POSTGRADUATE NEWS August 2006
WELCOME
Anna Egan, Master of Arts, Michelle Aitken, Master of Arts and Milton Obamba, Master of Environmental Science. Both Anna and Michelle will be working with Priya Rangan and Christian Kull on Political Ecology of Non-Native Plants. Milton has just arrived from Kenya, he will be working with Christian, Priya and Craig.
CONGRATULATIONS
Andrew Coutts
received the runner up student award by The International Association
of Urban Climate Awards Committee for his oral presentation at the
ICUC6 conference.
Pauline Byrt's
MA thesis
"Spatial patterns of patients attending the
Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital: a search for explanations"
was accepted.
Nick Porch's PhD
thesis "A method for reconstructing the
Quaternary climates of Australia using fossil beetles" was passed
by examiners.
Rebekah Brown and Chris
Cocklin received a Linkage Project Grant for work
on "Sustainable Urban Water Governance: Institutional Development
and Organisational Change", in partnership
with
the Water Corporation and Brisbane City Council.
Jason Beringer won the inaugural Dean's Early
Career Researcher Award for Excellence in Research in the Faculty
of Arts. By winning this award, Jason becomes the Faculty of Arts
nomination for the Vice-Chancellor's Early Career Researcher
Award for Excellence in Research.
Chris
Cocklin has been appointed by the Minister for
the Environment to the Victorian Catchment Management Council (VCMC)
for a term of 3 years. The VCMC is the State Government's peak
advisory body on catchment management.
Xiaoye Liu's paper entitled "LiDAR-Derived
High Quality Ground Control Information and DEM for Image Orthorectification"
by Xiaoye Liu, Zhenyu Zhang, Jim Peterson and Shobhit Chandra has
been accepted for publication by GeoInformatica: An International
Journal on Advances of Computer Science for Geographic Information
Systems.
http://www.editorialmanager.com/gein/
Abstract
Orthophotos (or orthoimages if in digital form) have long been recognised as a supplement or alternative to standard maps. The increasing applications of orthoimages require efforts to ensure the accuracy of produced orthoimages. As digital photogrammetry technology has reached a stage of relative maturity and stability, the availability of high quality ground control points (GCPs) and digital elevation models (DEMs) becomes the central issue for successfully implementing an image orthorectification project. Concerns with the impacts of the quality of GCPs and DEMs on the quality of orthoimages inspire researchers to look for more reliable approaches to acquire high quality GCPs and DEMs for orthorectification. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), an emerging technology, offers capability of capturing high density three dimensional points and generating high accuracy DEMs in a fast and cost-effective way. Nowadays, highly developed computer technologies enable rapid processing of huge volumes of LiDAR data. This leads to a great potential to use LiDAR data to get high quality GCPs and DEMs to improve the accuracy of orthoimages. This paper presents methods for utilizing LiDAR intensity images to collect high accuracy ground coordinates of GCPs and for utilizing LiDAR data to generate a high quality DEM for digital photogrammetry and orthorectification processes. A comparative analysis is also presented to assess the performance of proposed methods. The results demonstrated the feasibility of using LiDAR intensity image-based GCPs and the LiDAR-derived DEM to produce high quality orthoimages.
SEMINARS
SEMINARS IN August
Tricks of
the Trade;
8 August;
Ethical considerations
22 August
Fieldwork and interviewing
SGES
Lunchtime Seminar;
2 August
'Have work, have happiness':Disabling geographies of work in rural Cambodia
Alexandra Gartrell
9 August;
To Be Advised.
16 August
To Be Advised
23 August;
Report on recent results from the Centre for GISJim Peterson, Xuan Zhu and Shobhit Chandra
" Please note change of venue: in SGO5"
30 August
Shortening Food Supply Chains: A Strategy for Agricultural Sustainability in Australia?Dr. Peter Andree, visiting research fellow from Ontario, Canada
Details of other research seminars in related disciplinary areas can be found at:
SCIENCE
FACULTY
http://www.sci.monash.edu.au/postgrad/seminar.html
BIOLOGICAL
SCIENCES
http://www.biolsci.monash.edu.au/research/seminars/index.html
ATMOSPHERIC
SCIENCE
http://www.maths.monash.edu.au/research/seminars/
JOIN
THE WRITING SUPPORT GROUP
All research students
are encouraged to join up with the writing support group established
within the School, and take part in the discussions about writing
research reports, papers and theses. To join the group or for more
information, contact Margaret Loughnan (mlou1@student.monash.edu)
POST
GRAD COMMUNITY MORNING TEA.
SGES research students are an industrious crew and as such are at
risk of spending too much time alone in front of their computers
or gazing down microscopes at 'wee' things. Therefore to
ensure that the mental and physical health of post grads is maintained
at the highest possible standard we have deemed it necessary to meet
for morning tea once a month. These auspicious occasions occur on
the first Friday of each month at 11am. We enjoy the hospitality
of new hosts each time as we embark on our Gregorian trek from post
grad room to post grad room. Last month we gathered in room S202
and languished amongst pink balloons and crinkly paper enjoying biscuits,
beverages and delightful conversation. Next month we will meet on
Friday 4th August at 11am, the venue TBA. ALL welcome, just bring
your cup of tea/coffee and join the happy throng.
International
Geographical Union Conference
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane 3-7th July 2006
Xiaoye Liu, Sarah Burns and Michele Lobo Following
the Palmerston North 1974 Regional Conference and the Sydney 1988
Congress, the third International Geographical Union (IGU) conference
was held on 3-7 July 2006 in Brisbane, Queensland. This conference
brought leading geographers from around the world together to discuss
the theme, 'Regional responses to global changes.' It attracted
more than 950 people including more than 700 overseas delegates.
The Opening Ceremony was chaired by Nigel Tapper, with a welcome
address from John Holmes and the president of IGU Adalberto Vallega.
This was followed by the presentation of Geography Olympiad awards
and plenary addresses by Katherine Gibson and Gary Brierley. Eleven
parallel sessions covered a range of themes such as Climate variability,
Useful Geomorphology, Tropical Savannas, Sustainable Tourism, GIS
and Landscape modelling, Geographies of Belonging and many more!Monash
University was well represented by staff and students. Chris Cocklin,
Nigel Tapper, Rhiannon Birch, Sharron Pfueller,
Peter Kershaw, Tim Denham, Heather Builth, Jacqui Dibden, David Packham,
Xiaoye Liu, Sarah Burns, Kasturi Kannaiah, Margaret Loughnan, Michele
Lobo, Priya Rangan, Elissa Sutherland, Christian Kull, Jason Beringer
and Graeme Pearman. Apologies if we've left anyone out!
Xiaoye Liu - Perspectives on GIS sessions
There were lots of sessions during the conference
such as land use/cover change, regional responses to global changes,
public policy, education and GIS. These sessions focused on how complex
and global-scale processes apply pressures on social, cultural, economic
resources, and environmental at regional and local scales. GIS session
is involved in each day during the conference. GIS application in
geographical research has attracted great attention which was reflected
in the presentations such as predictive habitat modeling, Land use/cover
change, and health. The future direction of applications in geography
research will emphasize on spatial modelling, quantitative analysis
of the geographical phenomena, and the spatial Web.
Sarah Burns - Perspectives on Climate sessions
Climate sessions began on Tuesday and ran through to Thursday
which saw presentations from Sarah, Nigel, David, Jason, Graeme and
Chris. On Wednesday there were two Earth System Science keynote sessions
sponsored by ARC
Network for Earth System Science (ARCNESS) and chaired by Jason
Beringer. These talks were very interesting and innovative. Firstly
Andy Pittman discussed geographer's role in Earth System Science,
then Graeme Pearman discussed climate change and responses. Next
Pep Canadell from CSIRO
discussed the vulnerabilities of the Carbon cycle in the 21st Century
and finally Chris Cocklin added the perspective of a human geographer
to examine human dimensions of global change.
Michele Lobo - The cultural view!
An international geography conference that brought geographers
from different areas of expertise together is something I dreamed
of attending as a student in High School in India. Therefore, when
I got an opportunity to visit warm, sunny Brisbane in the middle
of a gloomy, cold Melbourne winter, thanks to grants from GES,
it wasn't very difficult to leave the family for a week! I had
written my paper and I was on my way.I presented a paper entitled,
"Who is a citizen of Australia?" Negotiating ethnicity:
Re-imagining citizenship in suburban Australia in the session Geographies
of Belonging. The paper drew on stories of home to illustrate that
home is a discursive space; a space of difference, tension but also
responsibility. The lecture theatre was surprisingly pretty full
at 8.20 on the second last day of the conference, and I was happy
with the feedback I received.The conference gave me the opportunity
to gaze and meet some of the 'stars' in the geography constellation
as well as mingle with geographers from Australia and overseas. I
particularly enjoyed the opening session, the sessions on Transnationalism,
Gender and geography, Geographies of belonging and Object geographies.
In particular, I recall the opening session where Katherine Gibson
encouraged us to think about how we can write Geographies of hope.
This is the hope that I have always been conscious of in representing
the voices of others and writing my thesis.Attending paper presentations,
as well as interacting with others between sessions as well as at
the end of the day meant that everyday was packed with activity from
8.20 till late at night. The conference was truly an enjoyable social
experience, in particular the drinks, snacks and company on the opening
night. Thanks everyone at GES and we hope to be at the next IGU
in Tunisia in 2008.
CSIRO
Workshop on "Sharing Knowledge on Climate Change Impacts"
Darwin 30-31 March 2006
Sarah Burns
The workshop ran from Wednesday the 29th to Friday the 31st of March, although Wednesday was a closed session for Indigenous participants. The workshop was conducted by Dr Donna Green from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Aspendale and it was held at the CSIRO Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre in Berrimah, Darwin. The majority of the participants from out of Darwin stayed at the Free Spirit Resort; this was to ensure maximum opportunities to interact with each other. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together a range of individuals to begin discussion about the impacts of climate change on remote Indigenous communities in Australia.
The workshop began
with a 'welcome to country' by the Larrakia people, the Traditional
Owners of the region. Then Donna chaired discussions about the previous
day's session. From this discussion a list was created of some
of the environmental issues (generally relating to climate change)
being faced by various communities.
Dr John McBride
from the Bureau of Meteorology introduced the Indigenous Weather
Knowledge project (
http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/
) which after some discussion received a very good response
and a lot of interest in participating. Dr Ben Preston covered climate
modelling and projections for the area. Ben's overall message
was that ultimately many of the northern areas were warming and temperatures
will continue to increase. Professor Tony McMichael presented a seminar
about the risks to health under climate change in remote Indigenous
communities. There were some sections that were very applicable such
as an increase in diseases spread by mosquitoes, but one audience
member suggested obesity leading to CVD was of greater concern. The
final talk for Thursday was from Joe Morrison and Mark Stafford-Smith
this was on the climate change impacts on culture. This reminded
us that healthy country will lead to healthy people and a healthy
culture.
We were then taken to the Darwin Art Gallery.
We had time to wonder through the gallery and then we had dinner
together where some elders brought their families. This enabled more
conversation in a relaxed environment.
The
program for Friday's session was altered to make the day shorter
(at various people's request) and also to add more 'speed
presentations' giving everyone a chance to talk about their situation
and/or projects.
The first presentation was from
Dr Cathy Robinson (from CSIRO
sustainable ecosystems) on behalf of Dermot Smyth. Cathy discussed
Indigenous societies capacity to adapt to environmental change. This
presentation included many examples of how communities have already
managed to adapt to environmental change. Then Dr Simon Batterbury
spoke about vulnerability and resilience frameworks. Simon provided
examples from his work in Africa. Dr Glenn Marshall from CSAT spoke
of efficient, cost-effective and intelligent resource use in remote
Australian communities. Some audience members suggested that air
conditioner use is one of the causes of global warming, but some
attendees suggested that it is unfair to make remote communities
not-advance because other areas had already contributed to global
warming.
Following this we had many speed presentations
explaining what various people were doing and their background. This
allowed me to discuss my project briefly, and the collaboration with
Balkanu. After this we headed back to the resort for a BBQ
and to say our goodbyes.
Although the workshop was
not directly targeted at a project like mine, it did give me the
opportunity to communicate with other elders, and scientists working
in similar fields. It also showed me a multitude of environmental
issues and some strategies of addressing them. And finally it reminded
me that if I want to research the fire management of Indigenous land
'properly' I must also look at the country, people and their
culture to fully understand.
Some photos and
PowerPoint presentations are available from the website:
http://www.dar.csiro.au/sharingknowledge/index.html