Research output per year
Research output per year
DR
Accepting PhD Students
Research: Gary's main research focus is in the development of approaches for geographical targeting of scarce government and NGO resources across the planet but particularly in low and middle income countries. Gary’s research supports the UN’s call for a data revolution in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help monitoring progress and contribute to geographic targeting of scarce resources. The majority of projects Gary has worked on recently have been co-designed with UN agencies and they are directly dealing with gaps in knowledge and providing required outputs for practitioners as well as furthering scientific knowledge.
Gary specialises in developing proxy metrics for measuring poverty using multi-source non-traditional data such as very-high spatial resolution satellite imagery (<1m) and open street map data. Gary is particularly interested in developing methods for using satellite imagery to map and monitor aspects of human livelihoods and how this could be used to support the targeting of resources to areas that are in specific need.
Current research projects as principal or co-investigator: (1) Improving prediction of trends in prevalence of child wasting at country level: Exploring the impact of survey timing; (2) Mapping gender related barriers for immunisation using Geographic Information Systems (GIS); (3) Developing a childrens climate risk index with UNICEF.
PhD Opportunities: Places for September 2025 have now closed. Places for 2026 will be advertised later in 2025.
PhDs Completed:
Past/Completed Projects:
Teaching: Gary is the programme director for the Earth Observation and Geoinformation Management MSc.
He is course organiser for 'Visual Analytics' and teaches on the following postgraduate courses in 'EO4SDGs', ‘Applied research skills in environment and society’, ‘Research practice and project planning’, ‘Passive Remote Sensing’ and undergraduate course on 'Sustainable Development Goals: History, Progress and Beyond 2030'.
Deputy Director for SENSE Centre for Doctoral Training
Co-chair of the Inclusive Wealth Working Group of the ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing)
Steering Committee member for Belgian Science Policy funded project
Member of the UNICEF Climate and Environment Data Advisory Group
External Expert: World Health Organisation - selecting indicators to monitor the impact of extreme heat on Maternal, Newborn, Child Health
B.Sc. Lancaster University, Geography
M.Sc. Southampton University, Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis
Ph.D Southampton University, Exploring the spatial associations between socioeconomic variables and remotely sensed environmental metrics in Assam, Northeast India.
FHEA: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
personal teaching and research webpage: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/gwatmoug/
UNICEF Climate and Environment Data Advisory Group, UNICEF
Sept 2024 → …
Consultant Research Scientist, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria
2015 → 2018
Visiting Researcher , Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability, International Institute for Advanced Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria
30 Sept 2001 → …
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
Watmough, G. (Advisor)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
Watmough, G. (Examiner)
Activity: Examination types › External Examiner or Assessor
Watmough, G. (Member)
Activity: Membership types › Membership of committee
Watmough, G. (Advisor), Mutua, J. (Advisor), Mlambo, R. (Advisor) & Gouhari, S. (Advisor)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Watmough, G. (Chair)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
Watmough, G. (Recipient), Henley, S. (Recipient), Bollasina, M. (Recipient) & Mollard, J. (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Watmough, G. (Principal Investigator), Darbyshire, E. (Co-Investigator (External)), Gorjon Fernandez, L. (Sponsor) & Van Den Hoek, J. (Co-Investigator (External))
21/05/25 → 31/12/25
Project: Consultancy
Watmough, G. (Principal Investigator)
1/08/24 → 31/07/25
Project: University Awarded Project Funding
Watmough, G. (Principal Investigator)
1/03/23 → 28/02/27
Project: Research
Watmough, G. (Principal Investigator), Duncan, A. (Principal Investigator), Simm, G. (Principal Investigator), Baltenweck, I. (Principal Investigator), Roba, G. (Principal Investigator) & Jensen, N. (Principal Investigator)
1/01/22 → 30/04/26
Project: Research
Watmough, G. (Principal Investigator)
Conflict and Environment Observatory
1/10/21 → 30/06/25
Project: Research
Watmough, G. (Creator), Humanitarian Data Exchange, 2025
Dataset
Watmough, G. (Creator), Hagdorn, M. (Creator) & Brumhead, J. (Creator), Edinburgh DataShare, 9 Jul 2021
DOI: 10.7488/ds/3085
Dataset
Watmough, G. (Creator), Edinburgh DataShare, 9 Jul 2021
DOI: 10.7488/ds/3074
Dataset
Watmough, G. (Creator), Seth, S. (Creator), Mlambo, R. (Creator), Mohan, K. (Creator) & Ó Héir, S. (Creator), The University of Edinburgh, 18 Sept 2024
Dataset
Watmough, G. (Creator), Barthelme, P. (Creator), Darbyshire, E. (Creator) & Spracklen, D. (Creator), Edinburgh DataShare, 13 Feb 2024
DOI: 10.7488/ds/7683
Dataset
Watmough, G., Henley, S., Bollasina, M. & Mollard, J.
25/10/22 → 26/10/22
4 Media contributions
Press/Media: Research
Watmough, G., Henley, S., Bollasina, M. & Mollard, J.
19/08/21 → 20/08/21
4 Media contributions
Press/Media: Research
Watmough, G. & Svenning, J.-C.
7/01/19 → 9/01/19
7 items of Media coverage
Press/Media: Project or Organisational News Item