Geography

Profile

Brian graduated from the University of Portsmouth, Department of Geography in 1995. Brian was then given MAFF funding for his PhD in shingle beach mapping and geomorphological analysis. Brian completed his PhD in 2001. Brian was appointed as a research fellow in 2007 and a lecturer in 2008 and a Senior Lecturer in 2010. Brian mainly lectures in areas relating to environmental assessment and monitoring.

Brian joined the staff at the Department of Geography in 2000 initially working on inter-tidal vegetation mapping of the south coast of England initially with the Environment Agency and later with the Chichester Harbour Conservancy. Brian later carried out the vegetation mapping and assessment on the CHaMPs (Coastal Habitat and Management Plans) for Posford Haskoning, producing maps of saltmarsh vegetation change for the south coast of England. This work was later published in the Journal of Coastal Research (Baily and Pearson, 2007) and subsequently updated and revised by the Channel Coast Observatory. Brian was the main author on the associated reports for the EA and CHaMPs work in which he carried out photogrammetric assessment mainly for eutrophication studies of a number of areas including Portsmouth, Langstone and Chichester harbours and the Medway and Swale.

Brian works on a range of different research problems from mapping coastal change to the use of image processing techniques for the extraction of vector data from historical maps. Brian is currently working on a grant from the Soddy Trust for £23,000 with Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott on the extraction of data from land use surveys. Current research projects include:

• Historical tidal line mapping on Ordnance Survey maps ( Baily, 2011)
• Flood risk assessment - data collection techniques
• Photogrammetric mapping of tidal lines (Baily and Collier, 2010)
• Salt marsh mapping on historical maps and charts
• Land use maps; extracting digital data (Aucott, Southall and Baily, 2010)
• Coastal change in the Algarve ( with Mara Nunes and Oscar Ferreira of the University of the Algarve, Portugal (Nunes et al 2009))

Brian’s recent work has concentrated on the validity of tidal line mapping as an indicator of coastal change. This work has recently been published in the Cartographic Journal and is due to appear shortly in the Survey Review and Sheetlines. One of Brian’s main papers was a comparison of digital and analytical photogrammetry for geomorphological investigation. This was carried out at Maiden Castle in Dorset and involved the creation of digital elevation models and virtual reality scenes. Brian collected GPS ground control points and then created DEMs using a Socet Set digital workstation and analytical photogrammetric techniques. For copies of the data relating to this project please contact the main author Brian Baily directly. You can also download a pdf of further information.

Brian has also worked on a series of projects on East Head spit in West Sussex. These projects included photogrammetric data collection, GPS surveying, historical mapping and analysis and geomorphological analysis of the spit. Brian has written two papers on this work and several consultancy reports.

Coastal Change

Brian has worked on a series of projects looking at geomorphological and habitat change in the coastal environment (Baily, 2011; Baily and Collier, 2010). Brian has worked with the Environment Agency, English Nature, Posford Haskoning, Havant Borough Council, Chichester Harbour Conservancy and the National Trust. In particular, Brian has worked on East Head spit, West Sussex monitoring its changing geomorphology using aerial photography and GPS surveying techniques (Baily et al., 2002).

GIS for Monitoring Change

Brian provided initial measurements of vegetation change and rates of salt marsh erosion through use of historical aerial photographs along the South Coast of England (Baily and Pearson, 2007) and was the lead author in investigating appropriate methods for the creation of digital terrain models using photogrammetry for geomorphological analysis (Baily et al., 2003). For more information on Brian’s Maiden Castle work visit the ESPL web site.

Environmental footprinting

Brian has attended training sessions on environmental and ecological footprinting techniques. In particular, Brian is interested in examining the variety of footprinting methods employed by different groups.

Land utilisation mapping

Brian has worked on a number of projects concerning data extraction from hsitorical land use maps. Brian is currently working on a grant project with Humphrey Southall and Paula Auccot looking at the land utilisation mapping of Great Britain. (Aucott, Southall and Baily, 2010).

Brian works on a range of different research problems from mapping coastal change to the use of image processing techniques for the extraction of vector data from historical maps. Brian is currently working on a grant from the Soddy Trust for £23,000 with Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott on the extraction of data from land use surveys. Current or recent research projects include:

• Historical tidal line mapping on Ordnance Survey maps ( Baily, 2011)
• Flood risk assessment? data collection techniques
• Photogrammetric mapping of tidal lines (Baily and Collier, 2010)
• Salt marsh mapping on historical maps and charts
• Land use maps; extracting digital data (Aucott, Southall and Baily, 2010)
• Coastal change in the Algarve ( with Mara Nunes and Oscar Ferreira of the University of the Algarve, Portugal (Nunes et al 2009))

Brian’s recent work has concentrated on the validity of tidal line mapping as an indicator of coastal change. This work has recently been published in the Cartographic Journal and is due to appear shortly in the Survey Review and Sheetlines. One of Brian’s main papers was a comparison of digital and analytical photogrammetry for geomorphological investigation. This was carried out at Maiden Castle in Dorset and involved the creation of digital elevation models and virtual reality scenes. Brian collected GPS ground control points and then created DEMs using a Socet Set digital workstation and analytical photogrammetric techniques. For copies of the data relating to this project please contact the main author Brian Baily directly. You can also download a pdf of further information.

Brian has also worked on a series of projects on East Head spit in West Sussex. These projects included photogrammetric data collection, GPS surveying, historical mapping and analysis and geomorphological analysis of the spit.

Research areas

Coastal Change

Brian has worked on a series of projects looking at geomorphological and habitat change in the coastal environment (Baily, 2011; Baily and Collier, 2010). Brian has worked with the Environment Agency, English Nature, Posford Haskoning, Havant Borough Council, Chichester Harbour Conservancy and the National Trust. In particular, Brian has worked on East Head spit, West Sussex monitoring its changing geomorphology using aerial photography and GPS surveying techniques (Baily et al., 2002).

GIS for Monitoring Change

Brian provided initial measurements of vegetation change and rates of salt marsh erosion through use of historical aerial photographs along the South Coast of England (Baily and Pearson, 2007) and was the lead author in investigating appropriate methods for the creation of digital terrain models using photogrammetry for geomorphological analysis (Baily et al., 2003). For more information on Brian’s Maiden Castle work visit the ESPL web site. 

Environmental footprinting

Brian has attended training sessions on environmental and ecological footprinting techniques. In particular, Brian is interested in examining the variety of footprinting methods employed by different groups.

Land utilisation mapping

Brian has worked on a number of projects concerning data extraction from hsitorical land use maps. Brian is currently working on a grant project with Humphrey Southall and Paula Auccot looking at the land utilisation mapping of Great Britain. (Aucott, Southall and Baily, 2010 and Baily et al, 2011))

Teaching

Brian is unit leader for the Environmental assessment and monitoring unit at level 3 and Environmental monitoring at level 2. Brian lectures on a number of units and runs practicals for several others within the undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the department and embeds much of his research within it.

He is involved in teaching on:

• Environmental Assessment and Monitoring (Unit leader)
• Environmental Monitoring (Unit leader)
• European fieldclass (Malta, environmental group leader)
• Global Environmental Management
• Introduction to Geographical Information Systems
• Sustainable Environmental Management
• GIS MSc Maps and Survey: A History
• Population, Resources and the Environment
• Level 1 Introduction to Physical Geography
• Geography fieldwork (L1)
• MSC Coastal resource management
• MSc GIS

Research supervision

Brian is currently co-supervisor to two Phd students.

Brian would be interested in supervising students interested in:

• Historical coastal change
• Environmental assessment
• Environmental monitoring

Key Publications

All publications