Centre for Environmental Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis

Aims & Objectives

The primary aim is to build on the existing strengths of the University to form a Centre of international repute for research and postgraduate level teaching in remote sensing and spatial analysis. This centre will have a distinctive approach (comprising pure and applied science underpinned by fundamental technologies) to inter-disciplinary research that is focused on major issues in science and technology. Through its research and teaching the Centre will become one of the most pre-eminent foci in the world for geoinformation analyses, leading research agendas in its two component parts:

Environmental remote sensing is the acquisition of information on the environment at scales ranging from local to global through analyses of images acquired mainly by airborne and spaceborne sensors.

Spatial analysis is concerned with the study of spatial data, and associated with the rapidly developing areas of geocomputation and geostatistics.

The mission of the Centre is to first, understand and second, inform the management of the physical and human environments through remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS). Within this, the explicit attention to the special nature of spatial data is recognised through the use of spatial analysis techniques.

The objectives of the Centre are modest but the impacts are large. The main objectives are:

1. Promote multi-disciplinary research in remote sensing and spatial analysis that is focused on key environmental issues and raise awareness of activities in this area within the University.
2. Form a grouping that provides a critical mass and support network that enhances the University's brand in this area which will enhance competitiveness for major research bids. This is expected to help secure funding (e.g. major EU and Research Council programmes encourage inter-disciplinary research groupings and the Centre would raise Southampton's competitiveness).
3. Develop the University's profile externally through hosting major meetings and international visitors.
4. Develop a University-wide MSc course in remote sensing and spatial analysis.

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Who is Involved?

The current 'key players' identified from involvement in recent meetings are:

School	Faculty
Geography	Science
Ocean and Earth Sciences	Science
Southampton Oceanography Centre (JRD & Laboratory for Satellite Oceanography)	Science
GeoData Institute	Science
Electronics and Computer Science	Engineering and Applied Science
Aeronautics and Astronautics	Engineering and Applied Science
Biological Science	Medicine, Health and Biological Sciences

It is expected that this list could be expanded to include interests from industry (such as Civil and Environmental Engineering) and other faculties (such as Archaeology and Law). It could also be conceivably expanded to include other initiatives and links to other Centres proposed for the Environment Initiative.

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Areas of Research Expertise

To achieve the aims a series of PhD studentships are to be funded. These will involve close and active supervision by staff from more than one School. Topics must also be approved by the Centre's management board to ensure fit with the broader aims of the Environment Initiative. In addition to encouraging interaction and inter-disciplinary research directly in a way that does not impinge negatively on staff time, it is anticipated that this will help spur new collaborative ventures at the interfaces between disciplines. The Centre could also provide specialist postgraduate training events that would extend and compliment research training provided by individual Graduate Schools. Inter- disciplinary collaboration could also be fostered through co-supervision of MSc projects.

Examples of some research within CERSSA:

• Image Processing and Computer Vision
• Satellite Oceanography
• Astronautics
• Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis

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