This week’s instalment looks at Georgia Mason’s dissertation. Georgia is a third year Geographer at Newnham College. Her research focusses on the 2019 Amazon fires and their effects on local indigenous communities.
Remote sensing can be used to create false-colour maps of vegetation to reflect their health. In the banner image, Georgia has used the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to distinguish healthy, well-vegetated regions (in dark green) from unhealthy, or poorly vegetated regions (in bright red). The map centres on northern Bolivia. While the majority of the population of Bolivia lives in the Andean regions of the south, this northern, Amazonian area is home to many Indigenous communities.
What is your dissertation about?
It is in the nature of dissertations to evolve as you work more and more on them. Right now, my dissertation involves the development of a remote sensing technique to highlight the variation in tree cover change between Indigenous-titled and state-owned land over the course of the 2019 Amazon Fires. Currently, I’m planning to focus on the Bolivian Amazon, as there is little literature on this region of the Amazon, however it might expand into other Amazonian countries depending on the quality of the data I extract.
Why is this important?
I hope this is important as the 2019 Amazon Fires were some of the worst in the Amazon’s history. The 2019 summer period saw three times more fires burning than the previous summer, and in the last 50 years, 17% of the Amazon has been deforested. This is bad. Models suggest that the Amazon rainforest will no longer be self-sustaining once 20-25% has been deforested, which has wider implications for climate change. This is why the Amazon is known as one of the climate tipping points. However, there is some hope. Research has showed that by titling land to Indigenous communities, deforestation rates are drastically cut in the claimed area. Furthermore, traditional practices of Indigenous people are known to be sustainable and good for overall forest health. Thus, I am interested in seeing how these Indigenous-owned lands were impacted by the huge (agriculture-associated) fires of last summer.
How did you find conducting your research remotely? (Methods, experience, etc)
Mixed. Not having a physical place to relocate to for conducting research has made working difficult. To overcome this, I would suggest making deadlines and sticking to them. However, working from home has offered plenty of chance to complete my literature review and wider reading around the topic. Also, having a tutor and dissertation groups to talk through any issues with has really helped!
What would be your advice to current second years planning their dissertation?
Firstly, don’t panic. Very few people go into second year with a fully formed dissertation topic and plan in their head. To be quite honest, many people go into third year in the same situation. As I said, dissertations evolve as you read more widely and dig deeper into your data collection. My second piece of advice – which almost contradicts the first – is don’t leave it until late summer. Make sure that you are reading relevant articles, academic and journalistic, watching relevant media, listening to podcasts – whatever it is that will keep you engaged academically with the topic that you want to research. Lastly, I’d say try to remember what you find interesting during Michaelmas term. Did you like the museums coursework? Do you enjoy remote sensing and computer coding? Remember what you like and try to think about what you can write a dissertation on that employs those skills and topics that you enjoyed!
Image credits: Georgia Mason
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF COMPASS MAGAZINE AS A WHOLE OR THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY