Remote-sensing research, ecological questions and open-source software.
I’m Joseph Emile Honour Percival, known as Sefa. I’m a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. I develop remote-sensing methods and open-source software to study forest structure and environmental change, with work across Hawaiʻi, Madagascar and Samoa.
My work connects multi-sensor satellite data and airborne lidar with questions about vegetation, species distributions, fire and land use. I build tools for working with remote-sensing and spatial data, including measuring forest structure and examining spatial relationships, so the methods can be used and extended beyond an individual study.
My research on fire and forest loss in Madagascar began during my PhD at Kyoto University and continues with research partners. My master’s research at Kyoto examined mangrove habitats and fish communities in Samoa. Alongside ecological research, I work with Tiapapata Art Centre on 3D documentation of Samoan monuments and cultural artefacts.
Explore the projects for methods, software, roles and source links, or read the publications.