Andres Sutton

I'm an environmental scientist specialised in remote sensing of ecosystem function and structure. Most of my work is based on open access multi-spectral imagery obtained from satellites (i.e., Landsat, MODIS), but I'm eager to incorporate other technologies in my research (e.g., drone).

Project: Developing remote sensing-based metrics for dryland ecological integrity monitoring.

Supervised by: Adrian Fisher (primary), David Eldridge (joint), Graciela Metternicht (secondary)

Project Description: Drylands represent almost half of the planet's terrestrial surface and provide essential ecosystem services to over 2 billion people. These systems are particularly fragile, so inadequate management can have serious consequences; for example, overgrazing can lead to the removal of ground cover leaving the soil exposed to erosive processes which undermine productivity and pollute water sources.
Remote sensing provides a unique tool for monitoring the state of these ecosystems as it allows routinary observation of ecosystem structure and function from local to global scales at low cost and, relatively low effort. Nevertheless, most of the monitoring efforts have employed generalist tools that do not work as well in drylands.
The overall aim of my thesis is to identify and develop RS-based variables related to vegetation fractional cover (photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic) which could be useful indicators of dryland ecological integrity at three scales of analysis (global/continental, regional and local).