For many years Fiona has been interested in the use of satellite imagery for monitoring short and long term changes on planet Earth. This interest has led her to undertake fieldwork in places as diverse as Greenland, the Canadian Arctic, the Chilean Andes, and English saltmarshes. She has looked at clouds, at ice and snow, at habitats and biodiversity and at volcanic ash... the linking factor being that all are elements of the Earth System and all are either vulnerable to environmental change and/or are drivers of such change. When not getting cold and dirty in the field, she can be found sitting at her desk looking at satellite images of these phenomena and many others besides, and in recent years her interest has turned more towards changing vegetation patterns in Ireland. In this context Fiona has been Principal Investigator on several EPA funded projects, most recently FLARES, which explored the number and size of wildfires in Ireland from 2015-2021 with burn scars mapped using satellite images acquired by Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2. A follow-on project has been awarded funding from the EPA and will begin in March 2023, exploring the longer history of wildfires from the 1990s to the present day and their relationship to land use policy and/or climate changes. Previous land cover mapping projects such as TaLAM, which explored methods for integrating different satellite and vector datasets for national landcover mapping, have been instrumental in informing the ongoing EPA/OSi national Land Cover and Habitat Map. The EU-INTRREG funded ECHOES project has involved working with a team of remote sensors, ecologists, ornithologists and geospatial scientists to generate online land management tools for practitioners working in habitats affected by coastal squeeze, whilst also learning more about the habits of the Eurasian Curlew and Greenland White-fronted Goose. Fiona also has a passion for sharing her interest with others and, as

Fiona has had a long interest in all aspects of Geoinformatics and their application to environmental issues. Her PhD studies focused on the role of clouds in controlling the radiation balance of the Greenland ice sheet, and how changes in cloud cover with changes in climate may result in variations in melt and runoff. The glaciological theme was continued into postdoctoral studies based in Canada, using imagery to map and monitor the changing ice extent in the Canadian High Arctic. Fieldwork in the Arctic was undertaken in support of the CryoSat calibration and validation project. Upon accepting a lectureship in Remote Sensing at University College Cork, her environmental applications of satellite imagery have moved towards a vegetation and coastal theme, although 5 months spent as a visiting scientist in Chile in 2009 allowed her to re-engage with glaciological and climate related issues. Fiona's long term aim is to develop a Centre of Excellence in Earth Observation and Visualisation at UCC, promoting research and education in this field. Fiona is the leader of the Geoinformatics Research Cluster in the School of the Human Environment, a group that comprises staff members and postgraduate students from across the Departments of Geography and Archaeology, as well as researchers from MaREI with whom the research cluster has very strong links. Recent research projects within the Remote Sensing cohort of the group have included mapping Irish agricultural regions, notably grassland areas, and upland regions, using a variety of spectral and spatial resolutions; using microwave sensing for forestry applications; the potential offered by unmanned aerial vehicles; terrestrial laser scanning of coastal processes; atmospheric phenomena from imagery; tree phenology from satellites and phenocams; marine frontal detection; mapping burn scars from wildfire events... and more! Current projects include investigation of grassland functional traits and biodiversity from fi

Fiona is a Senior Lecturer whose main teaching interests are in remote sensing and the use of satellite imagery for different environmental applications. She also teaches quantitative research methods, physical geography and contemporary geographical issues in environmental geography. Fiona is the co-ordinator for the BSc Geography degree, and in alternate years the co-ordinator for the BSc Earth Science degree (shared with Geology). Fiona was one of the co-ordinators of the MSc Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing when it was operational, and currently helps support the co-ordination of the MSc in Applied Coastal and Marine Management