Biography

After working as a Teaching Fellow in GIS at the University of Leicester, in September 2013 I joined the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences at Keele as a Lecturer in Human Geography and GIS. Previous to that I held teaching and research roles at a myriad of institutions such as the University of Barcelona, the University of Lleida, the University of Sheffield or Durham University and have also worked in the private sector as an Environment Technician.

Academically I did a BSc in Geography at the University of Barcelona (2007), a MSc in GIS at the University of Edinburgh (2008), a MEd in Higher Education Lecturing at the University of Barcelona (2011) and a PhD in Geography, Planning and Environmental Management at the University of Barcelona (2013) with the title “Bottled natural mineral water in Catalonia: Origin and geographical evolution of its consumption and production”.

You can follow me on Twitter @tande64. Between rants and complaints from time to time I also post links geographically relevant.

Research and scholarship

I am interested in anything to do with geography and GIS, so my research interests are quite broad, varied and geeky. Current and past research topics for which I am happy to supervise PhDs include:

Historical cartography and GIS

• Recreation of past landscapes
• Evolution of Urban Fabric
• Sediment yield estimation
• Land use evolution

Geographies of Food and Eating

• The industry of bottled water
• European Spa Towns
• Wine Geography
• Culture and Food

Pedagogy of Geography

• Web based learning
• Competences-based teaching
• Alternative teaching methods
• Computer skills teaching

Human Geography and GIS

• Quality of life and well-being
• Nationalism
• Housing
• Electoral Geography
• Geolinguistics and Twitter
• Population visualisation methods

Remote Sensing and GIS

• Application of UAVs (drones) to environmental issues
• Satellite imagery and land change
• Archaeological documentation

I am a member of the Catalan Geographical Society, the Association of Catalan Geographers, the Official Geographers Body of Catalonia and Spain, Group of Historical Cartography Studies, the Keele Institute for Social Inclusion and Keele Natural Sciences Research.

Teaching

Module leader:

• ESC-10035 Geographical Skills
• GEG-2010 Practical Human Geography
• ESC-30044 Applied GIS

Involved in:

• ESC-20029 Practical Physical Geography
• ESC-20049 Dynamic Geographies
• ESC-20050 Dynamic Geographies
• GEG-20009 Geographical Research Training (Barcelona Fieldcourse)

Phd Supervision:

• 2018- Helen Malbon, Can digitised heritage landscapes inspire a sense of place?
• 2017- Iqtadar Shah, Modelling agritourism potential in rural areas using GIS methods
• 2017- Laura Brennan,  Gender, Migration and Intergenerational Mobility
• 2017- Ben Davenward, Determining the extent and landsystems context of buried ice within glacial environments
• 2017- Adam Peacock, Mobility, exclusion and governance in the rural-urban fringe
• 2016- Angie Turner, The evolution and glacial significance of meltwater systems within the North Staffordshire region
• 2014-2016 Ben Duke, Student learning through work placements

Funding

• 2018 Rethinking ‘falling behind’ cities: inclusive urbanism at times of crisis and ‘closing’, Keele Institute for Social Inclusion £3,700
• 2018 Secure Food Futures, Keele Institute for Social Inclusion £3,971
• 2017-2019 City and countryside in Spanish Cartography, a historic perspective, Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Ministry 48,000€
• 2017 Funding to develop an augmented reality sandbox Higher Horizons+ £2,67
• 2017 Santander Research Bursary seed corn research £2,750
• 2017 Funding to purchase a 3D printer Geography, Geology and Environment Research cluster £2,150
• 2016-2017 Introducing undergraduate students to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Learning and Professional Development Centre, Keele University £2,590
• 2015-2017 Models in the Spanish urban cartography: a historical analysis Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry with 48,400€ for the project and 85,000€ for a PhD scholarship
• 2015-2017 Youth migration, new social movements and digital networks (#eMovix) Obra Social la Caixa with 77,262.23€
• 2015 Erasmus funding to visit the Unversity of Almería 1,750€
• 2015 Santander Research Bursary seed corn research £3,500
• 2015 Network funding to establish links Centre for Social Policy, Keele University £1,500
• 2014 Funding to purchase a research UAV and sensors Faculty of Natural Sciences, Keele University £26,500 
• 2012-2014 Urban cartography in Spain in the 18th and 19th centuries: the role of councils and the military funded by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry with 49,573€
• CAN'T ADD FURTHER ITEMS TO THIS FOR SOME REASON

Conferences

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2018) “Mapping population density of Galicia (Spain) at sub-municipal level” RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Cardiff, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2018) “The location of Catalan mineral water bottling plants during their first expansion period (1844-1936)” 17th International Conference of Historical Geographers 2018, Warsaw, Poland

EVANGELIDES, Christos and NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2018) “Post-fire revegetation assessment in Cyprus: a case study in Evrychou” Sixth International Conference on Remote Sensing and Geoinformation of Environment, Paphos, Cyprus

MILLMAN, H; PHIPPS, S; GOLLEDGE, N; FOGWILL, C; TURNEY, C and NOBAJAS, A (2018) “Rapid ocean-driven West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse under Last Interglacial climate forcings” European Geosciences Union General Assembly, Vienna, Austria

EVANGELIDES, Christos and NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2018) “Post-fire revegetation assessment in Cyprus: a case study in Evrychou” JADE Student Learning Undergraduate Conference, Keele, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “UAVs (drones) as data source for 3D modelling” Computer Science Seminar Series, Keele, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “The challenges of studying the geographical distribution of languages using social media; Twitter and the Catalan case” Digital Humanities at Keele University, Keele, United Kingdom

TURNER, Angela; WALLER, Richard; NOBAJAS, Alexandre; KNIGHT, Peter; LEE, Jonathan (2017) “Establishing the evolution and paleo-glaciological significance of meltwater drainage systems within North Staffordshire using a multi-disciplinary, landsystems approach” Faculty of Natural Sciences' Postgraduate Research Symposium, Keele, United Kingdom

MALBON, Helen and NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “Photogrammetry from UAV data to create a 3D reconstruction of a Type II henge, Arbor Low” 26th Comité International de la Photogrammétrie Architecturale conference, Digital Workflows for Heritage Conservation, Ottawa, Canada

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “Automatic Isogloss Maps from Twitter Data: The Catalan Case” Methods in Dialectology XVI, Tokyo, Japan

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “Drones and undergraduate students, a viable relationship?” International Conference on Education and Learning, Tokyo, Japan

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “Throwing caution to the wind; using drones to teach undergraduate students” Keele Learning and Teaching Conference, Keele, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2017) “The role of detailed UAV imagery in characterising large-scale badland drainage characteristics in South-eastern Spain” Early Career Researcher Lunches, Keele, United Kingdom

ALLEN, Daniel and NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2016) “Mapping the Archive: Using Historical Hunting Records to Map the Presence of Otters in England” KUSRN seminar series, Keele, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2016) “The study of large-scale badlands environments using UAV imagery” The Commercial UAV Show, London, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2016) “Geography, languages and Twitter; the Iberian case”. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, United Kingdom

Allen, Daniel and NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2016) “Mapping the Archive: Using Historical Hunting Records to Map the Presence of Otters in England”. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2016) “Characterising large scale badland drainage density in south-eastern Spain using UAV imagery”. Small UAS for Environmental Research Conference, Worcester, United Kingdom

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2016) “The Barcelona Plan (1856-1862) by Miquel Garriga i Roca, from the archive to the web”. IX seminario “Dalla mappa al GIS”, Rome, Italy

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2015) “Vectorisation of the 1861 Horta’s land plot map”. 3^rd Conference on Barcelona’s History, Barcelona, Spain

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2015) “Is Twitter a valid data source to study linguistics? The case of Catalonia”. Reliability and Validity in SLA Research, Barcelona, Spain

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2015) “Using historical cadastral cartography to study the relationship between flash floods and urban change in Barcelona”. IX seminario “Dalla mappa al GIS”, Rome, Italy

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2015) “Using Twitter to study (and map) sociolinguistic diversity”. Geography, Geology and the Environment seminar series, Keele, UK

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2015) “The representation of the port in the Barcelona Plan (1856-1862) of Miquel Garriga i Roca”. 4^th International Workshop in the History of Iberian Cartography, Barcelona, Spain

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2014) “Combining historical cartography and GIS to unravel the mysteries of the Isabel II dam in Níjar (Almería)”. XVI Congreso Nacional de Tecnologías de la Información Geográfica, Alacant, Spain

NOBAJAS, A., BURGUEÑO, J., MONTANER, C., MURO, J. I., NADAL, F., URTEAGA, J., VIDAL, T., VILLANOVA, J. L.(2014) “Cadastral cartography and surveying in Catalonia (1845-1895)”. Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Tampa, Florida

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2014) “Twitter as a tool to analyse sociolinguistic and geolinguistic trends in the Iberian Peninsula, a methodological proposal”. XVIth Forum for Iberian Studies: Cultural and linguistic diversity in the Iberian Peninsula, University of Oxford

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2013) “From hidden to on-line, the case of Horta’s cadastral map”. Cartography and cadastral maps. Visions from the past, for a vision of our future Pisa

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2013) “Garriga i Roca’s ‘quarterons’ as a tool to study urban change in Barcelona”. La representació cartogràfica de la ciutat a la península Ibèrica (segles XVII-XIX)  Barcelona

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2012) ‘Bottled mineral water in Catalonia, from the spa to the shop’ Water and Health: spas and sea baths Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain (In Spanish)

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2012) Using cadastral cartography to recreate past landscapes: the Horta example  Poster presented at the Centre for Landscape and Climate Research Launch Event, Leicester, UK

NOBAJAS, Alexandre and NADAL, Francesc (2012) ‘Recreating past landscapes in 3D using GIS and cadastral cartography from the 19th century: the Horta example of the Province of Barcelona’ The 15th AGILE International Conference on Geographic Information Science Avignon, France

ASENSIO, J.A., CASTILLEJOS, B., DELGADO, M.P., GRAELL, M., NOBAJAS, A., PRADES, J.D., QUIRÓS, C., SUÁREZ, M.M. (2011) “Interdisciplinary work in three common competences of the University of Barcelona” III Congrés Internacional Noves Tendències en la Formació Permanent del Professorat Barcelona (In Catalan)

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2011) “Collaborative Cartography and team-work: Google my maps as a teaching tool” Congreso Internacional Innovación Metodológica y Docente en Historia, Arte y Geografía Santiago de Compostela (in Spanish)

ASENSIO, J.A., CAMPANERA, J.M., CASTILLEJOS, B., CODERCH, M., CUEVA, L., DELGADO, M.P., GRAELL, M., MONTMANY, B., NETTEL, A., NOBAJAS, A., PRADES, J.D., QUIRÓS, C., RAMON, A., SILVESTRE, M.P., SUÁREZ, M.M. (2011) “INNOVELLS: Collaborative and innovative initiatives in teaching” VIII Foro sobre la Evaluación de la Calidad de la Investigación y de la Educación Superior (FECIES) Santander, Spain (in Spanish)

CAMPANERA, J. M.; CASTILLEJOS, B.; NOBAJAS, A.; PRADES, J. D.; RAMON, A.; SUÁREZ, M. Mar. (2011) “Young lecturers and the use of IT in teaching innovation” I Congreso Internacional Comunicación y Educación: Estrategias de Alfabetización Mediática, Barcelona (in Spanish)

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2010) “Bottled mineral water in Catalonia: The role of the receptacle in its starting stages” V Congrés d'Història Agrària dels Països Catalans, Barcelona

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2010) “Integration between historical cartography and digital elevation models. The map of the old town of Horta in 1861” 2on Seminari d’història de la cartografia. Cartografia i agrimensura a Catalunya i Balears (segles XIX-XX), Barcelona (In Catalan)

MUNTANER, Carme i NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2010) “The rural maps catalogue of Catalonia collected by the Grup d’Estudis d’Història de la Cartografia” 2on Seminari d’història de la cartografia. Cartografia i agrimensura a Catalunya i Balears (segles XIX-XX), Barcelona (In Catalan)

Nobajas, Alexandre (2010) “Bottled Water Consumption and Underground Water Pollution: Swine and Nitrates an Catalonia” International Geographical Union Regional Conference, Tel-Aviv

SEARLE, Beverley A.; SMITH, Susan J.; NOBAJAS, Alex (2009) “From housing wealth to wellbeing: the role and relevance of mortgage equity withdrawal in the UK” 9th International Conference of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS), Florence

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2009) “Housing and families in Kingston, Jamaica: a statistical and spatial depiction from the 2001 census data.” Second International Conference on Geographies of Children, Youth and Families, Barcelona

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2008) “Dynamic maps on-line: relational databases, PERL and SVG” Segon Congrés Català de Geografia (In Catalan)

NOBAJAS, Alexandre (2008) “GIS and Census Data: Housing in the Kinston Metropolitan Area, Jamaica” Postgraduate Research Conference, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh