Head of Division Dr. S. Victorov

The Division carries out research on implementation of Environmental Remote Sensing techniques in the field of Oceanography with particular emphasis on Regional Seas and Coastal Zone.

The team has long-standing experience of performing spaceborne monitoring of the Baltic Sea, Caspian Sea, White Sea and other seas and inland lakes of North - West Russia based on satellite imagery of visible, infra-red and microwave bands
(including radar imagery) from satellites of Russia, France, USA, European Space Agency and Japan. The results have been published in scientific journals and Proceedings of international conferences and symposia in English, German and French. Several manuals have been published in Russian.

In alliance with the Laboratory for Satellite Oceanography at the State Oceanographic Institute/St.Petersburg (SPO GOIN) and Laboratory for Coastal Zone Research at the Russian National Institute of Remote Sensing Methods for Geology (VNIIKAM), the Division forms a cluster of Remote Sensing teams providing expertise on a wide range of problems of marine and coastal environments.

In close collaboration with other regional institutions the Division participated in a number of multi-disciplinary international research projects including:

• European Land Use Database (1993)
  
• Regional GIS "Environment and Population Health" (1994)
  
• Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (1995)
  
• Integrated Water Management for St.Petersburg Region (since 1996)
  

• distribution of suspended sediments and other optically-active substances
  
• seasonal algae bloom
  
• water dynamics features (coastal fronts, upwellings, eddy structures) as the means of visualization of pollution transport and transformation
  
• thermal water discharges, river plumes and their dissipation
  
• ice cover, ice morphology on sea and inland water bodies (including major rivers)
  
• distribution of coastal macrophytes as indicators of water quality
  
• coastal line position (with mapping of changes)
  
• land use in coastal areas and changes in coastal landscapes
  
• distribution and quality of vegetation in coastal areas
  
• forest health in the coastal zones around inland lakes
  
• water quality in small lakes used for recreational purposes
  
• degradation of marshes
  
• urban, industrial and agricultural impacts on coastal waters and landscapes
  

Team leader Dr. S. Victorov for a number of years has served for the World Meteorological Organisation as an expert on oceanographic satellites. In 1996 he published a book: S.Victorov, "Regional Satellite Oceanography" (Taylor and Francis, London), the first ever book dealing with regional aspects of Satellite Oceanography.

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