{"id":335,"date":"2025-03-31T15:08:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T14:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/?p=335"},"modified":"2025-04-01T16:05:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T15:05:53","slug":"staff-spotlight-dave-seaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/2025\/03\/31\/staff-spotlight-dave-seaman\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Spotlight: Dave Seaman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Dave, thanks for being this month’s Staff Spotlight! Can you tell us a bit about your role at DICE<\/span>?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

I’m<\/span> a Fellow in the <\/span>E3 <\/span>Innovation team, where we collaborate with governments, NGOs, and private sector partners to bridge the gap between science and policy. <\/span>M<\/span>y role is to apply our <\/span>expertise<\/span> in spatial planning to navigate the complex balance between development and conservation, helping to <\/span>identify<\/span> win-win solutions that <\/span>benefit<\/span> both people and nature.<\/span> As policy and businesses increasingly prioriti<\/span>s<\/span>e sustainability and <\/span>minimising<\/span> social impacts<\/span>, <\/span>especially in the context of large infrastructure projects<\/span>, there is an increasing need <\/span>for spatial planning which <\/span>take into account<\/span> the needs<\/span> of<\/span> development<\/span>, whilst mitigating the environmental impacts.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your research interests<\/span>?<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n

My research interests are varied but predominantly involve spatial analysis, investigating geographic patterns, relationships, and trends, in the tropics but also closer to home.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I came to the University from a background in zoos, where I mostly worked with great apes as a zoo keeper. I followed this interest in great apes through my masters and PhD research, where I studied orangutans in human-modified landscapes in Borneo. My research focused on understanding orangutan densities and their movement within and across these human-modified landscapes. Other researchers and I used this research to produce recommendations for increasing the sustainability of agricultural landscapes for orangutans. After my PhD, I continued my work in Southeast Asia, studying the drivers and patterns of deforestation across Indonesia. Using information on past forest loss, I built statistical models to predict where is at the greatest risk of deforestation across the region and how this may impact biodiversity. Using these projections, we can identify areas with high species richness or with species which are endemic or range-restricted, that are at high risk of deforestation – enabling conservation to be targeted effectively<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting time for conservation in the UK, with ambitious restoration projects and the reintroduction of species that were once lost from parts of the country, or even entirely, such as pine martens and white-tailed sea eagles. However, for these projects to be successful and viable in the long term, we will need to increase the ability of species to move across our landscapes. Habitat in the UK is highly fragmentated and dissected by linear infrastructure such as roads and railways. I\u2019m particularly interested in understanding how species can or can\u2019t move across these landscapes and identifying where we\u2019re best able to help, e.g. by establishing habitat corridors or stepping. Creating new habitats and constructing wildlife crossings can be extremely costly; ensuring they are placed in the most suitable locations will be essential to their success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you tell us a fun fact about yourself?<\/h4>\n

I have <\/span>spent many <\/span>many<\/span> many<\/span> hours sat in silence<\/span> in the tropical heat <\/span>trying to see tigers, I have never seen a tiger<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_<\/p>\n

You can find out more about Dave and his work on his staff profile<\/a> on the DICE website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Dave, thanks for being this month’s Staff Spotlight! Can you tell us a bit about your role at DICE?\u00a0 I’m a Fellow in the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83585,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[291698],"tags":[303104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/dice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}