Paul Sutton

Background

About Paul Sutton

I have many interests spanning much of geography but ranging into ecology, economics, and philosophy. My research areas are primarily in ecological economics, population geography, sustainability science, and urban science. Most of my research focuses on applied issues associated with the Human-Environment-Sustainability problematic. I do a great deal of work with nighttime satellite imagery derived from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP OLS). Data products derived from DMSP OLS imagery have been used to map and estimate human population distribution, energy consumption, economic activity, urban extent, CO2 emissions, and more. VIIRS data represents a significant improvement in many respects upon the DMSP OLS data for many of these applications. The tools needed to engage in this research are remote sensing, geographic information analysis, and statistics. I also am interested in the development of the discipline of ecological economics. I use my expertise in GIS and spatial data analysis in collaborations with economists and ecologists to make spatially explicit valuations of ecosystem services. Nonetheless my interests are quite broad and I have had students write theses and dissertations in areas ranging from crime mapping to explaining ‘high-stakes’ testing scores in the public schools to mapping invasive species.