Dr. John Connolly
Kinsella Assistant Professor, Geography
Biography
Dr. John Connolly is The Kinsella Assistant Professor in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing and leads the Trinity Geospatial Research Group. He joined Trinity College Dublin in September 2020. He teaches GIS and remote sensing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. John's research uses GIS and Earth Observation to study the terrestrial environment including land use change; landscape carbon dynamics; solar mapping and habitat assessment using EO. He has produced more than 30 journal articles, reports and policy statements including articles in leading international peer-review journals such as: Earth Science Reviews; International Journal of Remote Sensing and Biogeosciences.
John is currently the Principal Investigator for the EPA funded iHabiMap project (2019 - 2023) and the DAFM Funded RePEAT project (2022 - 2024).
He is a CO-PI on several projects including the EPA & NPWS funded Irish Peatland Resilience project(2021 - 2024), SmartBog project(2019-2023); the DAFM funded GENENET project project (2020-2022) and the SFI funded Enable SolarMap Project (2020-2021). He is also an international collaborator on the Boston University led GLanCE Project(2019-2024). He has co-ordinated several national and international research proposals including FP7, H2020, EPA, DAFM and a Google Earth Engine Research Award. John Collaborates widely and has active collaborations with colleagues in Ireland, Germany, UK, Sweden, USA, Canada and Brazil. He is also a Coordinating Lead Author on Chapter 2.1 of the Global Peatland Assessment
He currently co-supervises four PhD students (two at Trinity, one in NUI Galway and one in Greifswald University) and co-supervises two Post Doctoral Researchers.
He is interested in supervising PhD students, and working with Post Doctoral researchers interested in applied GIS and Earth Observation (Google Earth Engine etc.) under the following themes
· Global Land use and land use change using EO
· Landscape carbon dynamics (Net Ecosystem Exchange)
· Mapping peatlands and peatland degradation
· Mapping peatlands and peatland degradation
· Mapping the historical extent of peatlands and loss of carbon
· Mapping Ecosystem Services in the natural environment
· EO for renewable energy (i.e. Solar Mapping, Marine Survey)
· Permafrost degradation and net ecosystem exchange in the Arctic
Prior to joining Trinity College Dublin, John held positions at Dublin City University, Lund University, University College Cork and University College Dublin
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Islam, M. T., Bradley, A. V., Sowter, A., Andersen, R., Marshall, C., Long, M., Bourke, M. C., Connolly, J., and Large, D. J., , Use of APSIS-InSAR measures of the range of vertical surface motion to improve hazard assessment of peat landslides, Mires and Peat, 2022
David Olefeldt1, MiDavid Olefeldt, Mikael Hovemyr, McKenzie A. Kuhn, David Bastviken, Theodore J. Bohn, John Connolly, Patrick Crill, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Hélène Genet, Guido Grosse, Lorna I. Harris, Liam Heffernan, Manuel Helbig, Gustaf Hugelius, Ryan Hutchins, Sari Juutinen, Mark J. Lara, Avni Malhotra, Kristen Manies, A. David McGuire, Susan M. Natali, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, Aleksi Räsänen, Christina Schädel, Oliver Sonnentag, Maria Strack, Suzanne Tank, Claire Treat, Ruth K. Varner, Tarmo Virtanen, Rebecca K. Warren, and Jennifer D. Wattskael Hovemyr2, McKenzie A. Kuhn1, David Bastviken3, Theodore J. Bohn4, John Connolly5, Patrick Crill6, Eugénie S. Euskirchen7,8, Sarah A. Finkelstein9, Hélène Genet8, Guido Grosse10,11, Lorna I. Harris1, Liam Heffernan12, Manuel Helbig13, Gustaf Hugelius2,14, Ryan Hutchins15, Sari Juutinen16, Mark J. Lara17,18, Avni Malhotra19, Kristen Manies20, A. David McGuire8, Susan M. Natali21, Jonathan A. O'Donnell22, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier23,24, Aleksi Räsänen25, Christina Schädel26, Oliver Sonnentag27, Maria Strack28, Suzanne Tank29, Claire Treat10, Ruth K. Varner2,30, Tarmo Virtanen25, Rebecca K. Warren31, and Jennifer D. Watts2, The Boreal-Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD), Earth System Science Data, doi.org/10.5194/essd, 2021
Jianghua Wu* , Matthias Peichl, Junwei Luan, John Connolly and Ligang Xu, Editorial: Wetland Ecology and Biogeochemistry Under Natural and Human Disturbances, Front. Earth Sci. - Biogeoscience, 2021
Budiman Minasny, Örjan Berglund, John Connolly, Carolyn Hedley, Folkert de Vries, Alessandro Gimona, Bas Kempen, Darren Kidd, Harry Lilja, Brendan Malone, Alex McBratney, Pierre Roudier, Sharon O'Rourke, José Padarian, Laura Poggio, Alexandre ten Caten, Daniel Thompson, Clint Tuve, Wirastuti Widyatmant , Digital Mapping of Peatlands, Earth Science Reviews, 196, 2019
Connolly, J. , Mapping Land use on Irish peatlands using medium resolution satellite imagery, Irish Geography, 51, (2), 2018
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, Switzlerand, Frontiers , [eds.], 2018-2021
Connolly, J. and Holden, N. M. , Detecting drains on a blanket bog using object based image analysis and very high resolution satellite imagery, Carbon Balance and Management, 12, (7), 2017
Tanneberger, F., Tegetmeyer, C., Busse, S., Barthelmes, A. and 55 others , The peatland map of Europe., Mires and Peat, 19, (22), 2017, p1 - 17
O' Connell. J, Connolly. J and Holden. N. , A monitoring protocol for vegetation change on Irish peatlands and heaths, Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 31, 2014, p130 - 142
Connolly J., Holden N.M., Classification of peatland disturbance, Land Degradation and Development, 24, (6), 2013, p548 - 555, p548-555
Frontiers in Earth Science: Cryospheric Science, Switzlerand, Frontiers , [Review Editor], 2013
O'Connell J., Connolly J., Vermote E.F., Holden N.M., Radiometric normalization for change detection in peatlands: A modified temporal invariant cluster approach, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 34, (8), 2013, p2905 - 2924, p2905-2924
Finnan, J.M., Styles, D.F., Fitzgerald, J., Connolly, J. and Donnelly, A. , Using a strategic environmental assessment framework to quantify the environmental impact of energy plans., Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 2011
Connolly J., Holden N.M., Object oriented classification of disturbance on raised bogs in the Irish Midlands using medium- and high-resolution satellite imagery, Irish Geography, 44, (1), 2011, p111 - 135, p111-135
Connolly J., Holden N.M., Mapping peatland disturbance in Ireland: An object oriented approach, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 8174, 2011
Connolly J., Holden N.M., Connolly J., Seaquist J.W., Ward S.M., Detecting recent disturbance on montane blanket bogs in the wicklow mountains, Ireland using the MODIS enhanced vegetation index, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32, (9), 2011, p2377 - 2393, p2377-2393
Connell J.O., Connolly J., Holden N.M., A multispectral multiplatform based change detection tool for vegetation disturbance on Irish peatlands, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 8174, 2011
Holden N.M., Connolly J., Estimating the carbon stock of a blanket peat region using a peat depth inference model, Catena, 86, (2), 2011, p75 - 85, p75-85
Connolly J., Roulet N.T., Seaquist J.W., Holden N.M., Lafleur P.M., Humphreys E.R., Heumann B.W., Ward S.M., Using MODIS derived fPAR with ground based flux tower measurements to derive the light use efficiency for two Canadian peatlands, Biogeosciences, 6, (2), 2009, p225 - 234, p225-234
Connolly J., Holden N.M., Mapping peat soils in Ireland: Updating the derived Irish peat map, Irish Geography, 42, (3), 2009, p343 - 352, p343-352
Connolly J., Holden N.M., Ward S.M., Mapping peatlands in Ireland using a rule-based methodology and digital data, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 71, (2), 2007, p492 - 499, p492-499
Research Expertise
Projects
- Title
- RePEAT- A Modern Resurvey of Mapped Irish Peatlands to Refine Assessment of Land Use Change and Progress Greenhouse Gas Removal and Emissions Inventories
- Funding Agency
- DAFM
- Date From
- 01-09-2021
- Date To
- 31-08-2024
- Title
- Irish Peatland Resilience
- Funding Agency
- EPA
- Date From
- 01-01-2022
- Date To
- 31-12-2023
- Title
- Habitat Mapping, Monitoring and Assessment using High-Resolution Imagery
- Funding Agency
- EPA
- Date From
- 2019
- Date To
- 2023
- Title
- Smart observation of management impacts on peatlands function (SmartBog)
- Funding Agency
- EPA
- Date From
- 2019
- Date To
- 2024
- Title
- SolarMap
- Funding Agency
- SFI
- Date From
- 2020
- Date To
- 2021
- Title
- GENENET
- Funding Agency
- DAFM
- Date From
- 2020
- Date To
- 2022
- Title
- Pan-Arctic Net Ecosystem Exchange
- Funding Agency
- Google Earth Engine Research Award
- Date From
- 2015
- Date To
- 2016
- Title
- Mire Ecosystem Transition Area Flux (METAflux).
- Funding Agency
- FP7 People Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship
- Title
- Remote sensing of grasslands for evaluating compliance with key environmental legislation.
- Funding Agency
- EPA
- Date From
- 2009
- Date To
- 20012
- Title
- Identification, mapping, assessment and quantification of the effects disturbance on the peat soil C stock in Ireland
- Funding Agency
- EPA
- Date From
- 2008
- Date To
- 2011
- Title
- Assessing & monitoring vegetation disturbance on Irish peatlands using satellite imagery
- Funding Agency
- EPA
- Date From
- 2007
- Date To
- 2010
Recognition
Representations
Journal Reviewer - Geoderma
Journal Reviewer - Geoderma
Member of Editorial Board for Frontiers in Earth Science
Invited Reviewer - Journal of Hydrology
Invited Reviewer - Biogeosciences
Invited reviewer - Frontiers in Earth Science
PhD. External Examiner
Memberships
Society for Ecological Restoration (SER)
International Peatland Society (IPS)
Geographical Society of Ireland (GSI)
Irish Geomorphological Society (IGGY)
European Geosciences Union
American Geosciences Union