Michael McBain
MSc student
BSc (Melb), GradDipInfoMgt (RMIT), MBus (RMIT), BLitt (Monash), AALIA
Disciplinary Expertise
I have spent many years working as a research manager and a department and faculty manager in universities, including a range of change management and organisational development roles. I have also worked in newspaper and scientific book publishing and editing. During the 1990s, I conducted research on the use and adoption of various technologies in the workplace which led, ironically, to me teaching higher degree students about the production of long, structured, technical documents such as PhD theses in the Monash eXpert Program [‘Taming your thesis with technology’]. I have taught qualitative and quantitative research methods for the Department of Accounting and Finance at Monash for many years, and the subject ‘Communication and New Technologies’ at RMIT during 2002. As a direct result of that, I’ve already had my 15 minutes of fame [http://bulletin.ninemsn.com/bulletin/eddesk.nsf/All/E23AF924030272A1CA256BF2000190E0].
Research Project
Measuring and modelling long-term vegetation change using remote sensing, Markov Chain modelling and Bayesian methods
Elevator pitch: Does cattle grazing [and other forms of disturbance] cause significant damage to Australian alpine ecosystems? Given we have been studying this question on the Bogong High Plains in detail for over 60 years, can we use modern methods of remote sensing and statistical analysis to reliably map and measure vegetation change for the whole Victorian alpine region for the past 60 years?
Long version: Over 50 years ago, on the Bogong High Plains in alpine Victoria, fenced plots were established by S.G.M. Carr to exclude cattle grazing during the mid-1940s, and measure the effects. Data collection has continued to the present, providing a near-continuous record of vegetation change for this area of the Australian Alps. A key element in environmental assessment is the link between 'real' data (e.g. quadrat data measured by scientists on their hands and knees) and the kind of surrogate data found in maps, aerial photographs and satellite imagery. That link can be quantified on a spectrum from strong to tenuous. This project aims to directly measure how strong that link is and to use time series analysis of such data and metadata to develop landscape process models for the Australian alpine region. In practical terms, the project is a long term study of vegetation changes on the Bogong High Plains in Victoria involving the integration of satellite imagery [various platforms and spatial and spectral resolutions] with historical aerial photography and historical point quadrat data. The initial focus will be on using the available wide-area vegetation maps for the Bogong High Plains and assessing the usefulness of analog and digital imagery as surrogates for field checking. Very detailed vegetation change data (1 cm resolution point quadrat) is available for small selected areas back to 1945; this may be incorporated in a later phase of the project. The next stage of the project is to use this data to model vegetation change processes using Markov Chain modelling and Bayesian statistics to develop robust normative models of vegetation change for the whole Australian alpine region.
Research collaborations
My first visit to the Bogong High Plains was as part of a group from the University of Melbourne Botany School, assisting Mrs S.G.M. Carr in a re-survey of her Rocky Valley and Pretty Valley plots in 1978. I have maintained my interest in Australian alpine ecology ever since. There are current active programs of research into the Victorian alpine region at the University of Melbourne Botany School, Monash University Geography, La Trobe University School of Agriculture and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Arthur Rylah Institute. I am pleased to have had the assistance and support of researchers at all of these organisations. I was a staff member of RMIT’s Department of Geospatial Science during 2002 and 2003, which enormously enlarged my perceptions of what could be done with modern remote sensing and GIS methods.
Software knowledge
ArcGIS, ERDAS, ER Mapper, Leica Photogrammetry Suite, Manifold, MapInfo, GRASS, Photoshop, SPSS, PATN, EndNote.
Field instrument knowledge
Trimble XRS Pro, Pro XH and 5700 GPS equipment, Topcon and Leica Total Stations, ASD Spectrophotometers. I have flown the RMIT Geospatial Science research airship [breaking two fins and destroying an engine fairing in the process].
Publications
Journal article
1998: ‘The history and natural history of Mount Buffalo in pictures’. Victorian Naturalist 115(5): 242-244
Conference Papers
Ecological Society of Australia Annual Conference, Brisbane, 28 November-2 December 2005. Poster: ‘Impact of spatial and spectral resolution of imagery on quality of vegetation classification’.
Ecological Society of Australia Annual Conference, Adelaide, 29 November-3 December 2004.
Poster: ‘Vegetation classification with remote sensing: Errors and omissions’.
Spatial Sciences Institute of Australia Conference, Fremantle, 17-22 October 2004. Poster: ‘Testing ecological theory with remote sensing: A case study from Australia’s Alps’.
E-mail: mjmcb1@student.monash.edu.au