Pascal Castellazzi

Dr Pascal Castellazzi has over 10 years of research experience in remote sensing and geodetic applications to water resources assessments. His research focuses on understanding how recent developments in geodesy and remote sensing can support groundwater characterisation and contribute to water resources sustainability studies. Pascal also explores the value of recent remote sensing technologies to understand and mitigate geohazards such as land subsidence, soil erosion, landslides and fires. Along with domestic and international peers, he has defined and developed the field of Hydrogeodesy, ‘the science that measures the Earth’s solid and aquatic surfaces, gravity field, and their changes over time’.

His recent work has focused on the use of spaceborne temporal gravity data from GRACE satellites to monitor groundwater storage in the Great Artesian Basin (Fig. 1), on the combined use of spaceborne optical imagery, radar imagery, GRACE data and citizen science data for mapping and monitoring Groundwater-Dependent-Ecosystems in Northern Australia (Fig. 2), and on the use of radar imagery data for large-scale mapping of soil erosion (Fig. 3).

Pascal supervises PhD student Jan Schultz with Flinders University collaborators, Okke Batelaan and Eddie Banks, towards the production of large-scale, radar-based soil erosion maps for protection of the Great Barrier Reef. He also collaborates with Geoscience Australia, Griffith University, the Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment, Stockholm University, University of Southern California and the French National Centre for Scientific Research.