Reader in Geographic Information

Contact Details

• Tel: 0116 252 3812
• Email: ajc36@le.ac.uk
• Fax: 0116 252 3854
• Office: Bennett Building F56

Research Interests

My research interests are in two primary areas: geocomputation and spatial analysis of policy.

I have developed and published research on topics that stretch from land use, habitats, spatial modelling, accessibility, the representation of geographic objects and processes, uncertainty in spatial data and heuristic optimization to metadata, public health, the spatial analysis of policy and the social construction of geographic information.

My early research considered issues associated with uncertainty and representation in spatial data with a focus on land use, land cover and habitat reporting.

More recent research has considered the use of the advanced spatial analyses to evaluate and to inform public policy and planning. This research interest in quantitative social geography developed from initial research in urban greenspace (as subset of land use). Subsequent work has included statistical modelling and has extended into method and algorithm development in the areas accessibility, spatial and public health planning and location-allocation.

Key research interests:

• Spatial analysis of policy
• Analysis of uncertainty in geographic information and spatial data
• Land Use / Habitats
• Accessibility / access
• Geocomputation

PhD Supervision

Current

• Ibrahim Al-Shwesh, 'Optimising health service provision'
• Emeka Chukwusa, 'Research developing location allocation models to support health accessibility'
• Ehsan Khalefa, 'Remote Sensing of savanna landscape structure using the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System’
• Ziab Khan 'Modelling and visualization of forest changes using GIS and remote sensing'
• Abdulhakim Khmag 'Fuzzy change detection'
• Tim Mackrill ‘Population Restoration of Ospreys in the UK’
• Idris Mohammed ‘Environmental contaminants and access to health care services in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria
• Samantha Russell, ' Quantifying the Minimum Viable Conservation Area for the Southern Rift Valley (Kenya) using Ecosystem Viability Analysis as the tool'
• Fariba Sotoudehnia 'Perceptions of greenspace accessibility and greenspace quality amongst different socio-economic groups'
• Andrew Tewkesbury, 'Land use maps from high resolution land cover by modelling spatial relationships and human perception'

Completed

• Mukhtar Elaalem, 'Fuzzy Land suitability assessment' completed November 2010

Research Areas for PhD Supervision

Spatial analysis of policy, Quantitative social geography, Accessibility and location-allocation; Heuristic searches; Analysis of uncertainty in geographic information and spatial data; Land use, habitats, land cover.

• Geographical Information Science Research Themes

Enquiries: If you are interested in studying for a PhD in one of these research areas, please make informal enquiries via geogPhD@le.ac.uk

Most Recent Publications

Comber A., Brunsdon, C. and Farmer, C. (in press). Community detection in spatial networks: inferring land use from a planar graph of land cover objects. Paper accepted for publication in International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation (January 2012)

Comber A., Brunsdon, C. and Phillips, M. (in press). A GWR comparison of spatial and perceived public service access for different socio-economic groups. Paper accepted for publication in Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy (December 2011)

Carver S, Comber A., McMorran R and Nutter S. (in press). Understanding spatial patterns and distribution of wild land: Developing GIS approaches to modelling wildness in Scotland's national parks. Paper accepted for publication by Landscape and Urban Planning (November 2011)

Comber, A., Umezaki, M., Zhou, R., Ding, Y., Li, Y., Fu, H, Jiang, H. and Tewkesbury, A. (2012). Using shadow in high resolution imagery to map residential density. Remote Sensing Letters, 3:7, 551-556

Comber A., Brunsdon, C. and Radburn, R. (2011). A spatial analysis of variations in health access: linking geography, socio-economic status and access perceptions. International Journal of Health Geographics, 10:44

Full listing of publications