Dr Davina White

Biography/ Background

Davina White is a postdoctoral research fellow and co-ordinator of an interstate consortium for an ASD FieldSpec 3 spectroradiometer. Davina specialises in hyperspectral remote sensing of vegetation for environmental management decision making. She successfully attained her Ph.D in hyperspectral remote sensing of sub-surface soil disturbance associated with arable crop stress from The University of Newcastle, U.K. During her research career in remote sensing Davina has been involved in a number of applied environmental research projects including intra-urban surface temperature estimates from airborne and Lansat thermal images, coastal morphological change detection from ERS-2 satellite synthetic aperture RADAR interferometry, investigating the spatial and temporal aspects of airborne gamma spectrometry.

Davina is currently involved with a large National Water Commission funded research project, partnered by S.A. Arid Lands N.R.M., D.E.H, D.W.L.B.C., N.T government and C.S.I.R.O., investigating advanced hyperspectral and multispectral remote sensing techniques for monitoring the extent, composition and distribution of mound spring wetland vegetation. The advanced remote sensing techniques developed from this project will be used to determine the sensitivity of mound spring wetland vegetation to water allocations from the australian Great Artesian Basin, thus influencing and improving the effectiveness of water allocation plan management decisions and associated policies.

Qualifications

Ph.D., The University of Newcastle, U.K., 2008 "Hyperspectral Remote Sensing of Canopy Scale Vegetation Stress Associated with Buried Gas Pipelines"  Viva External Examiner: Prof. Ted Milton, The University of Southampton, U.K.

M.Sc. Topographic Science, The University of Glasgow, U.K., 2000 "A comparative Study of Visualized Airborne Gamma-ray Spectra at Various Spatial Resolutions and for Various Interpolation Algorithms"

M.Sc. Coastal Geomorphology, The University of Guelph, Canada, 1996, "The Effects of Pebble Concentration on Aeolian Sand Transport on a Natural Beach"

B.Sc. (Hons. Upper Second Class) Geography, The University of Huddersfield, U.K., 1994, "Design, Construction and Testing of a Sediment Trap for Shore Erosion"

Awards & Achievements

Awarded The Royal Academy of Engineering International Travel Grant to present Ph.D. research and attend 5th EARSeL Workshop on Imaging Spectrometry, Innovation in Environmental Research, 2007, Bruges, Belgium.

Awarded Royal Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Travel Bursary to present Ph.D. research and attend The Atlantic Europe Conference on Remote Imaging and Spectroscopy, 2006, The University of Central Lancashire, U.K.

Awarded Society of Experimental Biology and Royal Society of Photogammetry and Remote Sensing Travel Bursary to present Ph.D. research and attend The Society of Experimental Biology Annual Conference, special Joint Session with Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society on Imaging Techniques for Understanding Plant Responses to Stress, 2006, The Univeristy of Kent, U.K.

 

Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers Geomatics Division Prize for greatest personal academic acheivement for M.Sc. in Topographic Science, The University of Glasgow, U.K.

Visa Scholarship Award to undertake M.Sc. in Coastal Geomorphology, The University of Guelph, Canada.

Teaching Interests

Davina is currently co-supervising an honours student researching remote sensing characterisation of diffuse discharge zones and evaporite minerals associated with mound springs in the Australian Great Artesian Basin.

A number of honours projects and a Ph.D. project are currently available linked to the 'Allocating Water and Maintaining Springs in the Australian Great Artesian Basin' project, which Davina would be co-supervising with Assoc. Prof. Dr Megan Lewis. Please do contact me for further details.

She is assisting and supporting teaching in remote sensing and environmental applications in the following undergraduate modules: Remote Sensing III (field work for remote sensing studies, hyperspectral remote sensing practical) and Issies in Sustainable Environments.

Research Interests

Hyperspectral remote sensing for descriminating vegetation and informing environmental management policy development.

The development of field based methdologies for the collection of field spectroradiometer data for monitoring a range of vegetation types and condition, soil, substrate and also for airborne and satellite image calibration and validation.

Professional Associations

Member of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute, Australia.

Entry last updated: Friday, 22 Jul 2011