OVERVIEW 

Rory is currently working on a range of  European Commission and European Space Agency-funded initiatives which seek to connect maritime and coastal stakeholders to tools and services arising from Europe’s Space and spatial data infrastructure investments. These include strategic capacity building and planning endeavours for the Atlantic (ESA Blue Economy) and Black Sea (H2020 DOORS) regions, a project focused on European research infrastructures (Danubius-IP) to promote the whole land-to-sea aspect of river systems, and one seeking to restore one of Europe’s largest land-to-sea river systems (Horizon-Europe Danube4All). In addition, he is active in GEO Blue Planet, working with global maritime stakeholders and connecting them to space opportunities, and sits on the group’s Steering Committee.

These current commitments build upon his extensive research portfolio covering a wide range of satellite data- and GIS-application areas. These include:

• Characterising distinct Irish vegetation phenology classes, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency through the Climate Change Impacts on Phenology
• UCC’s Marine Irish Digital Atlas,
• The SECAD Community Trails Development Project for South & East Cork Area Development Ltd.
• The ESA-funded CCI-Soil Moisture project
  the European Space Agency funded eSurge project, which aimed to increase the use of satellite Earth Observation data in storm surge modelling and forecasting,
• The EC FP7-funded SAFI project, supporting the aquaculture and fisheries industries with decision support information derived from satellite-data
• The EC H2020-Co-ReSyF, and European Space Agency funded Coastal-TEP (Thematic Exploitation Platform) Initiatives, building gateways unlocking the wealth of Coastal Information contained in Earth Observation datasets,
• The European Space Agency funded CINMarS project, developing a roadmap for Blue Economy clusters to drive and harness innovation in joint space-maritime opportunities.
• The INTERREG-AA KETMaritime project, developing a systemic roadmap to enhance Key Enabling Technology uptake by the Maritime sector.
• The ESA-funded EODAT project, which produced the #EOCaribbean2018 roadmap for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

In 2022, Rory completed his Ph.D. research, exploiting the spatio-temporal patterns recorded in hypertemporal Earth Observation archives of our ocean surface, to map the heterogeneity characteristics of the ocean’s surface. The research was undertaken as part of the H2020-funded Co-ReSyF Initiative, building an online platform to enable non-EO experts and new coastal researchers to explore, and gave insights into the potential of accessing the wealth of information hidden in Earth Observation data archives.

Rory is a graduate of University College Cork, with a B.Sc. in Applied Ecology, a Joint MSc. in Geo-information and Earth Observation for Environmental Modelling and Management (studying in the Universities of Southampton, Lund, Warsaw, Boston, and in ITC (University of Twente), and a Ph.D.(Sc) in Geography from UCC. His work aligns with the Maritime focus of MaREI’s Earth Observation and Applied GIS grouping who he regularly coordinates his efforts with.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further information on Rory’s activities in UCC can be found on his UCC Research Profile.