Dr Robert Armstrong
Researcher biography
Dr. Robert Armstrong is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan,(B Sc, M Sc, Ph D), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Prior to his 3 year fixed term appointment as Research Officer at QAAFI he recieved an NSERC Visiting Fellowship award with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) from 2011 - 2014. During this period he was the lead researcher on projects involving the integration of a digital elevation model analysis tool that could aid in identifying flood hazards as part of a land and infrastructure resiliency assessment project, and also contintental scale spatial and statistical climatological analysis related to resiliency enhancement of agro-ecological production zones in Canada.
Some of Dr. Armstrong's earlier roles have included: project coordination and research assistance with the University of Saskatchewan (2003 - 2005) for a climate change and water use project focused on the South Saskatchewan River Basin; working as a summer student technical assistant with the University of Saskatchewan, Department of Agriculture, Crop Development Centre; and various roles relating to spatial and statistical analysis for applied hydrological, meteorological, and GIS applications. Dr. Armstrong has received awards across various disciplinces related to his geospatial modelling and analysis research, including: Olav Slaymaker award, Geological Association of Canada (best student poster); Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Canada, GIS scholarship (Ph D); and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (NSERC postdoctoral visiting fellowship award).
Dr. Armstrong's specialty research areas include, quantitative geospatial and statistical analysis using geographical information systems (GIS), analysis of remote sensed aerial imagery; development of geospatial and imagery analytical tools using the R statistical and graphical programming language; climate impacts and risks related to agricultural production; agro-ecological and environmental modelling using big data analytics; hydrological and flood hazard analysis of complex Canadian Prairie environments; and scaling impacts on terrain analysis, land surface and hydrological parameterisation and evaporation modelling.