Ian McCallum profile picture

Ian McCallum

Research Group Leader and Senior Research Scholar

Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group

Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Biography

Ian McCallum leads the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) Research Group of the Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. NODES exploits both citizen and data science combined with Earth observations to monitor, analyze, and foster progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The group is comprised of 30 members with expertise in applied research, development, and project management.

McCallum contributes to numerous research projects within NODES, applying various geo-spatial analysis techniques to global environmental and socioeconomic challenges. For example, he is leading the efforts to develop new and novel data and methods within the GRANULAR Project – an ambitious project developing indicators of rural development in Europe. He also leads the activities on stakeholder engagement within the EuropaBON project, a policy-oriented effort with the aim to develop a comprehensive biodiversity monitoring coordination center in Europe. Furthermore, he contributes to the development of the Geo-Wiki, a globally recognized Citizen Science platform designed to monitor the Earth's surface and related activities.

McCallum holds graduate degrees in Forest Science, where he specialized in the application of Geographic Information Systems to issues surrounding view-shed analysis and wildlife habitat modeling, and a doctoral degree applying satellite derived biophysical variables to model vegetation productivity. He is currently on the faculty of the Master of Science in Environmental Technology and International Relations (ETIA) in Vienna, Austria, where he teaches a course on Remote Sensing and the Environment.

Prior to joining IIASA, he worked for both forest industry and forest consulting firms in central and western Canada and the United States.


Last update: 20 MAR 2023

Publications

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Moorthy, I., Joshi, N., Zulkarnain, M.T., Ekadinata, A., Sturn, T., Mohamad, F., Goib, B., Yowargana, P., Danylo, O., McCallum, I. , Kraxner, F., See, L. , & Fritz, S. (2019). Validating maps of land cover and land degradation with citizen science and mobile gaming. In: XXV IUFRO World Congress, 29 September-5 October 2019, Curtitiba, Brazil.

Laso Bayas, J.C. , Moorthy, I., Sturn, T., Karner, M., Perger, C., Fraisl, D. , Domian, D., Gardeazabal, A., Vargas, L., Capellan, S., Danylo, O., Lesiv, M. , Dürauer, M., Dresel, C., Hager, G. , Saad, M., Subash, A., Smith, B., Joshi, N., Schepaschenko, D. , McCallum, I. , See, L. , & Fritz, S. (2018). Citizen Scientists Monitoring the Environment: The Latest Apps from IIASA. In: Citizen Observatories for natual hazards and Water Management, 27-30 November 2018, Venice, Italy.

Fraisl, D. , Fritz, S. , See, L. , McCallum, I. , & Moorthy, I. (2018). Citizen Science & SDGs: Opportunities, Challenges, Recommendations. In: Eye on Earth Summit, 22-24 October 2018, Mina A'Salam, Madinat Jumeriah, Dubai.

Lesiv, M. , Bayas, J.C.L., See, L. , Duerauer, M., Dahlia, D., Durando, N., Hazarika, R., Sahariah, P.K., Vakolyuk, M., Blyshchyk, V., Bilous, A., Perez-Hoyos, A., Gengler, S., Prestele, R., Bilous, S., Akhtar, I., Singha, K., Choudhury, S.B., Chetri, T., Malek, Z. , Bungnamei, K., Saikia, A., Sahariah, D., Narzary, W., Danylo, O., Sturn, T., Karner, M., McCallum, I. , Schepaschenko, D. , Molchanova, E., Fraisl, D. , Moorthy, I., & Fritz, S. (2018). Estimating the Global Distribution of Field Size using Crowdsourcing.

Lesiv, M. , See, L. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , Sturn, T., Schepaschenko, D. , Karner, M., Moorthy, I., McCallum, I. , & Fritz, S. (2018). Characterizing the Spatial and Temporal Availability of Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery in Google Earth and Microsoft Bing Maps as a Source of Reference Data. Land 7 (4) p. 118. 10.3390/land7040118.