Staff Profile

Background 

Land surveying engineer with comprehensive expertise in integrating geospatial data from various sources (UAV, TLS, ALS, GNSS, Total station, CCTV cameras etc.) as well as applying photogrammetric and computer vision techniques to real world problems relating to the natural and built environment. Member of the Newcastle Earth Observations laboratory (NEOLab) within the School's Geospatial Engineering Group. Member of the UKRI GCRF Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub.

More information about my ongoing research can be found here: https://linktr.ee/mvpeppa 

Publications

Published papers are available via the Newcastle University ePrints service as well as in ORCID and Scopus.

Highlights

• NERC-awarded Public Engagement project: Empowering Future Environmental Changemakers Through Science (EFECTS) 

• Webinar about my research in photogrammetric computer vision given at the Universidad Technologica de Bolivar, Cartagena, Colombia.

• Outreach activities promoting STEM and geospatial engineering for tacking climate change to young learners in the North East of England.

Qualifications

September 2017 - October 2013

Awarded PhD in Geomatics, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, UK, “Morphology-based landslide monitoring system with a UAV”.

Aim: To investigate the potential of a consumer grade UAV system to provide accurate time series of 3D landslide information in the absence of physically established control points. A morphological-based strategy was developed applying surface morphological attributes in combination with the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm to generate pseudo control information and co-register multi-epoch UAV datasets for landslide monitoring.

Supervisors: Prof J.Mills, Prof P.Moore, Dr P.E.Miller (The James Hutton Institute) and J.E.Chambers (British Geological Survey).

Funding: This research was jointly funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) BGS BUFI award (S241) and an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) DTA award (EP/L504828/1).

September 2013 - August 2011

MSc in Geodesy and Geoinformatics, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH) 
School of Build Environment, Stockholm, Sweden. 
Thesis: “Precision Analysis of 3D camera”

Aim: To investigate calibration parameters of a Time of Flight camera and assess the output accuracy with benchmark observations. Rubin Prize winner for the best thesis in 2013.

October 2000 - July 2006

BSc/MSc (5-year Diploma) in Rural and Surveying Engineering, National “Metsovio” Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece.

Research Interest

To create data-driven solutions applying photogrammetric computer vision and remote sensing techniques with geospatial data acquired from heterogeneous sources to address global challenges such as water security, and help communities improve resilience to effectively respond to disasters (e.g. flooding and landslides). 

Postgraduate supervision

Current:

• Ambreen Masud (Geospatial Systems CDT)

Research projects

present - March 2020

In collaboration with Prof Jon Mills to the UKRI GCRF Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub (Water Hub) research project. Main activities are the development of photogrammetric computer vision solutions to help solve global water security problems.

PI: Prof Richard Dawson

February 2020 - May 2018

In collaboration with Dr Wen Xiao to the NERC-funded project Flood-PREPARED. The main activities are analysis and utilisation of CCTV and social media imagery for flood extraction and traffic monitoring, including the precise identification of flooded areas as well as detection and tracking of vehicle and pedestrian movements. 

PI: Prof Stuart Barr

April 2018 - October 2017

Contribution to the AHRC-funded Cultural Heritage Through Time (CHT2) project; 3D multi-temporal reconstruction of the landscape change of cultural heritage over Hadrian’s Wall study sites; Application of Structure from Motion (SfM) with archival photography and integration with laser scanning datasets. 

PI: Prof Gabriele Guidi (Politecnico di Milano), Prof Jon Mills (NU), Prof Diego Gonzales-Augilera (Salamanca University), Prof Beata Hejmanowska (Stanislaw Staszic Scientific Association).

Undergraduate teaching

• CEG2709: Applied Remote sensing and Image processing (10 credits)

• Butte G, Solano-Correa YT, Peppa MV, Ruiz-Ordonez DM, Maysels R, Tuqan N, Polaine X, Montoya-Pachongo C, Walsh C, Curtis T. A Framework for Water Security Data Gathering Strategies. Water 2022, 14(18), 2907.
• Wang S, Peppa MV, Xiao W, Maharjan SB, Joshi SP, Mills JP. A second-order attention network for glacial lake segmentation from remotely sensed imagery. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 2022, 189, 289-301.
• Senn JA, Mills J, Walsh CL, Addy S, Peppa M-V. On-site geometric calibration of RPAS mounted sensors for SfM photogrammetric geomorphological surveys. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 2022, 47(6), 1615-1634.
• Boyd J, Chambers J, Wilkinson P, Peppa M, Watlet A, Kirkham M, Jones L, Swift R, Meldrum P, Uhlemann S, Binley A. A linked geomorphological and geophysical modelling methodology applied to an active landslide. Landslides 2021, 18, 2689–2704.
• Kassotakis N, Sarhosis V, Peppa MV, Mills J. Quantifying the effect of geometric uncertainty on the structural behaviour of arches developed from direct measurement and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry. Engineering Structures 2021, 230, 111710.
• Peppa MV, Komar T, Xiao W, James P, Robson C, Xing J, Barr S. Towards an End-to-End Framework of CCTV-Based Urban Traffic Volume Detection and Prediction. Sensors 2021, 21(2), 629.
• Berra EF, Peppa MV. Advances and challenges of UAV SFM MVS photogrammetry and remote sensing: short review. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 2020, XLII-3/W12-2020, 267-272.
• Barr SL, Johnson S, Ming X, Peppa M, Dong N, Wen Z, Robson C, Smith L, James P, Wilkinson D, Heaps S, Laing Q, Xiao W, Dawson R, Ranjan R. FLOOD-PREPARED: A NOWCASTING SYSTEM for REAL-TIME IMPACT ADAPTION to SURFACE WATER FLOODING in CITIES. In: 5th International Conference on Smart Data and Smart Cities. 2020, Nice, France: Copernicus GmbH.
• Peppa MV, Maharjan SB, Joshi SP, Xiao W, Mills JP. Glacial lake evolution based on remote sensing time series: a case study of Tsho Rolpa in Nepal. ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 2020, V-3-2020, 633-639.
• Senn JA, Mills JP, Miller PE, Walsh C, Addy S, Loerke E, Peppa MV. On-site geometric calibration of thermal and optical sensors for UAS photogrammetry. International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 2020, XLIII-B1-2020, 355-361.
• Senn JA, Mills JP, Miller PE, Walsh C, Addy S, Loerke E, Peppa MV. On-Site Geometric Calibration of Thermal and Optical Sensors for UAS Photogrammetry. ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 2020, XLIII-B1-2020, 355–361.
• Peppa MV, Mills JP, Moore P, Miller PE, Chambers JE. Automated co-registration and calibration in SfM photogrammetry for landslide change detection. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 2019, 44(1), 287-303.
• Peppa MV, Hall J, Goodyear J, Mills JP. Photogrammetric assessment and comparison of DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 RTK small unmanned aircraft systems. In: ISPRS Geospatial Week 2019. 2019, Enschede, The Netherlands: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
• Hejmanowska B, Glowienka E, Michalowska K, Mikrut S, Kramarczyk P, Opalinski P, Twardowski M, Guidi G, Barsanti SG, Micoli L, Malik US, Gonzalez-Aguilera D, Sanchez-Aparicio LJ, Rodriguez-Gonzalveza P, Munoz-Nieto AL, Mills J, Peppa M-V. The Comparison of the Web GIS Applications Relevant for 4D Models Sharing. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 2019, 362(1), 012158.
• Peppa MV, Mills JP, Fieber KD, Haynes I, Turner S, Turner A, Douglas M, Bryan PG. Archaeological feature detection from archive aerial photography with a SfM-MVS and image enhancement pipeline. In: International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information. 2018, Riva del Garda, Italy: International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
• Peppa MV, Bell D, Komar T, Xiao W. Urban traffic flow analysis based on deep learning car detection from cctv image series. In: SPRS TC IV Mid-term Symposium “3D Spatial Information Science – The Engine of Change”. 2018, Delft, The Netherlands: ISPRS.
• Peppa MV, Mills JP, Moore P, Miller PE, Chambers JE. Brief communication: Landslide motion from cross correlation of UAV-derived morphological attributes. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 2017, 17(12), 2143-2150.
• Fieber KD, Mills JP, Peppa MV, Haynes I, Turner S, Turner A, Douglas M, Bryan PG. Cultural heritage through time: a case study at Hadrian’s Wall, United Kingdom. International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences 2017, XLII-2/W3, 297-302.
• Peppa MV, Mills JP, Moore P, Miller PE, Chambers JE. Accuracy assessment of a UAV-based landslide monitoring system. In: International Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. 2016, Prague, Czech Republic: Copernicus Gesellschaft MBH.