2022 Joint Winner of our Undergraduate Dissertation Prize: Melissa McAlpine, University of Edinburgh - “Detecting the Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Mangrove Damage and Recovery from Satellite Imagery Following Hurricane Irma in Cuba”
During my geography degree at The University of Edinburgh I became interested in the impacts of the interactions between humans and the environment, mainly in the form of climate change. Climate change is predicted to greatly alter weather systems, including hurricanes which are predicted to become more severe. I also enjoyed learning GIS and coding techniques to analyse and model earth processes. This culminated in my dissertation titled: Detecting the Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Mangrove Damage and Recovery from Satellite Imagery Following Hurricane Irma in Cuba.
Mangroves dissipate storm surge energy during hurricanes, protecting the land behind them, whilst also providing key ecosystem services, notably carbon sequestration. My study used satellite derived NDVI changes over time as a proxy for mangrove damage following Hurricane Irma, to assess patterns in mangrove damage and recovery. Firstly, I found that Sentinel-2 satellite imagery was the best form of data, compared to lower resolution Landsat and MODIS imagery. Secondly, the relationship between mangrove recovery and time was significant, when adjusted for strong seasonality. Damage levels differed greatly across the study area, but the mangroves were generally resilient and recovered within a year. However, complete dieback occurred in basin-type forests prone to ponding and in fringing mangroves thereafter exposed to mud flat conversion. This work can contribute to mangrove restoration planning by highlighting key areas to restore mangroves and helps to predict areas prone to damage by future hurricanes in this area and beyond.
I am truly delighted to receive this prize and it makes all the hard work worth it! I am now leaving education to pursue a career in sustainability and conservation and am looking forward to starting my job in rewilding in September.