From Michaelmas term 2013, a series of informal lunchtime research discussions has been running in the Department of Geography (Downing Site) centred around the area of GISc. GISc is the science that underpins the management, presentation and analysis of many types of spatial (geographical) data. The forum will be open to postgraduates, research staff and academic staff and will be of particular interest to those whose research involves working with quantitative spatial data and/or GIS (Geographical Information Systems).
There are up to 3 meetings per term, each lasting no more than an hour. Each meeting will begin with a brief (no more than 30 min.) introduction to a topic of interest to a speaker, followed by open discussion. Topics could be anything from an introduction to an interesting new technique, or summary of a recent paper, to descriptions of recent research results or work planned or in progress. The idea, in the first instance, is to facilitate the exchange of information between the research community working in this area, foster collaboration and help to build a supportive community across the University of Cambridge.
The emphasis is on informality and open discussion, but to help planning would those hoping to come along please email Mike Bithell indicating their interest and giving their department. He will be happy to answer any questions about the forum you might have.
Image: Model of flood water encroaching on Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary. A breach in the flood defences during a storm surge would lead to rapid encroachment of water into densely populated areas. See for example Brown, Spencer and Moeller (2007) doi:10.1029/2005WR004597
Michaelmas 2013 topics:
- 15/10: What does it mean to “think spatially” in GISc? – Bob Haining
- 05/11: Agents for spatial modelling – Mike Bithell
- 26/11: Drones for Geographic Data Acquisition. – Gabriel Amable
Lent 2014 topics:
- 21/01: Using GIS to measure the built environment for walking studies.– Guibo Sun
- 11/02: Tablets for Geographical Fieldwork.Harriet Allen, Tim Rademacher, Andy Hacket-Pain
- 04/03: Patterns and processes in spatial modelling. Neeraj Baruah
For Easter the topics will be:
- 07/05: Problems and possibilities: Modelling historic road networks in GIS. Max Satchell
- 20/05: Deforestation and degradation across land-use designations in the Peruvian Amazon. Judith Schleicher
- 03/06: Remote sensing land use and vegetation cover: how useful (useless) is the Landsat data archive? Ronald Twongyirwe
Michaelmas 2014 topics:
- 15/10: Is free software any good for geospatial data analysis? Gareth Rees
- 5/11: Adaptive policy for urban planning: operational models in support of planning policy. Elisabete A. Silva
- 26/11: Integrated GIS modelling of water, land and energy resource interactions and their influence on food security in Uganda. Feriha Mugisha
- 3/12: Spatial variability of soil properties: two case studies from China.Yiyun Chen
Lent 2015 topics:
- 11/02: A GIS-based framework for evaluating the effectiveness of urban land-use based flood management strategies in Taipei, Taiwan. Andy Ku
- 18/02: Using Spatial Micro-simulation to Generate a Synthetic Population of Commuters for Cambridge. James Woodcock, Alvaro Ullrich, Robin Lovelace
- 4/03: Shoreline migration and habitat change under rising sea levels: a GISc approach. Sue Brooks (Birkbeck, London University), Tom Pryke and Tom Spencer
Easter 2015 topics:
- 22/04: Land cover change and morphological spatial pattern analysis – a case study from the Alentejo, Portugal. Harriet Allen
- 06/05: Foreshore Assessment using Space Technology – an introduction to the EU FAST project (2014-2018). Iris Moeller
- 20/05: Environmental modelling of storm surges: the RISC_KIT project. Elisabeth Christie
Michaelmas 2015 topics:
- 04/11: Multi-scaling and Spatial Hierarchies in Environmental Problems. Jagannath Aryal University of Tasmania
- 02/12:Developments toward a European Land Monitoring Framework. Geoff Smith, Specto-Natura UK
Lent 2016 topics:
- 17/2: Challenges in understanding biodiversity changes globally: perspectives from our waterbird project.Tatsuya Amano
- 19/3: EAGLE – an approach to land characterisation Geoff Smith, Specto-Natura UK
Easter 2016 topics:
- 27/4: Calculating supraglacial lake volumes from Landsat imagery Neil Arnold
- 18/5: Digital adventures;exploring the new technologies in the deserts of Egypt Judith Bunbury
- 8/6: An integrated agent-based and GIS approach to simulate residential and job location choice Ransford Acheampong
Michaelmas 2016 topics:
- 26/10: A scalable agent based multi-modal modelling framework using real-time big-data sources for city transportation systems Gerard Casey
- 2/11: Using GIS in the context of the water-land-energy nexus in the UK Zenaida Sobral-Mourao
Lent 2017 topics:
- 01/02: Spotty data and historical smallpox patterns Romola Davenport
Easter 2017 topics:
- 17/05: Urban Data Science: from crowdsourced data to applications Cecilia Mascolo
- 31/05: Modelling global soil water and vegetation dynamics Andrew Friend