Associate Professor Megan Lewis

Biography/ Background

Megan Lewis is Head of the Soil and Land Systems Discipline. She specialises in remote sensing, vegetation ecology and environmental management. She has more than 25 years of experience in tertiary lecturing and curriculum development at the University of Adelaide, Roseworthy Agricultural College, and the South Australian College of Advanced Education, delivering courses to undergraduates and postgraduates aspiring to careers in environmental and natural resource management, and providing in-service training for Australian and overseas professionals in spatial information science and environmental management.

Teaching Interests

Megan teaches and coordinates courses in remote sensing and environmental mapping.

She has supervised over 17 Honours students, 9 of whom have been awarded First Class Honours. Opportunities for future Honours research projects are available in the document below.

Megan supervises a large group of postgraduate research (PhD and Masters) students in projects using remote sensing and spatial analysis tools for understanding terrestrial and marine environments. An overview of this research is provided in the Spatial Information Group brochure (below).

2006 Winner Individual Award for Excellence in Education and Professional Development, Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards http://www.xyz.au.com/public/general_info/details.cfm?category_id=19&info_id=1980&sub_cat=141#

2006 Winner, Individual Award for Education and Professional Development, South Australian Spatial Excellence Awards

2007 Winner, Executive Dean of Sciences Prize and Award for Excellence in Teaching (staff with more than five years of teaching experience).

Professional Associations

Spatial Information Science

Member of the Spatial Sciences Institute

Co-Chair, International Society of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing Technical Commission VII Working Group 3: Processing of Hyperspectral Data (2004-present) Member SA Regional Committee of the Spatial Sciences Institute (2003-04)

Director, Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Association of Australasia (1998-2003)

Member of the Board of Directors, Spatial Australia (2003-04)

Convenor, Spatial Education Australia (2002)

Convenor, 10th Australasian Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Conference, Adelaide (2000)

Member, Technical Organising Committee for the IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Sydney (2001)

Environmental Management

In addition, Megan has extensive experience as an environmental specialist on State and Australian Government statutory bodies in areas of land use planning, and conservation and land management.

These have included the South Australian Development Assessment Commission, Development Policy Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee on Planning, Pastoral Board, Wilderness Advisory Committee, Soil Conservation Council, Coast Protection Board, Roadside Vegetation Advisory Committee and Aquaculture Committee. Megan is now a Part-Time Commissioner in the South Australian Environment, Resources and Development Court.

Qualifications

PhD, University of NSW, 2000 "Discriminating Arid vegetation Composition with Multispectral and High Spectral Resolution Imagery"

M. App. Sc. (Remote Sensing), University of NSW, 1993 "Land Cover Mapping for Barrow Island, W.A. using Landsat MSS"

M. Environmental Studies, The University of Adelaide, 1977 "Quantifying Arid Zone Recreation Impacts"

B.Sc. (Hons. First Class) - Botany, The University of Adelaide, 1974 "Ecological Studies Towards Management of Whyalla Conservation Park, SA"

Research Interests

Application of remote sensing and spatial data to environmental and agricultural management

Hyperspectral remote sensing for discriminating vegetation and landscape composition

Spectral properties of Australian plants and soils

Spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of Australian landscapes, in particular arid environments

This research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, Land and Water Australia, Environment Australia, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Department of Industry, Trade and Commerce, SA Soil Conservation Council, SA Native Vegetation Council, Anglo-American Corporation and the South African National Research Council.

Megan Lewis is leader of the "Spatial Diagnostic Tools for the Deployment of Perennial Plants in the Landscape" project within the CRC for Plant Based Management of Dryland Salinity (http://www.crcsalinity.com/programs/index.php?disptype=projects&id=28) and a contributor to the "Rewards for Biodiversity" project in the Desert Knowledge CRC.

Publications

Selected publications

Dutkiewicz, A., and Lewis, M. (2006). Spectral discrimination of sea barley grass and the implications for mapping salinity with hyperspectral imagery. Journal of Spatial Science 51:143-150.

Dutkiewicz, A. Lewis, M. and Ostendorf, B. (2006). Mapping surface symptoms of dryland salinity with hyperspectral imagery. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol. 34, Part XXX [CD-ROM]

Dutkiewicz, A., Lewis, M. and Ostendorf, B. (2006). Development of procedures for mapping and monitoring the uptake of dryland lucerne with multispectral imagery. CRC Salinity Bulletin 3/200, CRC for plant-based management of Dryland Salinity. ISSN 1833-4237. http://www.crcsalinity.com/documents/key_publications/3-2006%20LucerneMapping%20b.pdf

Gallopin, F.;Lewis, M.;Ostendorf, B. (2006) Use of CASI-2 hyperspectral imagery for evaluation of vineyard variability. Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker 507:19-24

Lewis, M.M. (2002). Spectral characterisation of Australian arid zone plants. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 28:219-230.

Lewis, M.M. (2002). Mapping arid vegetation associations with HyMap imagery. Proceedings, International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium, 24-28 June 2002, Toronto, Canada. [CD-ROM]

Lewis, M.M., Jooste, V. and de Gasparis, A.A. (2001). Discimination of arid vegetation with Airborne Multispectral Scanner hyperspectral imagery. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 39:1471-1479.

Lewis, M.M. (2000). Discrimination of arid vegetation composition with high spectral resolution imagery. The Rangeland Journal 22:141-167.

Lewis, M.M. (1998). Numeric classification as an aid to spectral mapping of vegetation communities. Plant Ecology 136:133-150.

Grierson, I.T. and Lewis, M.M. (1998). Evaluation of arid land systems using airborne video. Geocarto International 13:17-26.

Lewis, M.M. (1994). Species composition related to spectral classification in an Australian spinifex hummock grassland. International Journal of Remote Sensing 15:3223-3239.

Thomas, D.A., Sun, X., Zhang, J., Zhu, J., Lewis, M. and Xu, P. (1994). land capability of Fukang County, Xinjiang Province, People's Republic of China. Arid Soil Research and Rehabilitation 8:373-387

Lewis, M.M. and Schaffer, K. (1988). Review of research on women in environmental sciences. Women in Natural Resources 9:12-13

Files

• Honours projects in Spatial Information Science - Spatial_Hons2007.pdf [2.9MB] (application/pdf)
• Spatial Information Group - Spatial_Information_Group_A5_flyer.pdf [830.7K] (application/pdf)

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Environment
Expertise	Vegetation (conservation, mapping and survey, regeneration); remote sensing and geographic information systems (use of satellite and airborne imagery for environmental mapping and monitoring, new generation high resolution sensors); arid lands/rangeland ecology and management; mapping of vegetation; satellite technology; vegetation ecology
Notes	Alt phone: (08) 8303 7210

Entry last updated: Sunday, 24 Aug 2008