Uvini Senanayake
I am a PhD student in Geography, working under the supervision of Dr. Koreen Millard and Dr. Scott Mitchell. I completed my B.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Zoology from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and my M.Sc. degree in GIS and Remote Sensing from the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka during which I used remote sensing for change detection of wetlands in the Colombo Ramsar Wetland city in Sri Lanka.
As a budding geographer and a conservation biologist, I am interested in integrating GIS and Remote Sensing in biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. My PhD research aims to improve the mapping and monitoring efforts of conservation area managers by incorporating remote sensing technologies into their conservation area management frameworks. I will be working with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), one of Canada’s leading land conservation organisations, to map their conservation areas using remote sensing techniques. The outcome of my research will help conservation area managers like NCC to find critical and sensitive habitats and ecosystems, monitor long-term changes in large areas, identify and quantify different threats, and make informed decisions about their managed land.