Profile

Career

Research

Overview

General research interests involve the application of GIS to environmental management. Research efforts in the environmental sciences, ecology and environmental economics are strongly linked by the spatial distributions of the phenomena they seek to study. GIS allow the handling, manipulation and analysis of large spatial data sets. Many working in the field of GIS aim to develop 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 is the paucity and quality of existing spatial data sets. My research interests lie in the application of GIS to the study of spatial processes in the environment across a range of scales, attempting to overcome the associated data uncertainty problems.

Environmental economics applications

My work with Mette Termansen, an environmental economist, has begun to apply spatial data handling and analysis techniques, available in GIS software, to high resolution spatial data. We’ve applied these techniques to assess the recreational use of forest sites in Denmark. The GIS analysis is coupled with a random utility model approach to assess the importance of a number of spatial forest site characteristics in peoples' decisions to use particular forest sites for recreation. Carolina Tagliofierro, whom Riccardo Scarpa and I jointly supervise, is carrying out an application using similar data to alternative valuation methods in the Sorrento Peninsula, Italy.

Modelling Climate change impacts on plant diversity

Recent work at the African continental scale has involved modelling the effects of climate change on sub-Saharan African plant species. The climatic envelopes describing the spatial distributions of individual plant species are found using a genetic algorithm approach. As climate changes (predicted by general circulation models), the climate envelops for species can be plotted to give an indication of the contraction or expansion of areas of suitable climate for a species under the new climate conditions. This work has been sponsored by Conservation International and involves collaborations with Lee Hannah in Washington and Jon Lovett in the department. We are currently improving the approaches we have developed in an application looking at climate change, land use and all UK plant species. This work, again with Mette Termansen is funded by NERC and involves collaboration with Chris Preston at CEH Monks Wood.

Analysing African plant diversity

The use of spatial data is also of relevance to the investigation of the continental scale determinants of biodiversity. I’m currently collaborating with Jon Lovett and colleagues at the University of Bonn, Germany, analysing the underlying species data used in the bioclimatic modelling work discussed above.

Mapping marine biodiversity and looking at the costs of marine protected areas

I have also worked on a project at the global scale with Callum Roberts to look at patterns of biodiversity in species associated with coral reefs. The map below shows one of the outputs from this, an indication of reef fish species richness. All cells shown are species rich, but richness increases from the cold blue colours to the warm red colours.

Recently published work has involved modelling the cost implications of different spatial coverage of the marine environment by marine protected areas. This work was also carried out with Callum Roberts and Andrew Balmford (Cambridge).

Work involving DEMs

I also work with Malcolm Cresser and his research group on modelling river water quality for catchment management purposes, biogeochemical cycling of nutrient elements (particularly in the context of long-term soil sustainability and environmental protection), predicting ecotoxicity from soil characteristics, and quantifying effects of atmospheric and soil pollution on the functioning of the soil/plant/water system, especially in UK uplands. The analysis of terrain using DEMs is part of this work.

UK Land Use and Ecology

I’ve collaborated for several years with Andy Cherrill at the University of Sunderland investigating the quality of land cover survey data available for use in ecology work. It is not only the spatial location of ecological boundaries during survey that may lead to error in data sets, but also the interpretation of classification systems by individuals collecting data in the field. The map below shows how many, out of a group of six ecologists, agreed about the land cover of the area.

I’ve worked with Piran White, Michael Pocock, Jeremy Searle on using spatial analysis techniques, DEMs and land cover data to study British mammal species including the otter and house mouse.

Recently, Piran White, Dave Raffaelli and myself along with colleagues in the University of Bristol, Scottish Agricultural College and others have been funded by the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) programme to develop methods to integrate agricultural census data with other spatial data relating to land cover and ecology.

Grants

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

• Andrew Crowe (NERC, Jointly supervised with Malcolm Cresser) 'Quantification of land use/soil management effects on soil N storage pools'.
• Carolina Tagliafierro (jointly supervised with Riccardo Scarpa) 'Valuation of agriculture multifunctionality with integration of economic models and GIS'.
• Becky Ledger (NERC, jointly supervised with Chris Thomas, Biology Department) 'Testing the power of distribution models to predict distribution and population changes'.
• Crispen Marunda (jointly supervised with Jon Lovett).
• Amy Hall (jointly supervised with Piran White)
• Mette Termansen (jointly supervised with Charles Perrings)

Publications

Full publications list

Books

• Termansen, M., McClean, C. and Skov-Petersen, H.  A comparison of discrete choice modelling and accessibility based approaches: A forest recreation study. In: Wise, S. (ed) Innovations in GIS 12. (In Press)
• 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.

Papers

• Burgess, N., Brown, J., Westaway, S., Turpie, S., Meshack, C., Taplin, J., McClean, C., Lovett, J.  Major gaps in the distribution of protected areas for threatened and narrow range Afrotropical plants, Biodiversity and Conservation. (In press)
• 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.

Conference abstracts/proceedings

• Termansen, M., McClean C. and Scarpa, R. (2004) Economic Valuation of Danish Forest Recreation combining mixed logit models and GIS. EAERE conference, June 25th-28th, Budapest.
• Calver, L., Smart, R., McClean, C. and Cresser, M (2004) Modelling the Spatial Distribution of Soil Chemical Characteristics and Associated Drainage Waters: A Case Study in the Lake District. "GIS Research UK 2004: 12th Annual Conference". University of East Anglia.
• McClean, C., Cresser, M., Smart, R., Aydinalp, C. (2003)  Unsustainable irrigation practices in the Bursa Plain, Turkey.  International Water Association, 7th International Conference on Diffuse Pollution & Basin Management, 18 – 22 August, 2003, Dublin, Ireland.
• Termansen, M. and McClean, C. (2002). Recreation Value of Landscape Changes. Presented at the Second World Congress of Environmental and Resource Economists, June 24-27, Monterey, California.
• Termansen, M, McClean, C. and Skov-Petersen, H.(2002) Recreational site choice modelling using a GIS approach. Paper prepared for the conference: "GIS Research UK 2002: 10th Annual Conference". University of Sheffield.
• Tokumine S, McClean CJ, Lovett JC (2002) A genetic algorithm based approach to present and future bioclimatic modelling of continental scale sub-Saharan African plant distributions in a GIS. Paper prepared for the conference: "GIS Research UK 2002: 10th Annual Conference". University of Sheffield.
• Tokumine S, McClean CJ, Lovett JC, Taplin J (2002) A genetic algorithm based approach to present and future bioclimatic modelling of continental scale sub-Saharan African plant distributions in a GIS. Poster prepared for the British Ecological Society conference: "Macroecology". University of Birmingham.
• Taplin J, Tokumine S, La Ferla B, Johnson F, Henson D, McClean CJ, Lovett JC (2002) Continental patterns of Sub-Saharan plant diversity. Poster prepared for the British Ecological Society conference: "Macroecology". University of Birmingham.
• McClean C and Evans I (2001) A Further Difference between Land Surfaces and Fractional Brownian Surfaces,  Transactions, Japanese Geomorphological  Union 22(4), C-150, Abstracts of Conference Papers, International Association of Geomorphologists, Fifth International Conference on Geomorphology, Tokyo.
• McClean C. and Evans, I. (2001) Non-Fractal Behaviour in Real Land Surfaces  In: Kidner, D and Higgs, G (eds.) GIS Research in the UK: proceedings of the GIS Research UK 9th Annual Conference, University of Glamorgan, p. 408-410.
• McClean C. and Evans, I. (2000) Surface analysis of continental scale digital elevation models using variogram methods, RGS-IBG Annual Conference proceedings, University of Sussex, 59-60.
• Pocock, M., White, P., McClean, C., Searle, J. (2000) Application of GIS in the Analysis of House Mouse Capture-Mark-Recapture Studies, GIS Research UK 2000 Conference Proceedings, University of York, 92-93.
• Quinn, C., Taplin, J., Lovett, J., McClean, C., Halls, P. (2000) Spatial Ecological Modelling of the Tropical Rainforest: the Kihansi Gorge, Tanzania, GIS Research UK 2000 Conference Proceedings, University of York, 11-13.
• McClean, C. and Dunn, S. (1995) Using Digital Terrain Models to Derive Catchment Characteristics and Channel Geometries for a Distributed Hydrological Model, Proceedings of the GIS Research UK 1995 Conference, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 91-93.
• McClean, C. and Cherrill, A. (1994) The integration of a remotely sensed land cover map of Great Britain, an agricultural land capability classification and ecological field survey data for use in a Decision Support System for land use planning, Proceedings of GIS research UK 1994 Conference, University of Leicester, 216-226.
• Moxey, A., McClean, C. and Allanson, P. (1994) Choice of estimation technique for the areal interpolation of agricultural land use data. Proceedings of GIS research UK 1994 Conference, University of Leicester, 181-188.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Tools and Techniques for Studying the Environment (Year 1)
• Geographical Information Systems (year 2)

Postgraduate

• Statistical Methods
• Spatial Analysis