Tarmo K Remmel | EUC | York University

Professor

Credentials

B.E.S. (honours), University of Waterloo, Geography (minor: Geology)

M.Sc.F., Lakehead University, Forestry

Ph.D., University of Toronto, Geography

Research Keywords

Remote Sensing, Spatial Pattern Analysis, Forest Disturbances, Geography, GIS, Geomatics

Graduate Supervision

I supervise students in the graduate program in Geography, Environmental Studies

Contact Information

4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Office No 212, HNES Building

416 736 2100 (ext 22496)

remmelt@yorku.ca

http://www.yorku.ca/remmelt/

@TKRspatial

Research Interests

Shape and pattern measurement, comparison, and analysis are central to my research and is spurred by the desire to understand boreal forest disturbance patterns, their residual vegetation structures, regeneration processes, and measures of fragmentation. I focus on developing theoretical approaches and tools for quantifying and comparing 2D shapes and patterns and extend those to the segmentation of 3D features into morphological classes and voxels. We also use local measures of landscape configuration to measure landscape patterns, assess landscape changes, and to understand boundary structures and complexities inherent on landscapes. Our lab strives to develop new tools and to disseminate them openly to support better scientific analysis of data. Intertwined in this work is the desire to quantify and understand uncertainty, accuracy, and the sensitivity of measurements.

Research Projects

2021-2026

Assessing forest disturbance and recovery with spatial and temporal structural morphology

NSERC Discovery Grant, Principal Investigator

2023-2025

Geomatics for analyzing climate change effects on ecosystems and human populations.

VPRI Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (CIRC), Principal Investigator

2018-2024

Developing, updating, and testing a comprehensive spatial database of fire, harvesting, and road disturbances in the boreal forest in Ontario

Joint project with the Ontario Forest Research Institute, Collaborator

https://www.borealdb.ca/

2023-2030

The International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab (IEFLL): training, research, and novel applications

SSHRC Partnership Grant (Talent), Collaborator

2024-2026

Accurate forest carbon quantification from SEO to drive nature-based climate solutions – Canadian Space Agency (ROSEO)

Automated road extraction and integration across forest management units – Forestry Futures Trust Ontario – Knowledge Transfer & Tool Development Program

Research Output

Remmel, T.K., M. Ouellette, and W.J. Wu. 2023. A boreal wildfire and harvesting database with ensemble confidence attributes for Ontario (1972-2021+). International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 117:103199. DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2023.103199

Malik, K., C. Robertson, S.A. Roberts, T.K. Remmel, and J.A. Long. 2022. Computer vision models for comparing spatial patterns: understanding spatial scale. International Journal of Geographical Information Science. DOI: 10.1080/13658816.2022.2103562

Remmel, T.K. 2022. Extending morphological pattern analysis to 3D voxels. Landscape Ecology. DOI: 10.1007/s10980-021-01384-7

Horn, L.C., T.K. Remmel, and B.J.M. Stutchbury. 2021. Weak evidence of carry-over effects of overwinter climate and habitat productivity on spring passage of migratory songbirds at a northern stopover site in Ontario. Ornithological Applications 123:1-16. DOI: 10.1093/ornithapp/duab012

Remmel, T.K. and H. Moghaddam. 2020. Assessing morphological change in Canadian boreal forests. International Journal of Geoinformatics 16(3):49-59.

Remmel, T.K. 2020. Distributions of hyper-local configuration elements to characterize, compare, and assess landscape-level spatial patterns. Entropy 22(4):420. DOI: 10.3390/e22040420

Remmel, T.K. and A.H. Perera (eds.). 2017. Mapping forest landscapes. New York: Springer-Verlag. 326 p.

Remmel, T.K. and S.W. Mitchell. 2021. Landscape pattern analysis. In Francis, R.A., J.D.A. Millington, G.L.W. Perry, and E.S. Minor (eds.). The Routledge handbook on landscape ecology. London: Taylor and Francis. 544 p.

Youdelis, M., D. Douhaibi, D. Holterman, K. Paudel, V. Preston, T.K. Remmel, E. Lunstrum, and J. Mensah 2021. Out of Bounds: The BHER bones of teaching geography across borders. pp. 115-131. In Giles, W. and L. Miller (eds.). Borderless Higher Education for Refugees: Lessons from the Dadaab Refugee Camps. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 225 p. [Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award]

Remmel, T.K. and M. Ouellette. 2020. A spatial database of Ontario fire and harvesting disturbances. The Professional Forester: the official publication of the Ontario Professional Foresters Association 240 (December):5-6.

Ouellette, M., T.K. Remmel, and A.H. Perera. 2020. A spatial database of historical wildfire and timber harvest in the boreal Area of the Undertaking of Ontario: The methodological framework. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, Science and Research Branch, Peterborough, ON. Science and Research Technical Report TR-37. 31 p + appendix.

Remmel, T.K. 2021. morph: tools for 3D morphological segmentation of voxels. Version 1.0.0 (as of 10 December 2021) The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). GPL-3.

Remmel, T.K. 2021. ShapePattern: a toolbox for characterizing and comparing polygon shape. (Becoming the new consolidated container of PatternClass, ShapePattern and more). Version 2.2.0 (as of 10 December 2021) The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). GPL-3 (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ShapePattern/index.html).

Recognition & Awards

Dean’s Service Award, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change

Courses

Course Code	Title
EU/SC GEOG 2420	Quantitative Methods
EU/SC GEOG 3440	Remote Sensing for Earth Observation
EU/SC GEOG 2340	Introduction to Geomatics
EU/SC GEOG 4440	Processing and Analysis of Earth Observation Data