the LandSense citizen observatory, ~€343,000, 2016-2020.
- EU, Final COST Action TD1202 grant period award, Principal Investigator, €232,309, 2015.
- EU, Transition to Horizon extension of COST Action TD1202, Principal Investigator, €74,350, 2014.
- EU, COST Action TD1202, Principal Investigator, €147,545, 2014.
To-date, research has resulted in >250 refereed journal articles, 9 books and >200 other publications (book chapters, conference papers etc). My publications have been cited >43,000 times and I have a 'h' index of 100 (source - Google Scholar). In field based standardized citation lists that account for self-citation I am ranked 2nd in the world in the subject including geomatics. In other recent surveys, I am ranked 1st and 3rd in the world for studies of land cover and remote sensing respectively.
I am a Fellow of the IEEE (FIEEE) and in 2021 I was elected an ordinary member of Academia Europaea (MAE). I have also been fortunate to receive several prizes, most recently the RSPSoc's Taylor and Francis Award (2020), the IEEE David Landgrebe award (2019) and 2 global peer review awards (2019). The Rights Lab's Data/Measurement theme I work in has also received major awards for its research on slavery from space. A full list of awards is available in my CV which is available on request.
I have served on a variety of committees (e.g. RCUK grant panels (including roles as chair)); sub-panel 14 of REF2021, sub-panel C17 of REF2014 and H32 of RAE2008) and on the editorial board of 17 journals (including two as editor-in-chief).