Christine Brown

 

Inventory GIS Officer, Biometrics, Surveys and Statistics Division

Christine started her career as a cartographer in the Scottish Office, New St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, working within the Scottish Development Department (SDD) Graphics Group.  In 1990, she joined the Forestry Commission as a cartographer within Forest Surveys Drawing Office in FC HQ Edinburgh.  Work involved mainly mapping FC Disposals and Acquisitions and producing FE Inventory (Stock) Maps.

In 1993 she progressed to the GIS Development Division working on the National Inventory of Woodland and Trees (NIWT).  Initially selecting samples and producing survey maps for field survey teams, leading to the creation of the digital woodland map.  On completion of the fieldwork she carried out spatial analysis of the woodland data, which formed the basis of the published series of NIWT reports.  She also contributed to the publication side producing artwork and tables for the reports.

In September 2005 she started a part-time MSc GIS and Remote Sensing course at University of Edinburgh.

Current role

Inventory GIS Officer, Biometrics, Surveys and Statistics Division

Current programmes

National Inventory of Woodland and Trees

• Development of methodology for production of NIWT2 woodland map trialing use of ‘NextMap’ orthorectified radar imagery and colour orthorectified aerial imagery for woodland capture on screen
• Investigating the use of eCognition software to develop methods to build automated digital maps of the forest cover that are more detailed and faster to produce than the traditional photo-interpretation method
• Develop and trial various sampling methods in conjunction with statisticians, with an aim to produce a method resulting in a 1% sample of all woodland, forming the basis of NIWT2 survey
• Spatial analysis of data derived from the NIWT version 1 digital woodland map delivered in various formats to accommodate customer requirements
• Provision of custom designed digital maps, to supplement and illustrate woodland data and statistics.

Research areas

• GIS – ESRI software and extensions also ERDAS and eCognition applications
• Remote sensing – Aerial photography interpretation, satellite imagery
• Digital cartography.

Main recent publications