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Biography
With a background in urban planning and geospatial technologies; I have worked as a Geospatial Specialist on various consultancy and research projects in academic and companies at local and international levels since 2017. My research experience is based on geospatial application methods with mixed approaches. Currently, I am interested in GeoAI research methods, leveraging transdisciplinary approaches for societal impact in the Global South.
I am recently working as a Doctoral researcher at the University of Turku, under the UTU-GreDiT programme, co-funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme´s MSCA. My PhD project focuses on integrating GeoAI with community engagement and citizen science approaches for climate resilience in Urban South. I'm inspired by the flexibility of GeoAI in a transdisciplinary research environment for demand-driven solutions for environmental issues, particularly in inclusive spatial planning, urbanization, and climate change.
I am a member of international multidisciplinary research teams, collaborating with the Global South to promote sustainable African cities; particularly Tanzania Resilience Academy (https://resilienceacademy.ac.tz/) and DIDAIhub (https://didaihub.utu.fi/). The ultimate goal is to improve climate resilience through inclusive and transformative mind-set, open science, digital technologies and community engagement.
Teaching
In recent years from November 2022, I have assisted in teaching spatial planning and geospatial skills courses at undergraduate level (BSc), particularly practical STUDIO projects on land use planning, GIS, Remote sensing, cartography and geovisualization.
Research
My doctoral research aims to integrate GeoAI, bottom-up community engagement and citizen science approaches in co-creation and deployment of innovative climate risk data products and tools for African cities. The ultimate goal is to socially innovate new digital climate risks datasets, tools and methods that are demand driven, fit-for-purpose and scalable for urban resilience in the Global South. Practically, the project is impactful in the sense that, local communities and multiple stakeholders are protagonists in overall research process to ensure scalability and transfer of developed data and methodologies.
The project uses the opportunities of digital revolution and the principles of open science (FAIR and FOSS) for its deliverables for improved mapping and management of climate risks in the Global South. The project is linked to the Tanzania Resilience Academy cooperation with several Tanzanian Universities, land use planning practitioners, the GFDRR/World Bank and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).