James Bramante

Education: B.A. in Honors Environmental Earth Science (Dartmouth College)

 

Research Experience: 4+ years as full-time research assistant at the Tropical Marine Science Institute at NUS (still employed)

 

Publications:

Bramante, J. and D.K. Raju (2013). "Predicting the distribution of informal camps established by the displaced after a catastrophic disaster, Port-au-Prince, Haiti." Applied Geography 40: 30-39.

 

Bramante, J., D.K. Raju, and T.M. Sin (2013). "Multispectral derivation of bathymetry in Singapore's shallow, turbid waters." International Journal of Remote Sensing 34(6): 2070-2088.

 

 

Research Interests:

 

My interests are located in the general vicinity of water quality, coastal management and hydrology. Most of my research has revolved around remote sensing-based biophysical models and hydrologic modeling. However, I am slowly steering my research to more holistic modeling of the environment with the end goal of creating a body of research to better inform policy makers and engineers in environmental management.

 

My first major research endeavor involved building an algorithm to derive bathymetry, or sea depth, from multispectral satellite imagery in Singapore. This first project has fed into several others involving habitat and hydrologic modeling of Singapore’s shores. From this base I am building a high resolution hydrodyamic model of Singapore's southern islands, aiming for accurate modeling of local-scale hydrodynamics over Singapore's coral reefs.  This, together with a few other high resolution products, will feed into a statistical prediction model of coral presence.  This model will prove useful in disentangling physical environmental constraints on coral growth from water quality or biological constraints.  It will hopefully also inform coastal managers on where to focus recruitment and conservation efforts to preserve and expand Singapore's reef habitat.

 

 

Other Interests:

 

When not attempting to balance work with school, I often find myself delving into new computer languages and taking online courses on statistics (which I still have trouble getting to stick). When I’m not running, climbing, at work, or online, I can often be found trying to dominate the world, or just a micro-scale economy, over the game board.