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Dr. John Connolly

Dr. John Connolly

Kinsella Assistant Professor, Geography

Biography

Dr. John Connolly is an Assistant Professor in Physical Geography and leads the Trinity Geospatial & Environmental Modelling Group. He joined Trinity College Dublin in September 2020 and got tenure in July 2024. He teaches GIS and remote sensing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. John's research uses GIS and Earth Observation to study the terrestrial environment including land use change; landscape carbon dynamics and habitat assessment. He has published more than 40 journal articles, reports and policy statements including articles in leading international peer-review journals such as: Earth Science Reviews; International Journal of Remote Sensing and Biogeosciences.

John is currently the Principal Investigator for the EPA funded ICONNEEx project, iHabiMap project (2019 - 2024) and the DAFM Funded RePEAT project (2022 - 2025). He is also PI on the EPA funded ICONEEx project (2023 - 2025). He is a CO-PI on several projects including the EPA & NPWS funded Irish Peatland Resilience project(2021 - 2024), SmartBog project(2019-2023); the DAFM funded GENENET project project (2020-2022) and the SFI funded Enable SolarMap Project (2020-2021). He is also an international collaborator on the Boston University led GLanCE Project(2019-2024). He has co-ordinated several national and international research proposals including FP7, H2020, EPA, DAFM and a Google Earth Engine Research Award. John Collaborates widely and has active collaborations with colleagues in Ireland, Germany, UK, Sweden, USA, Canada and Brazil. He is also a Coordinating Lead Author on Chapter 2.1 of the Global Peatland Assessment

He has supervised three PhDs to completions and currently supervises three PhD students (one at Trinity, one in NUI Galway and one in Greifswald University) and co-supervises four Post Doctoral Researchers.

He is interested in supervising PhD students, and working with Post Doctoral researchers interested in applied GIS and Earth Observation (Google Earth Engine etc.) under the following themes

· Global Land use and land use change using EO

· Landscape carbon dynamics (Net Ecosystem Exchange)

· Mapping peatlands and peatland degradation

· Mapping the historical extent of peatlands and loss of carbon

Prior to joining Trinity College Dublin, John held positions at Dublin City University, Lund University, University College Cork and University College Dublin

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Webster, Kara; Strack, Maria; Balliston, Nicole; Davies, Marissa; Hettinga, Katie; Hunter, Miranda; Kleinke, Kimberly; Schmidt, Megan; Barreto, Carlos; Bird, Melanie; Blann, Kristen; Bona, Kelly Ann; Cassidy, Alison; Connolly, John; Davidson, Scott; Fedorchuk, Lee; Garneau, Michelle; Harris, Lorna; He, Hongxing; Howie, Sarah; Kirkwood, Adam; Pontone, Nicholas; Richardson, Karen; Sanderson, Nicole; Seutin, Gilles; Xu, Bin; Yin, Xiangbo, Data and knowledge needs for improving science and policy for peatlands in Canada in a changing world: Insights from Global Peatlands Initiative Workshop, June 2023, FACETS, 2025Journal Article, 2025
  • Nima Sabokrouhiyeh, John Connolly, Ype van der Veld and Nicholas Kettridge, Peatland Resilience and Presence Under National Climate Gradients: Implications for Peatland Restoration Strategies, Science of the Total Environment, 2025Journal Article, 2025
  • Wahaj Habib, Remi Cresson, Kevin McGuinness, John Connolly, Mapping artificial drainage on Peatlands - A national scale assessment of Irish raised bogs using sub-meter aerial imagery and deep learning methods, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI
  • Catherine A. Farrell, John Connolly, Terry R. Morley, Charting a course for peatland restoration in Ireland: a case study to support restoration frameworks in other regions, Restoration Ecology, 2024Journal Article, 2024
  • Cruz, C., Perrin, P. M., Martin, J. R., O"Connell, J., McGuinness, K., & Connolly, J., Mapping of temperate upland habitats using high-resolution satellite imagery and machine learning, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 2024Journal Article, 2024
  • Ingle, Ruchita; Bhatnagar, Saheba; Ghosh, Bidisha; Gill, Laurence; regan, Shane; Connolly, John; Saunders, Matthew , A new hybrid index to estimate gross primary productivity of peatlands under variable climatic conditions. , Remote Sensing, 15, (6), 2023, p1673-Journal Article, 2023, URL
  • Cruz, Charmaine; O'Connell, Jerome; McGuinness, Kevin; Martin, James; Perrin, Philip; Connolly, John , Assessing the effectiveness of UAV data to accurately map coastal dune habitats, European Journal of Remote Sensing, 56, (1), 2023Journal Article, 2023
  • Ruchita Ingle, Saheba Bhatnagar, Bidisha Ghosh, Laurence Gill, Shane Regan, John Connolly and Matthew Saunders, Development of Hybrid Models to Estimate Gross Primary Productivity at a Near-Natural Peatland Using Sentinel 2 Data and a Light Use Efficiency Model, Remote Sensing, 15, 2023, p1673-Journal Article, 2023, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Ruchita Ingle, Wahaj Habib, John Connolly, Mark McCorry, Stephen Barry & Matthew Saunders, Upscaling methane fluxes from peatlands across a drainage gradient in Ireland using PlanetScope imagery and machine learning tools., Nature Scientific Reports, 13, (11997), 2023Journal Article, 2023, DOI
  • Habib, W. and Connolly, J., A national-scale assessment of management activities in Peatlands between 1989 " 2020 using Landsat data and Google Earth Engine " a case study of Ireland. , Regional Environmental Change, 2023Journal Article, 2023
  • Budiman Minasny, Diana Vigah Adetsu, Rebekka R.E. Artz, Matt Aitkenhead, Nikki Baggaley, Alexandra Barthelmes, Amélie Beucher, Jean Caron, Giulia Conchedda, John Connolly, Raphaël Deragon, Chris Evans, Kjetil Fadnes, Dian Fiantis, Zisis Gagkas, Louis Gilet, Alessandro Gimona, Stephan Glatzel, Mogens H. Greve, Wahaj Habib, Kristell Hergoualc"h, Cecilie Hermansen, Darren B. Kidd, Triven Koganti, Dianna Kopansky, David Large, Tuula Larmola, Allan Lilly, Haojie Liu, Matthew Marcus, Maarit Middleton, Keith Morrison, Rasmus Jes Petersen, Tristan Quaife, Line Rochefort, Rudiyanto Rudiyanto, Linda Toca, Francesco N. Tubiello, Peter Lystbæk Weber, Simon Weldon, Wirastuti Widyatmanti, Jenny Williamson, Dominik Zak., Mapping and monitoring peatland conditions from global to field scale, Biogeochemistry, 2023Journal Article, 2023, DOI
  • Junbin Zhao, Simon Weldon, Alexandra Barthelmes, Erin Swails, Kristell Hergoualc'h, Ülo Mander, Chunjing Qiu, John Connolly, Whendee L. Silver, David Campbell, Global observation gaps of peatland greenhouse gas balances " needs and obstacles, 2023Journal Article, 2023
  • Cruz, C., McGuinness, K., Perrin, P. M., O"Connell, J., Martin, J. R. and J. Connolly., Improving the mapping of coastal invasive species using UAV imagery and deep learning, International Journal of Remote Sensing , 44, (18), 2023Journal Article, 2023
  • Connolly, J., Using geospatial technology to aid the assessment of peatland extent, condition, and carbon stock, OECD workshop on Peatlands for climate change mitigation in agriculture, Aarhus University, October 4th and 5th, 2022Oral Presentation, 2022
  • UNEP, Global Peatlands Assessment " The State of the World"s Peatlands: Evidence for action toward the conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of peatlands, UNEP, November, 2022Report, 2022
  • Islam, M. T., Bradley, A. V., Sowter, A., Andersen, R., Marshall, C., Long, M., Bourke, M. C., Connolly, J., and Large, D. J., , Use of APSIS-InSAR measures of the range of vertical surface motion to improve hazard assessment of peat landslides, Mires and Peat, 2022Journal Article, 2022, URL
  • David Olefeldt1, MiDavid Olefeldt, Mikael Hovemyr, McKenzie A. Kuhn, David Bastviken, Theodore J. Bohn, John Connolly, Patrick Crill, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Hélène Genet, Guido Grosse, Lorna I. Harris, Liam Heffernan, Manuel Helbig, Gustaf Hugelius, Ryan Hutchins, Sari Juutinen, Mark J. Lara, Avni Malhotra, Kristen Manies, A. David McGuire, Susan M. Natali, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, Aleksi Räsänen, Christina Schädel, Oliver Sonnentag, Maria Strack, Suzanne Tank, Claire Treat, Ruth K. Varner, Tarmo Virtanen, Rebecca K. Warren, and Jennifer D. Wattskael Hovemyr2, McKenzie A. Kuhn1, David Bastviken3, Theodore J. Bohn4, John Connolly5, Patrick Crill6, Eugénie S. Euskirchen7,8, Sarah A. Finkelstein9, Hélène Genet8, Guido Grosse10,11, Lorna I. Harris1, Liam Heffernan12, Manuel Helbig13, Gustaf Hugelius2,14, Ryan Hutchins15, Sari Juutinen16, Mark J. Lara17,18, Avni Malhotra19, Kristen Manies20, A. David McGuire8, Susan M. Natali21, Jonathan A. O'Donnell22, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier23,24, Aleksi Räsänen25, Christina Schädel26, Oliver Sonnentag27, Maria Strack28, Suzanne Tank29, Claire Treat10, Ruth K. Varner2,30, Tarmo Virtanen25, Rebecca K. Warren31, and Jennifer D. Watts2, The Boreal-Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD), Earth System Science Data, doi.org/10.5194/essd, 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI
  • Jianghua Wu* , Matthias Peichl, Junwei Luan, John Connolly and Ligang Xu, Editorial: Wetland Ecology and Biogeochemistry Under Natural and Human Disturbances, Front. Earth Sci. - Biogeoscience, 2021Journal Article, 2021
  • David Olefeldt, Mikael Hovemyr, McKenzie A. Kuhn, David Bastviken, Theodore J. Bohn, John Connolly, Patrick Crill, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Hélène Genet, Guido Grosse, Lorna I. Harris, Liam Heffernan, Manuel Helbig, Gustaf Hugelius, Ryan Hutchins, Sari Juutinen, Mark J. Lara, Avni Malhotra, Kristen Manies, A. David McGuire, Susan M. Natali, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, Aleksi Räsänen, Christina Schädel, Oliver Sonnentag, Maria Strack, Suzanne Tank, Claire Treat, Ruth K. Varner, Tarmo Virtanen, Rebecca K. Warren, Jennifer D. Watts, The Boreal-Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD), 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI
  • David Olefeldt, Mikael Hovemyr, McKenzie A. Kuhn, David Bastviken, Theodore J. Bohn, John Connolly, Patrick Crill, Eugénie S. Euskirchen, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Hélène Genet, Guido Grosse, Lorna I. Harris, Liam Heffernan, Manuel Helbig, Gustaf Hugelius, Ryan Hutchins, Sari Juutinen, Mark J. Lara, Avni Malhotra, Kristen Manies, A. David McGuire, Susan M. Natali, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Frans-Jan W. Parmentier, Aleksi Räsänen, Christina Schädel, Oliver Sonnentag, Maria Strack, Suzanne Tank, Claire Treat, Ruth K. Varner, Tarmo Virtanen, Rebecca K. Warren, Jennifer D. Watts, Supplementary material to "The Boreal-Arctic Wetland and Lake Dataset (BAWLD)", 2021Journal Article, 2021, DOI
  • Budiman Minasny, Örjan Berglund, John Connolly, Carolyn Hedley, Folkert de Vries, Alessandro Gimona, Bas Kempen, Darren Kidd, Harry Lilja, Brendan Malone, Alex McBratney, Pierre Roudier, Sharon O'Rourke, José Padarian, Laura Poggio, Alexandre ten Caten, Daniel Thompson, Clint Tuve, Wirastuti Widyatmant , Digital Mapping of Peatlands, Earth Science Reviews, 196, 2019Journal Article, 2019, URL
  • Connolly, J. , Mapping Land use on Irish peatlands using medium resolution satellite imagery, Irish Geography, 51, (2), 2018Journal Article, 2018, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Tanneberger, F., Tegetmeyer, C., Busse, S., Barthelmes, A. and 55 others , The peatland map of Europe., Mires and Peat, 19, (22), 2017, p1 - 17Journal Article, 2017, URL
  • Connolly, J. and Holden, N. M. , Detecting drains on a blanket bog using object based image analysis and very high resolution satellite imagery, Carbon Balance and Management, 12, (7), 2017Journal Article, 2017
  • J. Connolly, N. M. Holden, Detecting peatland drains with Object Based Image Analysis and Geoeye-1 imagery, Carbon Balance and Management, 12, (1), 2017Journal Article, 2017, DOI
  • O' Connell. J, Connolly. J and Holden. N. , A monitoring protocol for vegetation change on Irish peatlands and heaths, Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 31, 2014, p130 - 142Journal Article, 2014
  • Connolly J., Holden N.M., Classification of peatland disturbance, Land Degradation and Development, 24, (6), 2013, p548 - 555, p548-555Journal Article, 2013, DOI
  • O'Connell J., Connolly J., Vermote E.F., Holden N.M., Radiometric normalization for change detection in peatlands: A modified temporal invariant cluster approach, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 34, (8), 2013, p2905 - 2924, p2905-2924Journal Article, 2013, DOI
  • Connolly J., Holden N.M., Mapping peatland disturbance in Ireland: An object oriented approach, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 8174, 2011Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • Connolly J., Holden N.M., Object oriented classification of disturbance on raised bogs in the Irish Midlands using medium- and high-resolution satellite imagery, Irish Geography, 44, (1), 2011, p111 - 135, p111-135Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • Holden N.M., Connolly J., Estimating the carbon stock of a blanket peat region using a peat depth inference model, Catena, 86, (2), 2011, p75 - 85, p75-85Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • Connolly J., Holden N.M., Connolly J., Seaquist J.W., Ward S.M., Detecting recent disturbance on montane blanket bogs in the wicklow mountains, Ireland using the MODIS enhanced vegetation index, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 32, (9), 2011, p2377 - 2393, p2377-2393Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • Connell J.O., Connolly J., Holden N.M., A multispectral multiplatform based change detection tool for vegetation disturbance on Irish peatlands, Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 8174, 2011Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • Connolly, J., Holden, N. M., CLASSIFICATION OF PEATLAND DISTURBANCE, Land Degradation & Development, 24, (6), 2011, p548-555Journal Article, 2011, DOI
  • Finnan, J.M., Styles, D.F., Fitzgerald, J., Connolly, J. and Donnelly, A. , Using a strategic environmental assessment framework to quantify the environmental impact of energy plans., Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 2011Journal Article, 2011
  • Connolly J., Holden N.M., Mapping peat soils in Ireland: Updating the derived Irish peat map, Irish Geography, 42, (3), 2009, p343 - 352, p343-352Journal Article, 2009, DOI
  • Connolly J., Roulet N.T., Seaquist J.W., Holden N.M., Lafleur P.M., Humphreys E.R., Heumann B.W., Ward S.M., Using MODIS derived fPAR with ground based flux tower measurements to derive the light use efficiency for two Canadian peatlands, Biogeosciences, 6, (2), 2009, p225 - 234, p225-234Journal Article, 2009, DOI
  • Connolly J., Holden N.M., Ward S.M., Mapping peatlands in Ireland using a rule-based methodology and digital data, Soil Science Society of America Journal, 71, (2), 2007, p492 - 499, p492-499Journal Article, 2007, DOI

Research Expertise

  • Title
    RePEAT- A Modern Resurvey of Mapped Irish Peatlands to Refine Assessment of Land Use Change and Progress Greenhouse Gas Removal and Emissions Inventories
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    DAFM
    Date From
    01-09-2021
    Date To
    31-08-2024
  • Title
    Satellite-driven model to upscale Irish CO2 Net Ecosystem Exchange (ICONEEx).
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    May 2023
    Date To
    April 2026
  • Title
    Irish Peatland Resilience
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    01-01-2022
    Date To
    31-12-2023
  • Title
    Habitat Mapping, Monitoring and Assessment using High-Resolution Imagery
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    2019
    Date To
    2023
  • Title
    Tellus Peatmap
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    GSI
  • Title
    Smart observation of management impacts on peatlands function (SmartBog)
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    2019
    Date To
    2024
  • Title
    SolarMap
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    SFI
    Date From
    2020
    Date To
    2021
  • Title
    GENENET
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    DAFM
    Date From
    2020
    Date To
    2022
  • Title
    Pan-Arctic Net Ecosystem Exchange
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    Google Earth Engine Research Award
    Date From
    2015
    Date To
    2016
  • Title
    Mire Ecosystem Transition Area Flux (METAflux).
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    FP7 People Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship
  • Title
    Remote sensing of grasslands for evaluating compliance with key environmental legislation.
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    2009
    Date To
    20012
  • Title
    Identification, mapping, assessment and quantification of the effects disturbance on the peat soil C stock in Ireland
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    2008
    Date To
    2011
  • Title
    Assessing & monitoring vegetation disturbance on Irish peatlands using satellite imagery
    Summary
    Funding Agency
    EPA
    Date From
    2007
    Date To
    2010

Recognition

  • Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) 2023
  • International Peatland Society (IPS) 2024
  • Geographical Society of Ireland (GSI) 2024
  • Geomorphological Association of Ireland 2024
  • Irish Geomorphological Society (IGGY) 2023
  • European Geosciences Union 2024
  • American Geosciences Union 2014