Rodolphe Devillers

Email: rdeville[at]mun[dot]ca

Research

   Climate & Environmental Change
  Society, Knowledge & Values


I am a geographer coming from a multidisciplinary background and interested in way too many things, including how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be used or extended to improve our understanding of our oceans or support their management, and the questions of usabiity of geographic data by non-expert GIS users. My research interests are at the interface between geography, computer science, biology and earth sciences.

My research lab is composed of students coming from very diverse backgrounds, reflecting the research questions we are looking at. Most of our research projects are done in collaboration with other universities and involve government or NGOs.

For the Marine Geomatics part, our research group has looked at fisheries ecology in relation to environmental changes, the study of cold-water corals in Atlantic Canada, the use of acoustic mapping techniques (e.g. multibeam) for benthic habitat mapping, and marine conservation and systematic conservation planning. We have also explored ways to improve current GIS tools/methods, such as developing new marine 3D data structures and developing new visualization techniques to communicate and analyze marine data.

For the Spatial Data Quality part, most of our work is at the interface between spatial data quality, users and usages, data visualization and decision-making, with for example projects that looked at communicating data quality on GIS maps and in virtual globes environments, and questions related to the quality of volunteered geographic information (VGI).

Education

Post-doc (2005) - Natural Resources Canada (Geomatics Canada)
PhD (2001-2004) - Laval University
MSc (1999-2000) - Laval University
MSc (1997-1999) - University of Quebec in Montreal
BSc (1994-1997) - U. of Lyon (France)

Select Publications

  • 2015 Lecours V., Devillers R., Schneider D.C., Lucieer V.L., Brown C.J., and Edinger E.N. Spatial scale and geographic context in benthic habitat mapping: review and future directions. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 535: 259-284.
  • 2015 McFarlane Tranquilla L., Montevecchi W.A., Hedd A., Regular P.M., Robertson G.J., Fifield D.A. and Devillers R. Ecological segregation among Thick-billed Murres (Uria lomvia) and Common Murres (Uria aalge) in the Northwest Atlantic persists through the nonbreeding season. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 93(6): 447-460.
  • 2015 Devillers R., Pressey R.L., Grech A., Kittinger J.N., Edgar G.J., Ward T. and Watson R. Reinventing residual reserves in the sea: are we favouring ease of establishment over need for protection? Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 25(4): 480-504.
  • 2014 Vandecasteele A., Devillers R. and Napoli, A. Analyzing vessel movement data using an ontology framework based on semantic trajectory and semantic events. Marine Geodesy, 37(2): 126-144.
  • 2014 Ban N.C., Maxwell S.M., Dunn D.C., Hobday A.J., Bax N.J., Ardron J.A., Gjerde K.M., Game E.T., Devillers R., Kaplan D.M., Dunstan P.K., Halpin P.A., and Pressey R.L. Better integration of sectoral planning and management approaches for the interlinked ecology of the open oceans. Marine Policy, 49: 127-136.
  • 2014 Lee C., Devillers R. and Hoeber O. Navigating spatio-temporal data with temporal zoom and pan in a multi-touch environment. International Journal of Geographic Information Science, 28(5): 1128-1148.
  • 2014 Jones K., Devillers R., Bédard Y. and Schroth O. Visualizing perceived spatial data quality of 3D objects within virtual globes. International Journal of Digital Earth, 7(10): 771-788.
  • 2014 Ban N.C., Bax N.J., Gjerde K.M., Devillers R., Dunn D.C., Dunstan P.K., Hobday A.J., Maxwell S.M., Kaplan D.M., Pressey R.L., Ardron J.A., Game E.T. and Halpin P.A. Systematic Conservation Planning: a better recipe for managing the high seas for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Conservation Letters, 7(1): 41-54.
  • 2013 Copeland A., Edinger E., Devillers R., Bell T., LeBlanc P. and Wroblewski J. Marine habitat mapping in support of marine protected area management in a sub-arctic fjord: Gilbert Bay, Labrador, Canada. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 17(2): 225-237.
  • 2013 Enguehard R., Devillers R. and Hoeber O. Comparing interactive and automated mapping systems for supporting fisheries enforcement activities – A case study on Vessels Monitoring Systems (VMS). Journal of Coastal Conservation, 17(1): 105-119.
  • 2012 Windle M., Rose G., Devillers R. and Fortin M.-J. Spatio-temporal variations of invertebrate cod-temperature relationships on the Newfoundland shelf, 1995-2009. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 469: 263-278.
  • 2012 Enguehard R., Hoeber O. and Devillers R. Interactive exploration of movement data: A case study of geovisual analytics for fishing vessel analysis. Information Visualization, 12(1): 65-84.