Associate Professor Bradley Evans

Associate Professor of Remote Sensing and Earth Observation - School of Environmental and Rural Science

Biography

Bradley is an Earth observation and remote sensing specialist who is passionate about Environmental Science, Biodiversity and research applying hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy to solve real world problems. Bradley has worked on projects associated with NASA’s OCO2 mission, working towards new ways of modelling plant growth using plant fluorescence.

Currently, Bradley is a community contributor to NASA JPL’s Surface Biology and Geology Study. Bradley is currently working on mapping (and modelling) Koala Habiat in NSW using Hyperspectral Imaging, with HyVista Corporation and researchers from The University of Sydney.

Bradley has served as Director of Australia’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, Ecosystem Modelling and Scaling Infrastructure, at Macquarie University and The University of Sydney. He has worked at the Australian Government Department of Defence, where he served on the AquaWatch and other committees related to Earth Observation. He has served as Director of Sydney Informatics Hub during his time at The University of Sydney.

As a Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council Training Centre on CubeSats, UAV’s and Their Applications, Bradley has led the development of an OpenSource Hyperspectral Imaging Spectrometer, OpenHSI (https://openhsi.github.io/), together with his students and CUAVA postdocs, in collaboration with PI Bachmann from Rochester Institute of Technology.

At The University of New England since 2023, Bradley has established the Earth Observation Laboratory with a special focus on water and wildlife habitat (koalas), and riverine water quality.

Qualifications

PhD in Environmental Science, Murdoch University, Western Australia, 2013

Bachelor of Science with Honours in Environmental Science Murdoch University, Western Australia, 2009

Bachelor of Science in Energy Studies, Murdoch University, Western Australia, 2009

Advanced Diploma in Marketing Management, TAFE NSW, Bradfield College, 1999

CASA RPAS sub 25kg (Multirotor Drone) – Current with UNE

Awards

2016 – Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network NSW – NSW Chief Scientist Award

2011 – Travel Scholarship from the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) for collaboration with VITO TAP SPOT VEGETATION group, Belgium.

2011 - Awarded travel and attendance scholarship for The National Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CCRSPI) Conference, Melbourne.

2010 - Travel Scholarship from European Fleet for Airborne Researchers (EUFAR) to attend their Hyper spectral Summer School in Hungary.

2010 – Travel scholarship from iVec.org travel and attendance scholarship recipient for Super Computing 2010, New Orleans, USA

2010 - Awarded travel scholarship from the Australian Research Council Network for Earth System Science for collaboration with Ohio State University, USA.

2010 - Awarded a Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland and Forest Health

PhD top-up Scholarship.

2008 - Master class Scholarship - Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.

2008 - Honours Scholarship – Department of Environment and Conservation.

Teaching Areas

GISC331 – Spatial Data Capture and Image Interpretation

GISC436 – Remote Sensing and Image Analysis

Primary Research Area/s

Environmental Science and Management; Earth Observation; Remote Sensing; Atmospheric Sciences; Ecological Applications; Agriculture, Land and Farm Management; Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing

Research Interests

2023 – NSW Department of Environment Koala’s in the Landscape project version 2 - $198K

2023 – The University of Sydney – Koala’s in the Air – Hyperspectral Mapping of Koala Habitat and NSW Drone Hub Surveys $70K

2022 - OpenHSI – An open source hyperspectral imager (various funding)

2019 – NASA Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Community Workshop, Keck Centre, Caltech, USA

2019 – European Space Agency – International Collaboration on Hyperspectral, ROME, Italy

2019 – Various projects for the Commonwealth Department of Defence, Defence Science and Technology Group

2018 - Landcare: Smart Farms: Llara

2017 - ARC Training Centre on Cubesats, UAVs, and Their Applications

2017 - ARC Training Centre for Food Safety in the Fresh Produce Industry

2017 – CRDC - Minimising yield variability to maximise yield in a cotton farming system

2017 - Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Ecosystem Modelling and Scaling Infrastructure

2016 – Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network NSW – NSW Chief Scientist Award

2015 - Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Ecosystem Modelling and Scaling Infrastructure

2014 - Awarded ARC Linkage to map drought risk of NSW forests

2013 – FLUXNET Workshop, NIWOT Ridge, Colorado, USA

2013 - Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network Ecosystem Modelling and Scaling Infrastructure

2013 - Awarded supervision of the Australian Tropical Savanna’s: Past, Present and Future ARC Discovery grant

2012 - Awarded the Australian National Data Service project ecosystem Production in Space and Time

2010 - European Fleet for Airborne Researchers (EUFAR) Hyper spectral Summer School

2010 - Awarded a Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland and Forest Health

Research Supervision Experience

I have supervised the following PhD Candidates:

1.           Rachel Green (primary supervisor) – University of New England – Commencing 2023
2.           Sagar Bajracharya (co-supervisor) – University of New England – Submitted 2023
3.           Yiwei Mao (primary supervisor) - The University of Sydney, Submitted 2023
4.           Samuel Garske (secondary supervisor) - The University of Sydney, Completion target 2024
5.           Savannah McGirk (roles of primary supervisor and co-supervisor) - The University of Sydney, Completion target 2023
6.           Ian Marang (roles of primary supervisor and co-supervisor) - Macquarie University and The University of Sydney, Competed 2021
7.           Ning Dong (co-supervisor, primary contact at completion) – Macquarie University - Completed 2017
8.           Caitlin Moore (co-supervisor) – Monash University – Completed 2016
9.           Henrique Furstenau Togashi (co-supervisor, primary contact at completion) – Macquarie University – Completed 2015.

I have supervised the following Honours and Masters (research and coursework) students:

1.           Rachel Green (primary supervisor on completion) – University of New England – Submitting 2023
2.           Rodney Aku (primary supervisor research project) – University of New England – Submitting 2024
3.           Joshua Critchly-Marrows – Masters - The University of Sydney, converted to PhD in 2022
4.           Mathieu Kasin – Honours - The University of Sydney, Completed 2018
5.           Pei Ru Wong - Masters - The University of Sydney, Completed 2019
6.           Bhakti Haldankar – Honours - The University of Sydney, Completed 2018
7.           Karl Sternberg – Honours - The University of Sydney, Completed 2017
8.           Julie Pawels - Masters – Completed 2015 - International (France)
9.           Noora Oosters - Masters – Completed 2015 - International (Belgium)

Publications

Beringer, J., L. B. Hutley, D. Abramson, S. K. Arndt, P. Briggs, M. Bristow, J. G. Canadell, L. A. Cernusak, D. Eamus, A. C. Edwards, B. J. Evans, B. Fest, K. Goergen, S. P. Grover, J. Hacker, V. Haverd, K. Kanniah, S. J. Livesley, A. Lynch, S. Maier, C. Moore, M. Raupach, J. Russell-Smith, S. Scheiter, N. J. Tapper and P. Uotila (2015). "Fire in Australian savannas: From leaf to landscape." Global Change Biology 21(1): 62-81.

Beringer, J., L. B. Hutley, I. McHugh, S. K. Arndt, D. Campbell, H. A. Cleugh, J. Cleverly, V. R. De Dios, D. Eamus, B. Evans, C. Ewenz, P. Grace, A. Griebel, V. Haverd, N. Hinko-Najera, A. Huete, P. Isaac, K. Kanniah, R. Leuning, M. J. Liddell, C. MacFarlane, W. Meyer, C. Moore, E. Pendall, A. Phillips, R. L. Phillips, S. M. Prober, N. Restrepo-Coupe, S. Rutledge, I. Schroder, R. Silberstein, P. Southall, M. Sun Yee, N. J. Tapper, E. Van Gorsel, C. Vote, J. Walker and T. Wardlaw (2016). "An introduction to the Australian and New Zealand flux tower network - OzFlux." Biogeosciences 13(21): 5895-5916.

Bloomfield, K. J., L. A. Cernusak, D. Eamus, D. S. Ellsworth, I. Colin Prentice, I. J. Wright, M. M. Boer, M. G. Bradford, P. Cale, J. Cleverly, J. J. G. Egerton, B. J. Evans, L. S. Hayes, M. F. Hutchinson, M. J. Liddell, C. Macfarlane, W. S. Meyer, S. M. Prober, H. F. Togashi, T. Wardlaw, L. Zhu and O. K. Atkin (2018). "A continental-scale assessment of variability in leaf traits: Within species, across sites and between seasons." Functional Ecology 32(6): 1492-1506.

Bloomfield, K. J., I. C. Prentice, L. A. Cernusak, D. Eamus, B. E. Medlyn, R. Rumman, I. J. Wright, M. M. Boer, P. Cale, J. Cleverly, J. J. G. Egerton, D. S. Ellsworth, B. J. Evans, L. S. Hayes, M. F. Hutchinson, M. J. Liddell, C. Macfarlane, W. S. Meyer, H. F. Togashi, T. Wardlaw, L. Zhu and O. K. Atkin (2019). "The validity of optimal leaf traits modelled on environmental conditions." New Phytologist 221(3): 1409-1423.

Broich, M., A. Huete, M. Paget, X. Ma, M. Tulbure, N. R. Coupe, B. Evans, J. Beringer, R. Devadas, K. Davies and A. Held (2015). "A spatially explicit land surface phenology data product for science, monitoring and natural resources management applications." Environmental Modelling and Software 64: 191-204.

Caddy-Retalic, S., A. N. Andersen, M. J. Aspinwall, M. F. Breed, M. Byrne, M. J. Christmas, N. Dong, B. J. Evans, D. A. Fordham, G. R. Guerin, A. A. Hoffmann, A. C. Hughes, S. J. van Leeuwen, F. A. McInerney, S. M. Prober, M. Rossetto, P. D. Rymer, D. A. Steane, G. M. Wardle and A. J. Lowe (2017). "Bioclimatic transect networks: Powerful observatories of ecological change." Ecology and Evolution 7(13): 4607-4619.

Davis, T. W., I. C. Prentice, B. D. Stocker, R. T. Thomas, R. J. Whitley, H. Wang, B. J. Evans, A. V. Gallego-Sala, M. T. Sykes and W. Cramer (2017). "Simple process-led algorithms for simulating habitats (SPLASH v.1.0): Robust indices of radiation, evapotranspiration and plant-available moisture." Geoscientific Model Development 10(2): 689-708.

De Kauwe, M. G., Y. S. Lin, I. J. Wright, B. E. Medlyn, K. Y. Crous, D. S. Ellsworth, V. Maire, I. C. Prentice, O. K. Atkin, A. Rogers, U. Niinemets, S. P. Serbin, P. Meir, J. Uddling, H. F. Togashi, L. Tarvainen, L. K. Weerasinghe, B. J. Evans, F. Y. Ishida and T. F. Domingues (2016). "A test of the 'one-point method' for estimating maximum carboxylation capacity from field-measured, light-saturated photosynthesis." New Phytologist 210(3): 1130-1144.

Dong, N., I. Colin Prentice, B. J. Evans, S. Caddy-Retalic, A. J. Lowe and I. J. Wright (2017). "Leaf nitrogen from first principles: Field evidence for adaptive variation with climate." Biogeosciences 14(2): 481-495.

Dong, N., I. C. Prentice, I. J. Wright, B. J. Evans, H. F. Togashi, S. Caddy-Retalic, F. A. McInerney, B. Sparrow, E. Leitch and A. J. Lowe (2020). "Components of leaf-trait variation along environmental gradients." New Phytologist 228(1): 82-94.

Evans, B. (2015). Land use, land use change and forestry: Asia-Pacific. Research Handbook on Climate Change Mitigation Law, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.: 344-358.

Evans, B., T. Lyons, P. Barber, C. Stone and G. Hardy (2012). "Enhancing a eucalypt crown condition indicator driven by high spatial and spectral resolution remote sensing imagery." Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 6(1).

Evans, B., T. J. Lyons, P. A. Barber, C. Stone and G. Hardy (2011). Detecting change in vegetation condition using high resolution digital multispectral imagery.

Evans, B., T. J. Lyons, P. A. Barber, C. Stone and G. Hardy (2012). "Dieback classification modelling using high-resolution digital multispectral imagery and in situ assessments of crown condition." Remote Sensing Letters 3(6): 541-550.

Evans, B., C. Stone and P. Barber (2013). "Linking a decade of forest decline in the south-west of Western Australia to bioclimatic change." Australian Forestry 76(3-4): 164-172.

Evans, B. J. and T. Lyons (2013). "Bioclimatic extremes drive forest mortality in southwest, Western Australia." Climate 1(2): 28-52.

Evans, B. J., P. T. W. Wong and P. M. Martin (2016). Effect of temperature, osmotic potential and pH on the growth of the turf pathogens Gaeumannomyces wongoonoo and Magnaporthe griffinii. Acta Horticulturae. P. A. Nektarios and K. W. McAuliffe, International Society for Horticultural Science. 1122: 49-54.

Fürstenau Togashi, H., I. Colin Prentice, O. K. Atkin, C. Macfarlane, S. M. Prober, K. J. Bloomfield and B. J. Evans (2018). "Thermal acclimation of leaf photosynthetic traits in an evergreen woodland, consistent with the coordination hypothesis." Biogeosciences 15(11): 3461-3474.

Hutley, L. B., B. J. Evans, J. Beringer, G. D. Cook, S. W. Maier and E. Razon (2013). "Impacts of an extreme cyclone event on landscape-scale savanna fire, productivity and greenhouse gas emissions." Environmental Research Letters 8(4).

Kala, J., J. Andrys, T. J. Lyons, I. J. Foster and B. J. Evans (2015). "Sensitivity of WRF to driving data and physics options on a seasonal time-scale for the southwest of Western Australia." Climate Dynamics 44(3-4): 633-659.

Kala, J., B. J. Evans, T. J. Lyons and I. J. Foster (2011). Dynamical downscaling for the southwest of Western Australia using the WRF modelling system.

Liu, N., R. J. Harper, R. N. Handcock, B. Evans, S. J. Sochacki, B. Dell, L. L. Walden and S. Liu (2017). "Seasonal timing for estimating carbon mitigation in revegetation of abandoned agricultural land with high spatial resolution remote sensing." Remote Sensing 9(6).

Mao, Y., C. H. Betters, B. Evans, C. P. Artlett, S. G. Leon-Saval, S. Garske, I. H. Cairns, T. Cocks, R. Winter and T. Dell (2022). "OpenHSI: A Complete Open-Source Hyperspectral Imaging Solution for Everyone." Remote Sensing 14(9).

Mao, Y., C. H. Betters, S. Garske, J. Randle, K. C. Wong, I. H. Cairns and B. J. Evans (2023). "A Customisable Data Acquisition System for Open-Source Hyperspectral Imaging." Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) 23(20).

Mao, Y., C. H. Lee, C. M. Bachmann, B. J. Evans and I. H. Cairns (2023). "High resolution imaging spectroscopy of the sky." Solar Energy 262.

Marang, I. J., P. Filippi, T. B. Weaver, B. J. Evans, B. M. Whelan, T. F. A. Bishop, M. O. F. Murad, D. Al-Shammari and G. Roth (2021). "Machine learning optimised hyperspectral remote sensing retrieves cotton nitrogen status." Remote Sensing 13(8).

Marchin, R. M., I. McHugh, R. R. Simpson, L. J. Ingram, D. S. Balas, B. J. Evans and M. A. Adams (2018). "Productivity of an Australian mountain grassland is limited by temperature and dryness despite long growing seasons." Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 256-257: 116-124.

Moore, C. E., J. Beringer, R. J. Donohue, B. Evans, J. F. Exbrayat, L. B. Hutley and N. J. Tapper (2018). "Seasonal, interannual and decadal drivers of tree and grass productivity in an Australian tropical savanna." Global Change Biology 24(6): 2530-2544.

Moore, C. E., J. Beringer, B. Evans, L. B. Hutley, I. McHugh and N. J. Tapper (2016). "The contribution of trees and grasses to productivity of an Australian tropical savanna." Biogeosciences 13(8): 2387-2403.

Moore, C. E., J. Beringer, B. Evans, L. B. Hutley and N. J. Tapper (2017). "Tree-grass phenology information improves light use efficiency modelling of gross primary productivity for an Australian tropical savanna." Biogeosciences 14(1): 111-129.

Moore, C. E., T. Brown, T. F. Keenan, R. A. Duursma, A. I. J. M. Van Dijk, J. Beringer, D. Culvenor, B. Evans, A. Huete, L. B. Hutley, S. Maier, N. Restrepo-Coupe, O. Sonnentag, A. Specht, J. R. Taylor, E. Van Gorsel and M. J. Liddell (2016). "Reviews and syntheses: Australian vegetation phenology: New insights from satellite remote sensing and digital repeat photography." Biogeosciences 13(17): 5085-5102.

Sun, Y., C. Frankenberg, J. D. Wood, D. S. Schimel, M. Jung, L. Guanter, D. T. Drewry, M. Verma, A. Porcar-Castell, T. J. Griffis, L. Gu, T. S. Magney, P. Köhler, B. Evans and K. Yuen (2017). "OCO-2 advances photosynthesis observation from space via solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence." Science 358(6360).

Togashi, H. F., O. K. Atkin, K. J. Bloomfield, M. Bradford, K. Cao, N. Dong, B. J. Evans, Z. Fan, S. P. Harrison, Z. Hua, M. J. Liddell, J. Lloyd, J. Ni, H. Wang, L. K. Weerasinghe and I. C. Prentice (2018). "Functional trait variation related to gap dynamics in tropical moist forests: A vegetation modelling perspective." Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 35: 52-64.

Togashi, H. F., I. C. Prentice, B. J. Evans, D. I. Forrester, P. Drake, P. Feikema, K. Brooksbank, D. Eamus and D. Taylor (2015). "Morphological and moisture availability controls of the leaf area-to-sapwood area ratio: Analysis of measurements on Australian trees." Ecology and Evolution 5(6): 1263-1270.

Van Gorsel, E., S. Wolf, J. Cleverly, P. Isaac, V. Haverd, C. Ewenz, S. Arndt, J. Beringer, V. R. De Dios, B. J. Evans, A. Griebel, L. B. Hutley, T. Keenan, N. Kljun, C. Macfarlane, W. S. Meyer, I. McHugh, E. Pendall, S. M. Prober and R. Silberstein (2016). "Carbon uptake and water use in woodlands and forests in southern Australia during an extreme heat wave event in the "angry Summer" of 2012/2013." Biogeosciences 13(21): 5947-5964.

Verma, M., D. Schimel, B. Evans, C. Frankenberg, J. Beringer, D. T. Drewry, T. Magney, I. Marang, L. Hutley, C. Moore and A. Eldering (2017). "Effect of environmental conditions on the relationship between solar-induced fluorescence and gross primary productivity at an OzFlux grassland site." Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 122(3): 716-733.

Wang, H., I. C. Prentice, T. F. Keenan, T. W. Davis, I. J. Wright, W. K. Cornwell, B. J. Evans and C. Peng (2017). "Towards a universal model for carbon dioxide uptake by plants /704/47 /704/158/851 letter." Nature Plants 3(9): 734-741.

Whitley, R., J. Beringer, L. B. Hutley, G. Abramowitz, M. G. De Kauwe, R. Duursma, B. Evans, V. Haverd, L. Li, Y. Ryu, B. Smith, Y. P. Wang, M. Williams and Q. Yu (2016). "A model inter-comparison study to examine limiting factors in modelling Australian tropical savannas." Biogeosciences 13(11): 3245-3265.

Whitley, R., J. Beringer, L. B. Hutley, G. Abramowitz, M. G. De Kauwe, B. Evans, V. Haverd, L. Li, C. Moore, Y. Ryu, S. Scheiter, S. J. Schymanski, B. Smith, Y. P. Wang, M. Williams and Q. Yu (2017). "Challenges and opportunities in land surface modelling of savanna ecosystems." Biogeosciences 14(20): 4711-4732.

Memberships

2023- Vice President of Earth Observation Australia. Read more

Consultancy Interests

I am open to consulting into any area I am a specialise in.

Community and Advocacy Organisation Collaborations

2023 – Earth Observation Australia Management Committee
2022 – AquaWatch Steering Committee - Commonwealth Department of Defence, Defence Science and Technology Group
2019 – NASA Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) Community Workshop, Keck Centre, Caltech, USA
2019 – European Space Agency – International Collaboration on Hyperspectral, ROME, Italy