Dr Mark Cutler

Research Interests

My research interests revolve around analysing and developing robust methods for estimating variability in the biochemical and biophysical properties of vegetation and soils from remotely sensed data (in all its forms). This particularly relates to tropical forest land cover and UK organic soils, but also covers novel methods for mapping land cover change and remote sensing of glacier mass balance. Ongoing research includes:

• Estimating tropical forest biomass and productivity from optical and microwave remotely sensed data. This work includes using artificial neural networks to estimate forest biomass with analysis on being able to transfer predictive relationships across time and space.
• Observing changes in lake and river catchments to understand the biophysical linkages between hydromorphological pressures and ecological response (a key element our recently awarded GLOBO Lakes NERC Consortium Grant).
• Remote sensing of debris covered glaciers. In conjunction with other colleagues at Dundee, this work aims to develop techniques to measure debris temperature and thermal properties (thermal resistance) across debris covered glaciers from remotely sensed data, which are then combined with meteorological and micrometeorological measurements to improve understanding and modelling of energy fluxes at the surface of, and within, supraglacial debris covers. 

Recent Research Grants

My recent research has been supported by the following sources: Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), NERC Airborne Research and Survey Facility, NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility, The Carnegie Trust, SNIFFER, European Union and SNH.  This includes: 

• Work package leader and Co-Investigator on £2.9M GLOBO Lakes (Global Observatory of lake responses to environmental change). NERC Consortium with Universities of Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh, CEH & NEODASS.  £487k to the University of Dundee, commences Sept. 2012.
• Co-investigator on NERC Small Grant Award  ‘Remote sensing of debris covered glaciers’ (2005-2006)
• Collaborator in SNIFFER-funded project entitled “Development of a technique for Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) Scoping Study”  (2005-2008).
• Co-investigator on NERC New Observing Techniques award entitled ‘Hyperspectral sensor requirements for mapping heterogeneic benthos’.  Led by University of Exeter (2002-2005).

Academic Background

Appointments

Professional Memberships

• Member of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc)
• Elected member of RSPSoc Council (2003-2009) and Chair of the RSPSoc Publications Committee (2004-2010)
• Royal Geographical Society/ Institute of British Geographers

Politi, E., Cutler, M.E.J. and Rowan, J.S., in press, Using the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer to characterise temporal and spatial trends in water temperature of large European lakes.  Remote Sensing of Environment.

Foster, L., Brock, B.W., Cutler, M.E.J. and Diotri, F., 2012, A physically-based model for estimating supraglacial debris thickness from thermal band remote sensing data.  Journal of Glaciology, 58, 677-691. doi: 10.3189/2012JoG11J194

Cutler, M.E.J., Boyd, D.S., Foody, G.M. and Vetrivel, A., 2012, Estimating tropical forest biomass with a combination of SAR image texture and Landsat TM data: an assessment of predictions between regions.  ISPRS J. of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 70, 66-77.  doi: 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2012.03.011.

Brock, B., Mihalcea, C., Kirkbride, M., Diolaiuti, G., Cutler, M., and Smiraglia, C., in press, Meteorology and Surface Energy Fluxes In the 2005-2007 Ablation Seasons at Miage Debris-Covered Glacier, Mont Blanc Massif, Italian Alps. Journal of Geophysical Research., doi:10.1029/2009JD013224

Schumann, G., Cutler, M., Black, A., Matgen, P., Pfister, L., Hoffmann, L., Pappenberger, F., 2008, Evaluating uncertain flood inundation predictions with uncertain remotely sensed water stages, International Journal of River Basin Management 6, 187-199.

Kalaitzidis, C., Caporn, S.J.M and Cutler, M.E.J., 2008, Estimating foliar nitrogen concentration of heather (Calluna vulgaris) from field and laboratory spectra. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 194, 57-66.

Aitkenhead, M., Flaherty, S. and Cutler, M.E.J., 2008, Evaluating Neural Networks and Evidence Pooling to update land cover maps. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing. 72, 1019-1032

Schumann, G., Matgen, P., Cutler, M.E.J., Black, A.R., Hoffman, L. and Pfister, L., 2008, Comparison of remotely sensed water stages from LiDAR, topographic contours and SRTM. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 63, 283-296.

Mihalcea C., Brock B.W., Diolaiuti G., D'Agata C., Citterio M., Kirkbride M.P., Cutler M.E.J., Smiraglia C., (in press), Using aster satellite and ground-based surface temperature measurements to derive supraglacial debris cover and thickness patterns on Miage glacier (Mont Blanc Massif, Italy). Cold Regions Science and Technology.

Foody, G.M. and Cutler, M.E.J., 2006, Mapping the species richness and composition of tropical forests from remotely sensed data with neural networks. Ecological Modelling, 195, 37-42.

Mills, H, Cutler, M.E.J. and Fairbairn, D (2006) Artificial Neural Networks for mapping regional-scale upland vegetation from high-spatial resolution imagery, International Journal of Remote Sensing 27, 2177-2195.

Mehner, H, Cutler, M E J and Fairbairn, D (2004) Remote sensing of upland vegetation: the potential of high spatial resolution satellite sensors. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 13, 359-369.

McMorrow, J, Cutler, M E J and Evans, M (2004) Towards hyperspectral indices of the composition of peat. International Journal of Remote sensing, 25, 313-325.

Foody, G M and Cutler, M E J (2003) Tree biodiversity in a region of conserved and differentially logged tropical rainforest and its measurement by satellite remote sensing. Journal of Biogeography, 30, 1053-1066.

Foody, G M, Boyd, D S and Cutler, M E J (2003) Predictive relations of tropical forest biomass from Landsat TM data and their transferability between regions. Remote Sensing of Environment, 85, 463-474.

Cutler, M E J, McMorrow, J and Evans, M (2002) Remote sensing peat erosion in the southern Pennines. North West Geography, 2, 21-30.

Foody, G M, Cutler, M E J, McMorrow, J, Pelz, D, Tangki, H, Boyd, D S and Douglas, I, (2001) Mapping the biomass of Bornean tropical forest. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 10, 379-387.

Cutler, M E J and Curran, P J (2000) Specular and anisotropic reflectance effects on the relationship between remotely sensed data and wheat canopy chlorophyll concentration. Aspects of Applied Biology, 60, 115 - 122.

Jago, R A, Cutler, M E J and Curran, P J (1999) Estimating chlorophyll concentration from both field and airborne spectra. Remote Sensing of Environment, 68, 217 - 224.