Dr Richard Streeter

Dr Richard Streeter

Senior Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 3853
Email
rts3@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

Dr Richard Streeter joined the School in 2013. Prior to that he undertook his undergraduate (2007) and PhD degree (2011) at the University of Edinburgh. 

Teaching

-     GG4251 Volcanic Ash: Dispersal, Impact and Applications 

-      Contributor to GG1002

-      Dissertation supervision 

Research areas

I am a physical geographer whose research focuses on understanding environmental change across a range of spatial and temporal scales. My work combines Earth Observation, UAV-based monitoring, geospatial analysis, and environmental reconstruction to investigate ecosystem dynamics, landscape degradation, volcanic processes, and human-environment interactions. My study areas include Scotland, Iceland, Finland, Chile, and the United States.

Earth Observation, Environmental Monitoring and Landscape Change

A major focus of my research is the application of UAVs, remote sensing, and Earth Observation technologies to monitor environmental change across diverse terrestrial and coastal landscapes. Using high-resolution UAV imagery, multispectral sensors, and satellite observations, I develop approaches for mapping vegetation structure, habitat condition, geomorphological processes, and ecosystem change.

Research applications include monitoring erosion and land degradation in high-latitude rangelands, assessing peatland condition and restoration success, and mapping the distribution, structure, and change of coastal and intertidal habitats such as saltmarshes and seagrass meadows. Increasingly, this work incorporates machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques for automated habitat mapping, object detection, environmental monitoring, and the integration of field observations with Earth Observation datasets.

The overarching aim of this research is to improve understanding of how landscapes and ecosystems respond to natural and human pressures, and to develop scalable monitoring approaches capable of linking detailed field and UAV observations with regional and national Earth Observation programmes.

Volcanic Ash, Environmental Reconstruction and Human-Environment Interactions

My research on volcanic ash (tephra) initially focused on the use of tephrochronology to provide precise chronological control for studies of past environmental change. Since then, I have become interested in how tephra deposits are modified by interactions with geomorphological processes, vegetation, and lake systems during and after fallout. Understanding these processes can improve both volcanic hazard assessment and the interpretation of tephra preserved within environmental archives.

Alongside this, I am increasingly developing automated and semi-automated approaches for tephra identification and characterisation, including the application of image analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. These methods have the potential to improve the speed, consistency, and reproducibility of tephra detection within complex sedimentary records.

A related strand of my research examines long-term interactions between people and their environments, particularly within North Atlantic landscapes. Much of this work has focused on reconstructing environmental change and soil erosion in Iceland and assessing the long-term sustainability of human settlement. By combining palaeoenvironmental records, geomorphological evidence, and geospatial analysis, I investigate how environmental and societal processes have interacted over centuries to millennia, shaping the resilience and vulnerability of landscapes to change.

PhD supervision

  • Mugdha Chimote
  • Innes Manders
  • Cathilyn McIntosh
  • Joe O'Sullivan
  • Alasdair Worrell
  • Yajie Zhu

Selected publications

 

See more publications