Dave Bulman

Since 1999 I have worked for the Department of Defence as a Terrain Analyst in the Vehicle Mobility section of the Land Engineering Agency (Defence Materiel Organisation). My background in botany, and physical geography - particularly GIS - has been a valuable asset to the development terrain data for various area of northern Australia that are utiised in testing the performance of military vehicles in a vehicle mobility model. These terrain layers (which include terrain slope, vegetation density and seasonal soil strengths) often have to be interpreted or inferred from limitied surrogate data such as geology maps, satellite imagery and topographic information (as physical and digital maps) not normally available as prepared maps.
Additionally I have held an Honorary Associates position within the School of Geography and Environmental Science at Monash since 2000 where I have been able to maintain contact with my alma mater and provide occasional support to academic activities within the School.

Academic background:

In 1988 I completed my undergraduate qualifications with majors in Botany and Physical Geography. Completed my honours degree in 1991 with research on post-fire succesion in sclerophyll communities at Ironbark Basin. This lead to a continuation of temporal successional studies for my Masters Degree.
My Masters thesis (completed in May 1994) was an examination of successional changes in sclerophyll communities that had been burnt in the Ash Wednesday fires of February 1983.
TITLE: Comparison of Post-fire Succession in Three Sclerophyll Communities at Ironbark Basin
My PhD thesis was completed in 2005. The link below provides an outline of the project and results:
TITLE: The Application of Remote Sensing Imagery to Weed Mapping: A case study for Paterson's curse (Echium plantagineum L.)
I have also been, from time-to-time, an occassional sessional tutor and research assistant within the school of Geography and Environmental Science

Academic research interests also include:

• The modelling of past climates and vegetation from palynological evidence.(see references to published papers).
• Vegetation succession and fire successional models.
• Biogeography and population modelling.
• Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS to ecological and land mangement problems.
• GIS Spatial modelling of continuous phenomena (eg elevation, soil parameters, climate, etc).
• The analysis and modelling of relationships between continuous and discrete spatially distributed phenomena using parametric and non-parametric methods.
• The modelling of spatial error.
• Issues related to spatial database development, management and access.

Published Work:

Non-Commercial Books, Monographs and Reports:

A. P. Kershaw, M. Reid, D. Bulman, D. Aitken, P. Gell, M. McKenzie and J. Hibberd "Identification, classification and evaluation of peatlands in Victoria." Dept. of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Melbourne, 128pp, 1993.

Conference Abstracts:

D. Bulman and A. P. Kershaw "Comparison of modern and pre-European pollen spectra from Southeast Australia." 8th International Palynological Congress Aix-en-Provence, 1992
D. Bulman "Comparison of regeneration after burning in three sclerophyll communities at Ironbark Basin, Victoria." Institute of Australian Geographers Conference. Monash University, Melbourne, 1993.
D. Bulman and A.P. Kershaw "The potential use of modern pollen spectra for the reconstruction of late Quaternary climates in southeastern Australia." Inter-INQUA Conference: The Quaternary of the Australian Region. Canberra, 1993.
A. P. Kershaw and D. Bulman "The impact of European people on the vegetation of continental southeastern Australia and its significance for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction." XI Biennial Conference, Southern African Society for Quaternary Research. Kimberley, 1993.
A. P. Kershaw and D. Bulman "A southeast Australian pollen data base: potential for palaeoclimatic mapping." Quaternary Australasia 11, 1993.
A. P. Kershaw and D. Bulman "The impact of Europeans on the vegetation of mainland southeastern Australia - an overview from pollen." in R.S. Hill (ed.) Abstracts, Southern Temperate Ecosystems: Origin and Diversification. Hobart, 1993.
A. P. Kershaw, M. Reid and D. Bulman "The development and status of peatlands in Victoria." Institute of Australian Geographers Conference. Monash University, Melbourne, 1993.
A. P. Kershaw, D. Bulman and D. Maughan "A southeast Australian data base: potential for palaeoclimatic mapping." Quaternary Australasia 11, 1993.
Refereed Journal Articles
A. P. Kershaw, D. Bulman and J. R. Busby 1994 "An examination of modern and pre-European settlement pollen samples from southeastern Australia - assessment of their application to quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation and climate." Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 82:83-96
A. P. Kershaw and D. Bulman "A preliminary application of the analogue approach to the interpretation of late Quaternary pollen spectra from southeastern Australia." Quaternary International. (accepted).
A. P. Kershaw and D. Bulman 1994 "The relationship between modern pollen samples and environment in the humid tropics region of northeastern Australia."Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 83:83-96.

CONFERENCES and WORKSHOPS ATTENDED

* Environmental Resource Information Network, Vegetation Workshop, Canberra. 1991
* Institute of Australian Geographers Conference, Monash University. 1993
* InterInqua/Palaeolimnology Conference, Canberra. 1993
* Aqua Conference. Nerriga NSW. 1994
* CRC for Weed Management Systems, Survey Workshop, Agricultural Research Institute, Wagga Wagga, December, 1995
* Weed Science Society of Victoria, 28th February, 2000. Paper presented
"Is the Application of Remote Sensing to weed Mapping Just S-pie in the sky?".Click here for PDF version.
* Northern Australian Remote Sensing and GIS (NARGIS01) Conference, Northern Territory University, Darwin,  3rd - 5th July 2001.
* Spatial Sciences Conference 2007, Hobart, Tasmania.
* Forest Airborne Laser Scanning (LiDAR) Workshop. Sponsored by SSC2007) and CRC for Forestry, Hobart Tasmania.

Professional Affiations:

Member of the Spatial Sciences Institute (2004)
Certified Practicing Professional, SSI (2004).

Questions and comments can be mailed to: Dave Bulman