Paul C. Sutton is an adjunct professor in the School of Natural and Built Environments.
Dr. Sutton obtained his B.S. from Union College in Chemistry, and his M.A. and PhD in Statistics and Geography from UCSB.
His research interests are in the general area of human-environment relations and interactions. Much of this research involves the use of nighttime satellite imagery for mapping and measuring population distribution, economic activity, anthropogenic impact on the environment, and urban sprawl. Dr. Sutton is also interested in the mapping and valuation of ecosystem services.
Future research activity will involve the development of spatially explicit maps of carrying capacity at various spatial scales and developing metrics of urban ... Read more
About me
Paul C. Sutton is an adjunct professor in the School of Natural and Built Environments.
Dr. Sutton obtained his B.S. from Union College in Chemistry, and his M.A. and PhD in Statistics and Geography from UCSB.
His research interests are in the general area of human-environment relations and interactions. Much of this research involves the use of nighttime satellite imagery for mapping and measuring population distribution, economic activity, anthropogenic impact on the environment, and urban sprawl. Dr. Sutton is also interested in the mapping and valuation of ecosystem services.
Future research activity will involve the development of spatially explicit maps of carrying capacity at various spatial scales and developing metrics of urban metabolism to establish baseline measures in the field of urbanization science.
Some detail on these various research interests are provided below.
Valuation of Ecosystem Services: I began a working relationship with Robert Costanza back in my days as a graduate student at UCSB in which I participated in the writing of a paper published in Nature titled: The value of the world’s ecosystems and natural capital. As a result of this I became interested in the development of the discipline of ecological economics. Dr. Costanza and I have worked together on several other papers involving the interesting problems associated with trying to assign dollar values to ecosystem services. I use my expertise in GIS and spatial data analysis in collaborations with economists and ecologists to make spatially explicit valuations of ecosystem services.
Development of independent and objective Sustainability Metrics: I have had a long interest in the idea of carrying capacity going back to my days as president of the Santa Barbara Chapter of Zero Population Growth and conversations with Paul Ehrlich, Garrett Hardin, Hunter Lovins, and Jared Diamond. I have developed some simple, easy to measure, and objective metrics of sustainability that correlate strongly with well-established metrics such as the Global Footprint Network’s ‘Ecological Footprint’. I collaborate with Alessandro Galli of the Global Footprint Network in this area.
Issues of Scale and Representation in Geographic Data: Figuring out how best to represent spatially and temporally varying phenomena in a digital environment is a fascinating problem of scale, classification, and abstraction. The simple idea of representing the spatio-temporal variation of intra-urban population density is a good example of how this is not really a simple idea. In my efforts at modeling proxy measures of population density, economic activity, and ecosystem service value I have enjoyed struggling with these insurmountable problems and hope to make some contributions to methods that will inform our understanding of the roles these phenomena play in questions of sustainability.
Measuring Learning Outcomes for undergraduate Environmental Science Students: I am becoming increasingly interested in what it is, exactly, that we believe we are teaching to undergraduate Environmental Science students. I am appalled at the simplistic ways in which we use end of course student evaluations to measure teaching effectiveness. I applaud efforts at the development of instruments such as the AP Human Geography exam that attempt to actually measure what students of Geography have presumably learned. I intend to participate in this clarification of ‘Learning Outcomes’ for undergraduate degrees in Envioronmental Science for the rest of my career because I think it is imperative that we as faculty in this discipline can answer questions like: “What will I learn from taking a degree in Environmental Science that I won’t learn from taking some other degree?”
Mapping Economic Activity using Nighttime Satellite imagery: I worked closely with one of my PhD Students, Tilottama Ghosh, in the modeling of economic activity using the DMSP OLS data products. She successfully developed methods for estimating the fraction of the national economy of India and Mexico that is in the informal sector and mapped it. She also produced the first global map of GDP/capita at 1 km2 spatial resolution. This work relating the estimation and mapping of economic activity using nocturnal satellite observations is gaining traction with researchers at Yale and UCLA.
About me
Doctor of Philosophy University of California, Santa Barbara
Master of Geography University of California, Santa Barbara
Master of Statistics University of California, Santa Barbara
Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) Union College
Research
Research outputs for the last seven years are shown below. Some long-standing staff members may have older outputs included. To see earlier years visit ORCID, ResearcherID or Scopus
Open access indicates that an output is open access.
Year | Output |
---|---|
2016 |
Open access
|
2015 |
|
2014 |
4
|
2010 |
43
|
2010 |
31
|
Year | Output |
---|---|
2020 |
Open access
5
5
115
|
2019 |
Open access
13
9
|
2018 |
Open access
37
27
|
2018 |
22
13
|
2018 |
15
7
|
2018 |
18
13
|
2018 |
20
16
|
2017 |
30
26
|
2017 |
25
18
|
2017 |
Open access
34
22
|
2016 |
33
33
|
2016 |
Open access
14
12
|
2016 |
Open access
43
42
|
2016 |
50
45
|
2016 |
213
171
|
2015 |
53
36
|
2015 |
Open access
18
16
|
2015 |
258
206
|
2015 |
9
7
|
2014 |
Open access
38
31
|
2014 |
3860
3010
|
2014 |
17
12
|
2013 |
1
|
2013 |
46
41
|
2013 |
Open access
134
111
|
2013 |
Open access
29
24
|
2012 |
6
6
|
2012 |
Open access
|
2012 |
29
24
|
2011 |
38
30
|
2011 |
50
44
|
2011 |
Open access
|
2010 |
63
55
|
2010 |
Open access
144
121
|
2010 |
Open access
|
2010 |
|
2010 |
45
40
|
2009 |
353
285
|
2009 |
Open access
103
92
|
2009 |
70
52
|
2008 |
528
438
|
Research
External engagement & recognition
Organisation | Country |
---|---|
Aarhus University | DENMARK |
AgResearch | NEW ZEALAND |
Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO) | IRAN |
Australian National University | AUSTRALIA |
CSIRO Australia (Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research organisation) | AUSTRALIA |
Flinders University | AUSTRALIA |
Getu Commercial Center | ETHIOPIA |
Green Mountain College | UNITED STATES |
Institute of Ecology INECOL | MEXICO |
Lincoln University | NEW ZEALAND |
Monash University | AUSTRALIA |
National Australia Bank | AUSTRALIA |
National Centre for Vocational Education | AUSTRALIA |
National Geophysical Data Center | UNITED STATES |
New Mexico State University | UNITED STATES |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory | UNITED STATES |
Oromia Regional Health Bureau | ETHIOPIA |
Queen's University Belfast | UNITED KINGDOM |
United States Geological Survey | UNITED STATES |
University of Adelaide | AUSTRALIA |
University of Arizona | UNITED STATES |
University of California | UNITED STATES |
University of California, Santa Barbara | UNITED STATES |
University of Chicago | UNITED STATES |
University of Colorado Denver | UNITED STATES |
University of Coloradoim | UNITED STATES |
University of Denver | UNITED STATES |
University of Dublin | IRELAND |
University of East Anglia | UNITED KINGDOM |
University of Florida | UNITED STATES |
University of Kiel | GERMANY |
University of London | UNITED KINGDOM |
University of Maryland | UNITED STATES |
University of Melbourne | AUSTRALIA |
University of Naples Federico II | ITALY |
University of Newcastle | AUSTRALIA |
University of Pittsburgh | UNITED STATES |
University of Siena | ITALY |
University of South Australia | AUSTRALIA |
University of South Wales | UNITED KINGDOM |
University of Tehran | IRAN |
University of Twente | NETHERLANDS |
University of Vermont | UNITED STATES |
University of Wageningen | NETHERLANDS |
US Geological Survey | UNITED STATES |
External engagement & recognition
Engagement/recognition | Year |
---|---|
Best poster AwardWorld Geospatial Forum Hyderabad |
2011 |
My teaching and research interests are mutually reinforcing.
Below is a list of courses I have taught over the years at various institutions.
Teaching & student supervision
Supervisions from 2010 shown
Thesis title | Student status |
---|---|
A study of the application of Immersive Virtual Environments (IVEs) in promoting bushfire preparedness | Completed |