Profile

Biography

Colin McClean is a geographer and spatial analyst with over 20 years experience of spatial modelling across a range of research areas from conservation ecology and biodiversity through land use modelling  and pollution impacts to biogeochemistry. His work involves the application of spatial analysis and GIS to environmental management.  This work has involved modelling the potential impacts of climate change on African and UK plant species using species distribution modelling, the application of a number of reserve modelling and selection algorithms to both marine and terrestrial conservation problems. This work has include the use of machine learning optimisation methods such as genetic algorithms and simulated annealing.  Other recent collaborative work has included looking at Sahelian “greening” using detailed hydrologically relevant terrain modelling and the climate change impact modelling for the Shea Tree in the Sudano-Sahelian zone.  Common to most of this diverse work is the use of large and readily available spatial data sets for novel applications. Results from the climate change impacts work for Africa are cited in both the Stern Review and 2007 IPCC impact report. Work sponsored by WWF has been cited in the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution’s marine fisheries report.  

Career

BSc Edinburgh (1986) - Geography

PhD Durham (1991) - Geography

Post-doctoral research  -  Wales and South West Regional Research Laboratory, Cardiff (1989-1991)

Post-doctoral research  - Centre for Land Use and Water Resources Research, Newcastle (1991 -1995)

Lecturer/Senior lecturer - University of York (1996 - )

Research

Overview

General research interests involve the application of spatial analysis and GIS to environmental management. Research efforts in geography, the environmental sciences, ecology and environmental economics are strongly linked by the spatial distributions of the phenomena they seek to study. Many working in the field of GIS aim to develop new manipulation and analysis tools, however, the potential applications of relatively simple GIS analysis, in all of the above areas of study, has only begun to be explored. The major limitation to the exploitation of the tools that have been developed has been the paucity and quality of existing spatial data sets. These datasets are increasingly available, providing opportunities to consider environmental problems at the landscape, regional and global scales, where before only field-level studies might have been possible.

Grants

2012-2013	Natrural England	£33000	Climate Change Species Risk Assessment. With Colin Beale, Chris Thomas et al.
2009-2012	Defra Darwin Initiative	£218438	Developing tools for reducing biodiversity losses in tropical agricultural landscapes. With Jane Hill et al.
2009-2010	NERC/DFID	£97698	Transformation and shifts in production landscapes for livelihood improvements in the Sahel: building a partnership in research.  With Jennie Barron, Steve Cinderby, Jon Lovett et al.
2006-2010	EU	Eu167700	Innovative Tools and Techniques for Sustainable Use of the Shea Tree in Sudano-Sahelian zone. With Jon Lovett et al.
2004-2005	RELU	£18,364	Integrating spatial data on the rural economy, land use and biodiversity. With Piran White, Dave Raffaelli, University of Bristol, Scottish Agricultural College. Description of Land Use Modelling Methods (PDF , 31kb)
2003-2005	NERC	£10,2331	Modelling climate and land use influences on spatial patterns of UK plant biodiversity. With Chris Preston, CEH and Mette Termansen
2001-2003	Danish Social Science Research Council	£62.2K	Economic valuation of recreational benefits from afforestation projects and their optimal spatial location. With Mette Termansen
2001-2002	Conservation International	US$50K	Bioclimatic Modelling of the Eastern Arc Mountains, Tanzania. With Jon Lovett
2001-2002	Conservation International	US$35,527	Continental scale mapping of African plants. With Jon Lovett

Supervision

PhD Students

• Shaheen Begum (Commonwealth scholarship, jointly with Malcolm Cresser) 'Using catchment characteristics to predict water chemistry'
• Andrew Crowe (NERC, Jointly supervised with Malcolm Cresser) 'Quantification of land use/soil management effects on soil N storage pools'.
• Amy Hall (jointly supervised with Piran White) 'Small mammal movement patterns in habitat mosaics'
• Dongjin Kim (jointly with Malcolm Cresser) 'Estimating diffuse pollution loads in the Daechung watershed from GIS modelling'
• Sravut Klorvuttimontara (Thai Govt., jointly with Jane Hill) Modelling the effectiveness of protected areas for conserving tropical species under future climate warming
• Becky Ledger (NERC, jointly supervised with Chris Thomas, Biology Department) 'Modelling tree species distributions in North America and Europe'
• Crispen Marunda (jointly supervised with Jon Lovett) 'The interactive effects of environmental and socio-economic factors on degradation in the Save-Runde Catchment Area of Zimbabwe.'
• Koichiro Mori (jointly with Charles Perrings) 'Modelling Hydrological, Ecological and Economic Interactions in River Floodplains: Cases of River Ouse and River Derwent'
• Phil Platts (EU, jointly with Rob Marchant) 'Spatial modelling, phytogeography and converstion in the eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and Kenya'
• Mette Termansen (jointly supervised with Charles Perrings) 'A spatio-temporal approach to forest economics'

Publications

Full publications list

Books

• Chas-Amil M.L., Touza J., J.P. Prestemon J.P., McClean C.J. (2012) Natural and social factors influencing forest re occurrence at a local spatial scale. In: Spano D. et al (eds) Modelling Fire Behaviour and Risk., Global Fire Monitoring Center: Freiburg, Germany, 181-186
• McClean, C.J. (2009) The spatial disaagregation of GB and European agricultural land use statistics. In: Mount, N., Harvey, G., Aplin, P & Priestnal, G (eds) Representing Modelling and Visualizing the Natural Environment., London: CRC Press, 53-66.
• Termansen, M., McClean, C. and Skov-Petersen, H. (2008) Comparison of discrete choice modelling and accessibility based approaches: A forest recreation study. In: Wise, S. & Craglia, M.(ed) Innovations in GIS: GIS and Evidence-Based Polcy Making., London: CRC Press, 313-328.
• McClean, C., Cherrill, A. and Fuller, R. (1995) The integration of three land classifications within a Decision Support System for land use planning. In: Fisher, P. (ed.) Innovations in GIS 2, Taylor & Francis, London, 137-149.

 Articles in journals

• Hernout, B.V., Somerwill, K.E., Arnold, K.E., McClean, C.J., Boxall, A. (2013) A spatially-based modeling framework for assessing the risks of soil-associated metals to bats. Environmental Pollution, 173, 110-116.
• Dormann, C.F., Elith, J., Bacher, S., Buchmann, C., Carl, G., Carré, G., Marquéz, J.R.G., Gruber, B., Lafourcade, B., Leitão, P.J., Münkemüller, T., McClean, C., Osborne, P.E., Reineking, B., Schröder, B., Skidmore, A.K., Zurell, D., Lautenbach,S. (2013) Collinearity: a review of methods to deal with it and a simulation study evaluating their performance. Ecography, 36, 27–46
• Proctor, S., McClean, C.J. and Hill, J.K.(2011) Protected areas of Borneo fail to protect forest landscapes with high habitat connectivity. Biodiversity and Conservation, 20, 2693-2704.
• McClean, C.J., Ashmore, M.A., van den Berg, L.J.L. and Preston, C.D. (2011) Atmospheric nitrogen deposition explains patterns of plant species loss. Global Change Biology, 17, 2882–2892.
• Hernout, B.V.,Arnold, K.E., McClean, C.J., Grimm, V. Boxall, A. (2011) Predicting the threats of chemicals to wildlife: What are the challenges? Integrated environmental assessment and management, 7, 499-501.
• Klorvuttimontara, S., McClean, C. J. and Hill, J. K. (2011) Evaluating the effectiveness of Protected Areas for conserving tropical forest butterflies of Thailand. Biological Conservation, 144, 2534 - 2540.
• Platts P.J., Burgess, N.D., Gereau R.E., Lovett J.C., Marshall A.R., McClean C.J., Pellikka P.K.E., Swetnam, R.D,. Marchant R. (2011) Delimiting tropical mountain ecoregions for conservation. Environmental Conservation, 38, 312-324.
• Fox N.J., White P.C.L., McClean C.J., Marion G., Evans A. and Hutchings, M.R. (2011) Predicting impacts of climate change on Fasciola hepatica risk. PLoS one 6(1): e16126. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016126.         
• Begum, S., McClean, C.J., Cresser, M.S. and  Breward, N. (2010) Can sediment data be used to predict alkalinity and base cation chemistry of surface waters? Science of the Total Environment, 409, 404-11.
• Platts P.J., Ahrends A., Gereau R.E., McClean C.J., Lovett J.C., Marshall A.R., Pellikka P.K.E., Mulligan M., Fanning E. and Marchant R. (2010) Can distribution models help refine inventory-based estimates of conservation priority? A case study in the Eastern Arc forests of Tanzania and Kenya, Diversity and Distributions, 16, 628-642
• Mian, I. A., Begum, S., Riaz, M., Ridealgh, M. McClean, C.J. and Cresser, M.S. (2010) Spatial and long-term temporal trens in nitrate concentrations in the River Derwent, North Yorkshire and its need for NVZ status, Science of the Total Environment, 408, 702-712.
• Platts, P.J., McClean, C.J., Lovett, J.C., Marchant, R (2008) Predicting tree distributions in an East African biodiversity hotspot: model selection, data bias and envelope uncertainty, Ecological Modelling, 218, 121-134.
• Termansen, M., Zandersen, M. and McClean, C.J. (2008) Spatial substitution patterns in forest recreation, Regional Science and Urban Economics, 38, 81-97.
• McClean, C.J., Doswald, N, Küper, W, Sommer, J.H., Barnard, P. and Lovett, J.C. (2006) Climate change impacts on sub-Saharan African Plant Conservation Priorities, Diversity and Distribution, 12, 645-655.
• Pearson,R.G., Thuiller, W., Araújo, M.B., Martinez-Meyer, E., Brotons, L., McClean, C., Miles, L., Segurado, P., Dawson, T.P. and Lees, D.C. (2006)  Model-based uncertainty in species’ range prediction, Journal of Biogeography, 33, 1704-1711.
• Crowe, A.M., McClean, C.J. and Cresser, M.C. (2006) An Application of Genetic Algorithms to the Robust Estimation of Soil Organic and Mineral Fraction Densities, Environmental Modelling and Software,21, 1503-1507.
• Huby M, Cinderby S, Crowe AM, Gillings S, McClean CJ, Moran D, Owen A, White PCL (2006) The association of natural, social and economic factors with bird species richness in rural England, Journal of Agricultural Economics, 57, 295-312, 2006
• Termansen M., McClean C.J. and Preston C.D. (2006) The use of genetic algorithms and Bayesian classification to model species distributions, Ecological Modelling, 192, 410-424, 2006.
• Burgess, N., Brown, J., Westaway, S., Turpie, S., Meshack, C., Taplin, J., McClean, C., Lovett, J. (2005) Major gaps in the distribution of protected areas for threatened and narrow range Afrotropical plants, Biodiversity and Conservation, 14, 1877-1894.
• McClean, C.J., Lovett J., Küper, W., Hannah, L., Sommer, J.H., Barthlott, W., Termansen, M., Smith, G.F., Tokumine, S. and Taplin, J.R.D. (2005) African Plant Diversity and Climate Change, Annals of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, 92, 139-152.
• Crowe A.M., Sakata A, McClean C and Cresser MS. (2004) What factors control soil profile nitrogen storage? Water, Air & Soil Pollution, Focus, 4, 75-84.
• Balmford, A, Gravestock, P, Hockley, N, McClean, C and Roberts, C. (2004) The worldwide costs of marine protected areas, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci USA, 101 (26), 9694-9697.
• Termansen, M., McClean, C. and Skov-Petersen, H. (2004) Recreational Site Choice Modelling Using High Resolution Spatial Data. Environment and Planning A, 36, 1085-1099.
• White, P., McClean C., Woodroffe, G. (2003) Factors affecting the success of an otter (Lutra lutra) reinforcement, as identified by post-translocation monitoring. Biological Conservation, 112, 363-371.
• Pocock, M., White, P., McClean, C. , Searle, J. (2003) The use of accessibility in defining sub-groups of small mammals from point sampled data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 27, 71-83.
• Roberts C, McClean, C, Allen, G, Hawkins, J, McAllister, D, Mittermeier, C, Schueler, F, Spalding, M, Veron, E, Wells, F, Vynne, C,  Werner, T. (2002) Biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities in the sea, Science, 295, 1280-1284.
• Cherrill A. and McClean C. (2001), Omission and Commission Errors in the Field Mapping of Linear Boundary Features: Implications for the interpretation of Maps and Organization of Surveys, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 44(3), 331-343.
• Cherrill A., Mercer, C., McClean C., Tudor G. (2001), Assessing the Floristic Diversity of Hedge Networks: a landscape perspective, Landscape Research, 26(1), 55-64.
• McClean C. and Evans I. (2000), Apparent Fractal Dimensions from Continental Scale Digital Elevation Models using Variogram Methods, Transactions in GIS, 4(4), 361-378.
• Cherrill A. and McClean C. (2000), Lack of precision in mapping upland habitats and preliminary conservation assessments, Aspects of Applied Biology, 58, 167- 172.
• Cherrill A. and McClean C. (1999), The reliability of Phase 1 habitat mapping in the UK: the extent and type of observer bias, Landscape and Urban Planning, 45, 131-143.
• Cherrill A. and McClean C. (1999), Between-observer variation in the application of a standard method of habitat mapping by environmental consultants in the UK, Journal of Applied Ecology, 36, 989-1008.
• Cherrill A. and McClean C. (1997), The impact of landscape and adjacent land cover upon linear boundary features, Landscape Ecology, 12, 255-260.
• Cherrill, A. and McClean, C. (1995) An investigation of uncertainty in field habitat mapping and the implications for detecting land cover change. Landscape Ecology, 10 (1), 5-21.
• Cherrill, A, McClean, C., Lane, A. and Fuller, R. (1995) A comparison of land cover types in an ecological field survey in northern England and a remotely sensed land cover map of Great Britain, Biological Conservation, 71, 313-323.
• Cherrill, A., McClean, C., Watson, P., Tucker, K., Rushton, S., Sanderson, R. (1995) Predicting the distributions of plant species at the regional scale: a hierarchical matrix model, Landscape Ecology, 10 (4), 197-207.
• Evans, I. and McClean, C. (1995) The land surface is not unifractal: variograms, cirque scale and allometry, Zeitschrift fur Geomorphologie N.F. Suppl.-Bd., 101, 127-147.
• McClean C., Watson P., Wadsworth, R., Blaiklock, J. and O'Callaghan J. (1995) Land Use Planning: A Decision Support System, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 38 (1), 77-92.
• Moxey, A., McClean, C. and Allanson, P. (1995) Distributing agricultural census cover data by areal interpolation. Soil Use and Management, 11, 21-25.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Tools and Techniques for Studying the Environment (Year 1)
• The Earth (Year 1)
• Geographical Information Systems (year 2)
• Glaciology and Volcanism in Iceland - Field trip (Year 3)

Postgraduate

• Spatial Analysis