My research interests revolve around analysing and developing robust methods for estimating variability in the biochemical and biophysical properties of vegetation and soils from remotely sensed data (in all its forms). This particularly relates to tropical forest land cover and UK organic soils, but also covers novel methods for mapping land cover change and remote sensing of glacier mass balance. Ongoing research includes:
-Estimating tropical forest biomass dynamics and productivity from optical hyperspectral, lidar and microwave remotely sensed data. This work is currently leading to a reassessment of tropical forest biomass gain in regenerating and conserved tropical forests in SE Asia, as well as management and restoration impacts on tree species diversity.
-Observing changes in lake and river catchments to understand the biophysical linkages between hydromorphological pressures and ecological response. As CI and Dundee work package leader for the NERC-funded Globolakes project (www.globolakes.ac.uk) we are using a variety of remote sensing methods to assess the drivers of change in lakes across the World. In particular we are assessing the trends and spatial/temporal coherency in lakes across the World as a result of multiple drivers of environmental change.
2001 – 2003 Lecturer in Remote Sensing and GIS, School of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, University of Newcastle
1999 – 2000 Lecturer in GIS and remote sensing, Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University
1998 – 1999 Research Associate, School of Geography, University of Manchester
1993 – 98 Ph.D. Geography, University of Southampton
Recent research has been supported by the following sources: Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), NERC Airborne Research and Survey Facility, NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility, The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, SNIFFER, European Union and SNH. This includes:
Principle Investigator “Changing species diversity and biomass accumulation in conserved and regenerating tropical forests: two decades on”. Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Large Grant; in collaboration with Prof. D Burslem (Univ. of Aberdeen); 2014 – 2016
Co-investigator, “Assessing and Restoring the Peatlands of Wildland Northern Estates: Phase 1”, Wildland Ltd; in collaboration with Dr A. Black (UoD); Jan 2014-Jan 2015
Work package leader and Co-Investigator, GloboLakes Project (Global Observatory of lake responses to environmental change). NERC grant Consortium with Universities of Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh, CEH & NEODASS; 2012 – 2017.
Politi, E., Rowan, J.S. and Cutler, M.E.J., (in press), Assessing the utility of geospatial technologies to investigate environmental change within lake systems. Science of the Total Environment (Special Issue). doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.09.136
Dawson, T.P., Cutler, M.E.J., Brown, C. (in press), The role of remote sensing in the development of SMART indicators for ecosystem services assessment. Biodiversity.
Politi, E., Cutler, M.E.J., and Rowan, J.S., (2015), Evaluating the spatial transferability and temporal repeatability of satellite-based lake water colour algorithms at the European scale: a meta-analysis approach. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 36, 3005-3033. doi:10.1080/01431161.2015.1054962.
Kumar, R.S., Menaka, C. and Cutler, M.E.J., (2013), ANN-based robust LULC classification technique using spectral, texture and elevation data. Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing, 41, 477-486.
Politi, E., Cutler, M.E.J. and Rowan, J.S., (2012), Using the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer to characterise temporal and spatial trends in water temperature of large European lakes. Remote Sensing of Environment. 126, 1-11.
