Alfred Colpaert (born in 1957 in

Kruiningen Kruiningen is a village in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is located in the municipality of Reimerswaal, about 5 km south of the village of Yerseke.''ANWB Topografische Atlas Nederland'', Topografische Dienst and ANWB, 2005. Kruiningen ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

) is professor in

physical geography Physical geography (also known as physiography) is one of the three main branches of geography. Physical geography is the branch of natural science which deals with the processes and patterns in the natural environment such as the atmosphere, h ...

at the Department of Geographical and Historical Studies of the

University of Eastern Finland The University of Eastern Finland () is a university in Finland, which was founded in 2010 and has campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio. History The Finnish Parliament passed the Universities Act on June 16, 2009, which, among other things, extende ...

Education

He studied physical geography at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of 39,769 students, a ...

and geography at the

University of Oulu The University of Oulu () is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...

, Finland. He has a PhD in Geography (Oulu 1998) and a Docentship in

Geoinformatics Geoinformatics is a scientific field primarily within the domains of Computer Science and technical geography. It focuses on the programming of applications, spatial data structures, and the analysis of objects and space-time phenomena relate ...

(Oulu 2000).

Career

Colpaert has held various positions at the Department of Geography of the University of Oulu, Finland and the

Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

. Since 2004 he has been full professor in physical geography at the

University of Joensuu The University of Eastern Finland () is a university in Finland, which was founded in 2010 and has campuses in Joensuu and Kuopio. History The Finnish Parliament passed the Universities Act on June 16, 2009, which, among other things, extended ...

, and

since 2010. From January 2011 he has been head of Department.

Research

Alfred Colpaert's main interests are in physical geography and geoinformatics. He has studied

pastures Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

and pastoral systems in northern Finland,

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

and the Caprivi area in

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. He was involved in mapping the reindeer pastures of northern Finland using satellite

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

. Various projects funded by the

Finnish Academy of Sciences The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (; ) is a Finnish learned society. It was founded in 1908 and is thus the second oldest academy in Finland. The oldest is the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, which was founded in 1838. Member ...

in Namibia and Lapland and the Arsgisip EU-funded project (remote sensing and hydrological modeling). He also took part in the Socrates GI Curriculum development project.

Sample Publications

*Manderscheid, Angela & Alfred Colpaert (2004). Workshop: Natural Pastures and Mobile Animal Husbandry Under Pressure. The Case of Lapland and the Tibetan Plateau. Editors, Rangifer Special Issue, No. 15 *Kumpula, T; Colpaert, A; Wang Qian & A. Mandeerscheid (2004). Remote sensing in inventory of high altitude pastures of the Tibetan plateau. Rangifer Special Issue, No. 15:53-63. *Colpaert, Alfred (2004). Muuttuva ilmasto. Poromies 5:32. *Kumpula, Jouko; Colpaert, Alfred & Mauri Nieminen (2004). Metsänkäsittelyn ja lumiolosuhteiden vaikutus porojen laidunten käyttöön Ivalon paliskunnassa. Poromies 5:48. *Kumpula, Jouko; Colpaert, Alfred; Anttonen, Marja & Mauri Nieminen (2004). Porohoitoalueen pohjoisimman osan (13 paliskuntaa) talvilaidunten uusintainventointi vuosina 1999-2003. Poromies 5:50. *Antikainen, Harri; Bendas, Dan; Marjaniemi, Kyösti; Myllyaho, Mauri; Oivo, Markku; Colpaert, Alfred; Jaako, Niina; Kuvaja, Pasi; Laine, Kari; Rusanen, Jarmo; Saari, Esko & Jouni Similä (2004). Mobile Environmental Information Systems. Cybernetis and Systems: An International Journal, Vol 35(7-8):737-751 *Colpaert, Alfred (2005). Porolaidunten satelliittikuvapohjainen kartoitus. Riistatutkimuksen tiedote 198:12-13, Riista- ja kalatutkimus. *Kaartinen, Salla; Kojola, Ilpo & Alfred Colpaert (2005). Finnish wolves avoid roads and settlements. Ann. Zool. Fennici 42:in press. *Autio, Jyrki & Alfred Colpaert (2005). The impact of elevation, topography and snow load damage of trees on the position of the actual timberline on the fells in central Finnish Lapland. Fennia 183:1(15-36). *Simo Kyllönen, Alfred Colpaert, Hannu Heikkinen, Mikko Jokinen, Jouko Kumpula, Mika Marttunen, Kari Muje & Kaisa Raitio (2006). Conflict Management as a Means to the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources. Silva Fennica, 40(4): 687–728 *Kumpula, J., Colpaert, A.. & Anttonen, M. (2007). Does forest harvesting and linear infrastructure change the usability value of pastureland for semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus)? Ann. Zool. Fennici 44(3):161-178. *Kumpula, J. & A Colpaert (2007). Snow conditions and usability value of pasture land for semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in northern boreal forest area. Rangifer, (27)1:25-39. *Korkalainen Timo, Pietiläinen Pekka and Colpaert Alfred (2007). The effect of total peat nitrogen on the height and volume of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands in three fertilized and drained peatlands in northern Finland. SUO (Mires and peat) 3-4:75:85 *Colpaert, Alfred (2008). Paikkatietojärjestelmien ja Kaukokartoituksen Integraatio. Terra 120(2):115. *Kumpula, J.; Colpaert, Alfred & Ari Tanskanen (2008). Porojen laidunten valinta muutuneessa metsä- ja maisemarakenteessa Keski-Lapissa. Suomen Riista, 54:69-82.

References

External links

Personal pages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colpaert, Alfred Finnish geographers University of Oulu alumni Living people 1957 births Utrecht University alumni