Geography

Profile

Martin graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1999 and completed an MSc in GIS at the University of Portsmouth in 2001. Martin joined the staff at Portsmouth as the Head of GIS Support in 2000 and has additionally been working as a part-time lecturer since 2006. He completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education at Portsmouth in 2006.

Interests

Spatial Data management and Databases

Martin focuses mainly on spatial data management and using Oracle products. He has built a system to accommodate data from the Tithe Survey of England and Wales.

GIS Technologies and Web Mapping

Martin’s interest lies in scalable systems for web dissemination of large spatial data sets, such as the Tithe Survey data. An implementation can be found on the tithe project website.

Surveying and Data capture

Martin participates and leads on a number of commercial and research surveying projects. This covers GPS and Total Station work, as well as close range 3D laser scanning. His research focuses on error propagation and precision of these methods in applied projects.

Historical GIS and Cartography

Martin has been involved in the research effort on the Tithe Survey for some years now. He is currently working with Alastair Pearson in researching the WWII Dambuster terrain models of German reservoirs to gauge their accuracy and investigate digital capture and storage of these models. The research focuses on using non-contact 3D laser scanning techniques to capture and analyse the original models.

Arctic and Alpine Climate

Martin has been and continues to work with Nick Pepin to investigate the interactions of snow drifts, topography and weather in Finnish Lapland. He is mainly concerned with surveying techniques in difficult environments.

Teaching

Martin delivers a unit called ‘Spatial Databases – Programming and Applications’ at Level 3 and Postgraduate Level. In addition, Martin contributes to other GIS components in Geography and Biology, particularly addressing spatial data management and databases, as well as 3D mapping.

Martin contributes to Fieldwork in the Department, both to the core Level 2 field classes and optional field classes. He also participates regularly in the independent research trips organised with students, providing help with GIS and primary data capture using a variety of surveying techniques.

Support

Martin provides the day-to-day technical support on all aspects of GIS and general IT, for teaching and research activities.

Key Publications

All publications