Laurie is a geographer and GeoQuEST Research Centre member with research interests in biogeography, landscape ecology, and disturbance ecology for sustainable resource management. She combines field studies with remotely-sensed data (airborne, satellite, LIDAR) and simulation modelling to investigate a range of environmental problems at multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Ongoing research interests focus on the use of hyperspectral data for monitoring vegetation physiological activity and health in native eucalypt and exotic pine plantations in Australia. Research has included the development of techniques and statistical tools for use with hyperspectral remotely sensed data to investigate the behaviour of spectral features related to river red gum forest moisture stress. In addition, Laurie has collaborated with researchers from State Forests and CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products in a series of investigations aimed at developing a method of assessing forest health using remote sensing technology for a range of stressors (fungal, nutrient).
In conjunction with international research collaborators, she is investigating:
• differentiation of selected Australian woodland species using CASI data merged with LIDAR (M. Paterson, UNSW, and R Lucas, Aberystwyth);
• multi-scale approaches to extrapolate landscape patterns from local to regional scale using remotely-sensed data and a variety of unique spatial analysis techniques (Greg Asner, Carnegie Institute, Stanford; Carol Wessman CIRES, UC-Boulder; and Steve Archer (Univ Arizona-Tucson); and
• land use changes in fragmented landscapes related to “seachangers” in rural NSW (P. Klepeis, Colgate University; N. Gill, University of Wollongong).
In 2003 Laurie was an expert panel member conducting investigations into observed river red gum decline along the River Murray. She was co-consultant with John Marthick for the project “Mapping Riparian Vegetation Communities in the Hydrological Catchment”, undertaken for the Sydney Catchment Authority in 2001. While serving as the Associate Director for the Centre for Image Analysis at Charles Sturt University, Laurie was the lead GIS consultant for the UN-FAO Project CPR/91/151 “Establishment of a National Forest Resource Monitoring System” undertaken in the People’s Republic of China from 1994-97.
She serves on a variety of administrative committees at the School and Faculty level, and works closely with colleagues to strategically further the development of spatial science research and curriculum.
