Research Assistant in Global Climate Change and GIS affiliated with the Terrestrial Ecology and the Mountains in Motion research groups within the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Bergen. Augusto Lima's research interests include:
- Monitoring and reconstructing cryosphere changes over time in mountain ranges with the use of photogrammetry technique and GIS analysis.
- Long-term climate changes on paleoglacier environments in mountain systems around the globe, from knowledge synthesizing and the development of validation datasets, to cryosphere modelling approaches.
Research Projects
GLACIMONTIS: Understanding the extent of mountain glaciers during past cold periods, with a focus on the Last Glacial Maximum (~21,000 years ago) and the last glacial cycle (the last 130,000 years). The project reconstructs glaciers in mountains worldwide with cutting edge techniques and compiles paleoglacier reconstructions from published studies into a global open-access geodatabase, integrating geomorphological mapping, chronological data, and glacier modelling outputs. This resource allows researchers to analyse past ice cover at regional to global scales, refine climate and glacier models, and assess the role of glaciation in shaping mountain environments. Beyond compiling existing data, GLACIMONTIS also develops new reconstructions in poorly studied regions, advancing our understanding of past cryosphere–climate interactions.
Ecological Spatial Competence and Education (ECO-SPACE): New course for our students at BIO and UiB to address a critical gap in Norway’s higher education: the lack of geospatial training for biology and environmental science students that integrates Universal Design (UD) principles. The course will combine GIS, Remote Sensing, and spatial analysis with ecological and environmental applications, ensuring that students learn to create accessible, inclusive, and impactful geospatial products. Course content will be built from BIO research projects, stakeholder case studies, and collaborations with national and international partners. ECO-SPACE will also serve as a platform for collaboration—through workshops with UiB researchers, stakeholders, and industry—to co-develop high-quality teaching modules and build capacity in UD and geospatial methods. In the long term, the course will contribute to national and international efforts to promote inclusive geospatial education for ecology and environmental management.
GEOBRIDGE - UiB collaborative platform for GIS/RS methods in landscape analysis in a changing world: Seminar series and other academic events related to GIS and RS, and landscape dynamics across the biosphere, geosphere, and cryosphere. Students from diverse academic background can united to tackle today's global environmental challenges and dive into essential tools for research and real-world problem-solving.
The Role of Ice Cliffs in the Mass Loss of a Debris-Covered Glacier in the Semiarid Andes: Exploring how supraglacial ponds and ice cliffs influence the melting patterns of Tapado Glacier in the semiarid Andes of Chile. Such features, found on the debris-covered surface of the glacier, play a crucial role in how the glacier loses mass. Using a mix of historical aerial imagery, satellite data, and drone-based surveys, we aim to build an inventory of supraglacial lakes and ice-cliffs from 1956 to 2023. The goal is to understand their distribution, how they form, and how they accelerate ice melt and influence the glacier mass balance dynamics.
Urban Heat Islands, a comparison of air and land surface temperature in São Paulo: Through remore sensing analysis, we investigated the influence of urbanization patterns and seasonality in the temperature of the city of São Paulo. Comparing the relationship between land surface temperature and ai temperature, we identified urban heat and freshness islands, and quantified variation patterns between different urban mosaics and rural areas.