Dr Brian Barrett
- Reader in Environmental Remote Sensing (School of Geographical & Earth Sciences)
telephone:
+44 (0) 141 330 8655
email:
Brian.Barrett@glasgow.ac.uk
Research interests
My principal research interests are in the use of microwave remote sensing for applications in the terrestrial environment. From a wider perspective, the use of remote sensing to study the interactions and further understanding of Earth system processes, in the context of environmental and social change, greatly interests me.
Interdisciplinary research and collaborations are essential to disentangle contemporary socio-ecological and sustainability challenges and most of my current research involves such collaborations, working on projects in Colombia (sustainable food production), China (sustainable land management and land use modelling), and Vietnam (human & environmental resilience).
I am particularly interested in grassland ecosystems and use different machine & deep learning approaches to identify patterns in time-series of multi-configuration remote sensing datasets with the ultimate goal of improving land use inventories and facilitating reporting on national greenhouse gas emissions related to landuse. Additional research focuses on the use of radar and multispectral remote sensing to improve upland habitat inventories, support monitoring of diffuse pollution risk in Scottish catchments, socio-ecological sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa (https://sustainablefuturesinafrica.com/) and in predicting pasture biomass in Irish, Colombian and New Zealand dairy farms.
PhD Opportunities
I am keen to hear from prospective students who wish to study for a PhD. Enquiries are welcome, although please investigate potential funding and/or scholarships (if required) before getting in touch. Please see here for further details.
Grants
2022
BBSRC IAA and EPSRC IAA - 'New tools to identify malaria vector habitats from high resolution Earth Observation data’ (£80,000) Co-I: Brian Barrett
2020
UKRI GCRF/Newton Fund - ‘Social and environmental impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnamese provinces bordering China and Laos following border closure’ (£331,409). Co-I: Brian Barrett. Further details at https://covidborderclosures.wordpress.com
University of Sydney and University of Glasgow Partnership Collaboration Award - A blueprint for the equitable, resilient and ecologically sustainable development of Asia’s deltas ($35,950 (AUD)). Co-I: Brian Barrett.
2019
CoSE IT & Computing Equipment for Research competition, (£10,310). PI: Brian Barrett
Scottish Funding Council GCRF - Sustainable Futures in Africa (SFA) network’s administrative support (£74,941). PI: Brian Barrett. Further details at https://www.sustainablefuturesinafrica.com/
BBSRC (as part of the RCUK-CIAT Newton-Caldas Fund Sustainable Tropical Agricultural Systems Programme) - Advancing sustainable forage-based livestock production systems in Colombia (CoForLife) (£819,681 (UofG £411,341)) Co-I and UofG lead: Brian Barrett. Further details at https://colombiagrasslands.com/
NERC (funded through the NERC TaSE (Towards a Sustainable Earth) research programme) - “River basins as 'living laboratories' for achieving sustainable development goals across national and sub-national scales” (£399,237 (UofG £239,273)) Co-I: Brian Barrett. Further details at https://luanhelivinglab.home.blog/
2018
Scottish Funding Council GCRF Lost limbs, lives and livelihoods: understanding community behavioural change and the role of remote data collection approaches for Mine Risk Education (MRE) in Myanmar (£51,430). PI: Brian Barrett
Scottish Funding Council GCRF - Towards resilient and sustainable tropical livestock production systems in Colombia (£22,795). PI: Brian Barrett
BBSRC (as part of the RCUK-CIAT Newton-Caldas Fund Sustainable Tropical Agricultural Systems Programme) - Advancing sustainable forage-based livestock production systems in Colombia (£135,392 & additional US$111,883 of in-kind contributions from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)). PI: Brian Barrett. Further details here
2017
Scottish Funding Council – Visualising Violence in Malawi (£46,776) Co-I: Brian Barrett
European Commission - GEONATURA – open educational resources platform for Geomatics applications to social and environmental issues (€247,988 (UofG €60,163)). Universidade Nova de Lisboa (coordinator), TU Delft, University of Florence, and University of Glasgow.
Industry (UK SME) - Developing a radar model for pasture biomass estimation in New Zealand (£64,648) PI: Brian Barrett
SEPA/Scottish Government - How can SEPA best use remote sensing technology to help assess the effectiveness of measures to address rural diffuse pollution (£75,543, (UofG £18,463)). ADAS RSK Ltd & Brian Barrett.
Scottish Funding Council - Building Sustainable futures in Africa: using capacity-strengthening activities to design and pilot methods for cross-disciplinary research (£36,500) Co-I: Brian Barrett
2016
British Council Newton Fund - Earth Observation in support of sustainable livestock grazing systems in Colombia (£3,932) PI: Brian Barrett
University of Glasgow Learning & Teaching Development Fund - Unmmanned Aerial Vechicles in fieldwork teaching and learning (£2,644) Co-I: Brian Barrett
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland - Stevenson in Vulcano: the acquisition of raw materials for Glasgow`s industries in the 19th century (£1,870) Co-I: Brian Barrett. Further details here.
Supervision
Current PhD opportunities
I am keen to hear from prospective students who wish to study for a PhD. Enquiries are welcome, although please investigate potential funding and/or scholarships (if required) before getting in touch. Please see here for further details.
Current PhD research students
- Adebangbe, Seyi Adewale
Monitoring and managing oil spillage and Environmental degradation through Geoinformation - Liu, Niantang
Advanced Crop Mapping Using Deep Learning Approaches in Satellite Remote Sensing - Suter, Samantha
Open Science in Conservation: Combining Citizen Science and Remote Sensing Approaches for Habitat Monitoring - Zhang, Kangyong
Mangrove Biomass Estimation through Remote Sensing and Machine Learning based Approaches
External to the University of Glasgow
- Diana María Gutiérrez Zapata - Modelación de la dinámica de la cobertura boscosa y su relación con la percepción comunitaria en la construcción de los Programas de Desarrollo con Enfoque Territorial en municipios del Bajo Cauca, Nordeste y Norte de Antioquia [University of Antioquia, Colombia][Minciencias call for National Doctorates 757 funded]
- Isaac Obour Mensah - Detecting Illegal Small-Scale Mines in Ghana Using Data Fusion Deep Learning Approaches [Maynooth University, Rep. of Ireland][Irish Research Council (IRC) funded]
- Georgina Page - Assisting peatland restoration using satellite radar data [University of Stirling, Scotland][NERC IAPETUS2 funded]
Past Post-doctoral researchers
Dr Marcela Ramos - BBSRC funded CoForLife project
Dr Mike Zwick - BBSRC funded CoForLife project
Dr Jiren Xu - NERC-TaSE funded River basins as 'living laboratories' for achieving sustainable development goals across national and sub-national scales project
Past Post-graduate research students
Dr Uduak Affiah (PhD) Vulnerability of the Nigerian coast and communities to climate change induced coastal erosion (Co- supervised by Prof. Larissa Naylor (GES) and Prof. Mia Perry (School of Education)
Qi Qin (MSc-by-Research) Mapping environmental factors to Fasciola hepatica at farm-scale. Co- supervised by Prof. Nick Jonsson (School of Biodiversity, One Health and
Veterinary Medicine) (Graduated June 2019).
Visiting postgraduate (PhD and MSc) students
Diana Gutierrez - PhD student from the University of Antioquia, Colombia, July – October 2019 (Colciencias funded).
Carlos Echeverria, PhD student in Water Engineering at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain, September – December 2018 (Erasmus funded).
Nikolina Mijic - PhD student from the Institute of Geophysics and Geoinformatics at the University of Miskolc, Hungary, October 2017 (British Scholarship Trust funded).
Konstantina Bika, MSc student from the University of the Aegean, Greece, July – September 2016.
Teaching
Postgraduate
- Environmental Remote Sensing (Nankai University, China - DUMF-5114)
- Principles of GIS (GEOG-5019)
- Remote Sensing of the Environment (GEOG-5056)
- Applied GIS (GEOG-5102)
- Managing Sustainable Water Environments: Policy and Practice (GEOG5115)
Undergraduate
-
Remote Sensing (GEOG-4094) Geography/Earth Science Level 3/4
-
Geography Level 2 (GEOG-2001) (GIS)
-
Research Skills (GEOG-3010) (Advanced Geographical Techniques) Geography Level 3
Research datasets
Additional information
Administrative Responsibilities
- Director of Graduate Studies (2023 -
- Head of the Earth Systems Research Group (ESRG) (2019 - 2023)
- School Principal Web Publisher (PWP)
- School Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT) contact
Journal Reviewer
- Remote Sensing of Environment
- Nature Plants
- IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
- ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
- International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
- Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
- Remote Sensing
- International Journal of Remote Sensing
- Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing
- Journal of Applied Remote Sensing
- Sensors
- Environmental Engineering and Management Journal
- Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
- Comptes Rendus Geoscience
- Physics and Chemistry of the Earth
- Environments
- Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation
- Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis
- Restoration Ecology
- Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
- Frontiers in Remote Sensing
Professional Society Membership
- Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc)