Dr Nicholas Tate

I have been at Leicester since January 1999, prior to which I was a lecturer in the School of Geography, Queen's University, Belfast (1994-1998), a NERC-funded PhD student at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (1991-1994) and a undergraduate student in the Department of Geography, Durham University (1983-1986; First Class Honours awarded 1986; Robin Mills Prize, 1986; Durham University Prize 1986).

Throughout my career the academic focus for both my teaching and my research has been on quantitative digital geography: specifically the use of GIS and statistics and more recently geomatics.

Between 2005 and 2010 I was Director of the HEFCE-funded £4.1million SPLINT (Spatial Literacy IN Teaching) Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in the context of GIS and geospatial technologies. This comprised academics from UCL, Universities of Nottingham and Leicester. Between 2013 and 2016 I was Director of Postgraduate Research, College of Science and Engineering. Since 2016 I have served in a variety of senior roles in research and teaching administration. I am currently an Associate Director of the Institute of Digital Culture, an Academic Part of the Centre for Academic Achievement, and Programme Director of the MSc in GIS. I am a Fellow of the RGS.

I have served on the editorial boards of six international journals. Currently these include the International Journal of Geographic Information Science and Transactions in GIS. I have also been a member/secretary/chair of various working or research groups of the ISPRS, RGS-IBG, RSPsoc, GISRUK, ISARA, AGI and the British Science Association. In addition, I have been an external examiner for taught programmes at four universities.

1. Surface characterisation and modelling of scale

This is a long term research interest, which started off through collaborations with Mike Goodchild and Pete Atkinson. Central to this are issues to do with scale and scaling - in particular the application of fractal, geostatistical and wavelet methods - in the characterisation of topography.  The use of active methods of remote sensing to construct digital surface models has been a recent focus, in particular the use of various types of LiDAR. Research projects have been funded by NERC the EU and AHRC and has involved colleagues from universities in Loughborough, Kingston, Karlsruhe and London as well as the British Museum and Leics Museum.

2. Spatial data uncertainty and error

Uncertainty in relation to representations of topography is an interest that was shared between myself and the late Pete Fisher.  We extended this work using fuzzy sets in the context of socioeconomic data and area classifications as employed in geodemographics and higher-order fuzzy sets.

3.  Pedagogic applications of GIS and data science

In 2004 I led the bid to HEFCE to fund a Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) in collaboration with UCL and Nottingham University with a focus on Spatial thinking and GIS. The centre (SPLINT) operated from 2005 to 2010. Various pedagogic projects and outputs have resulted from this including a variety of work with David Unwin including a major book, as well as a project funded by ESRC with colleagues at universities of Bristol, Liverpool and Sheffield. A particular on-going interest is on communities of practice.

4. Other research interests

The application of GIS in various socioeconomic contexts particularly the modelling of population in surface form has been an interest, instigated by work early in my career with David Martin funded by ESRC.  A more recently-funded ESRC project was led by Loretta Lees had a focus on gentrification, and GIS in the context of public health has also been a focus.  Exploring the development of intellectual thought in GIScience from various philosophical and theoretical perspectives is an ongoing interest.

Research Projects (since 2010)

A scoping study and methods review to support development of a multi variate index of environmental quality for health (CEHS, PI, 2018-19);

Gentrification, displacement and the impacts of council estate renewal in c21st London (ESRC; co-I, 2016-2019);

CHORUS - Gravel bed LiDAR scanning and surface characterisation  (NERC; co-I, 2011-2014);

DeInVader - Detecting and analysing the spread of exotic Acacias in west-Mediterranean biodiverse costal dunes with hyperspectral images and LiDAR (EUFAR; co-I, 2011-2014);

EAGLE (EU FP7; Leicester PI, 2011-2014);

CATH - Scanning the Hallaton horde (AHRC; PI, 2013-2014);

Supporting undergraduate teaching in quantitative geography: making the connections between schools, universities and the workplace (ESRC; co-I, 2012-13);

LiDARnet - Terrestrial Laser Scanning (NERC; PI; 2010-2012) as part of the Earth Observation Technology Cluster, based at the University of Nottingham.

Books and monographs

Harris, R.J., Fitzpatrick, K, Souch, C, Brunsdon, C, Jarvis, C, Keylock, C, Orford, S, Singleton, A, and Tate, N.J. (2013) Quantitative Methods in Geography: Making the Connections between Schools, Universities and Employers. Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Unwin, D.J. Foote, K.E., Tate N.J. and  DiBiase, D. (2011) (eds) Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester. 496 p. 

Tate, N.J. and Atkinson, P.M. (eds) (2001) Modelling Scale in Geographical Information Science, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.  292p.

Atkinson, P.E. and Tate, N.J. (eds) (1999) Advances in Remote Sensing and GIS, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 273p.

Kitchin, R.J. and Tate, N.J. (1999) Conducting Research in Human Geography: Theory, Methodology and Practice, Prentice Hall, Harlow, 330p

Journal papers and book chapters (since 2011)  

De Sabbata, S., Ballatore, A., Liu, P. and Tate, N.J. (2023). Learning urban form through unsupervised graph-convolutional neural networks. The 2nd International Workshop on Geospatial Knowledge Graphs and GeoAI: Methods, Models, and Resources, September 12th, 2023. Leeds, UK.

Blanford, J. I., Bowlick, F., Gidudu, A., Gould, M., Griffin, A. L., Kar, B., Kemp, K, de Roiste, M., de Sabbata, S., Sinton, D., Strobl, J. Tate, N.J. and Unwin, D. (2021). Lockdown lessons: an international conversation on resilient GI science teaching. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 46(1), 7–19  10.1080/03098265.2021.1986687.

Easton, S., Lees, L., Hubbard, P. and Tate, N.J., (2020). Measuring and mapping displacement: The problem of quantification in the battle against gentrification. Urban Studies, 57(2), pp.286-306.

Tate N.J., and Jarvis C.H. (2017) Changing the face of GIS education with communities of practice. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 41 (3): 327-340. 10.1080/03098265.2017.1315534.

Papke, J., Strozzi, T., and Tate N.J. (2017) Mapping Land Surface Displacements in the Swiss Alps with Radar Interferometry. in:  Balzter, H.  (ed) Earth Observation for Land and Emergency Monitoring, Wiley-Blackwell, pp.  209-222.

Wheeler, J., Rodriguez-Veiga, P., Balzter, H., Tansey, K. and Tate, N.J. (2017)  Forest Mapping of the Congo Basin using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). in:  Balzter, H.  (ed) Earth Observation for Land and Emergency Monitoring, Wiley Blackwell, pp. 57-74.

De Sabbata, S., Tate, N.J., and Jarvis, C. (2016). Characterizing volunteered geographic information using fuzzy clustering. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Geographic Information Science. Canada: Montreal.

Powell D.M., Ockelford A., Rice S.P., Hillier J.K., Thao N., Reid, I. Tate N.J., and Ackerley D (2016) Structural properties of mobile armors formed at different flow strengths in gravel-bed rivers. Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface, 121 (8): 1494-1515. 10.1002/2015JF003794 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/38387.

Schuffert, S., Voegtle, T., Tate, N., and Ramirez, F.A. (2015) Quality assessment of roof planes extracted from height data for solar energy systems by the EAGLE platform. Remote Sensing 7: 17016–17034. 10.3390/rs71215866

Jarvis, C.H., Tate, N.J., Dickie, J., and Brown, G. (2015) Mobile learning in a human geography field course. Journal of Geography. 115 (2): 61-71 10.1080/00221341.2015.1026373

Balzter, H., Tate, N.J., Kaduk, J., Harper, D. Page, S.  Morrison, R.,  Muskulus, R.  and Jones, P. (2015) Multi-scale entropy analysis as a method for time-series analysis of climate data. Climate 3(1):227-240.  10.3390/cli3010227

Fisher, P.F., and Tate, N.J. (2015) Modelling class uncertainty in the geodemographic Output Area Classification. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 42(3):541-563.  10.1068/b130176p

Tewkesbury, A., Comber, A.J., Tate, N.J., Lamb, A., and Fisher, P.F. (2015) A critical synthesis of remotely sensed optical image change detection techniques. Remote Sensing of Environment 160:1-14. 10.1016/j.rse.2015.01.006

Hillier, J. and a group of 29 authors including Tate N.J. (2014) Manual mapping of drumlins in synthetic landscapes to assess operator effectiveness Journal of Maps. 10.1080/17445647.2014.957251

Harris, R. Tate, N.J. Souch, C. Singleton, A. Orford, S. Keylock, C., Jarvis, C. and Brunsdon, C. (2014) Geographers count: a report on quantitative methods in geography. Enhancing Learning in the Social Sciences 6(2): 43-58. 10.11120/elss.2014.00035

Pandey, P. Tate, N.J., and Balzter, H. (2014) Mapping tree species in coastal Portugal using statistically segmented principal component analysis and other methods. IEEE Sensors Journal. 10.1109/JSEN.2014.2335612.

Aplin, P., Boyd, D.S., Danson, F.M., Donoghue, D.N.M., Ferrier, G., Galiatsatos, N., Marsh, A., Pope, A., Ramirez, F.A., and Tate, N.J., (2012) The Earth Observation Technology Cluster. International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing XXXIX-B6: 31-36.

Mount N.J., Tate, N.J., Sarker M.H., and Thorne C.R. (2012) Evolutionary, multi-scale analysis of river bank line retreat using continuous wavelet transforms. Geomorphology. 183: 82-95. 10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.07.017

Papke J., Strozzi, T., Wiesmann A., Wegmueller U., and Tate, N.J. (2012)  Rock Glacier monitoring with spaceborne SAR In Graechen, Valais, Switzerland, IGARSS 2012, Munich, 22 Jul 2012 - 27 Jul 2012 pages 3911-3914.

Alexander C, Tansey K, Kaduk J, Holland D, and Tate, N.J. (2011) An approach to classification of airborne laser scanning point cloud data in an urban environment International Journal of Remote Sensing 32(24): 9151-9169.

DiBiase, D.,  Foote, K.E., Tate, N.J and Unwin, D.J. (2011) Ways forward for GIS&T education  in:  Unwin, D.J., Foote, K., Tate, N.J. and Dibiase, D.  (eds) Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education, WileyBlackwell, Chichester pp. 453-468.

Foote, K.E., Unwin, D.J., Tate, N.J. and DiBiase, D. (2011) GIS&T in higher education: challenges for educators, opportunities for education  in:  Unwin, D.J.,Foote, K., Tate, N.J. and Dibiase, D.  (eds) Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester pp. 3-16. 

Tate, N.J. (2011) GIS is dead, long live GIS&T: an educational commentary on the opening of Pandora's Box  in:  Unwin, D.J., Foote, K., Tate, N.J. and Dibiase, D.  (eds) Teaching Geographic Information Science and Technology in Higher Education,  Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester pp. 345-358.

PhD Students

Current PhD students

  Shahreen Nawfee

Past PhD students

Andrew Tewkesbury

Prem Pandey

  Idris Mohammed

  Mustafa Kose

  Emeka Chukwusa

  Ibrahim Alshwesh

  Cici Alexander

  Paul Robinson (replaced Pete Fisher)

  Mohammed Al-Dakhil

  Stephen Robinson

  William Gosling

I have taught GIS and statistics extensively across UG and PGT levels, as well as both physical and human UG geography field courses in the U.K., Gran Canaria, Mallorca and Malta.

My current teaching includes:

FY0060 Introduction to programming (support)

GY1424 The Digital World

GY3420/GY3450 Dissertation

GY7707 Geospatial Data Analytics

GY7711 Field Data Capture

GY7720/GY7420 Dissertation