Who am I?
I am a Geospatial Data expert who uses
Machine
Learning 💻 approaches and applications to map
biodiversity
🌳🎋🐦🐟🦌 and field
crops 🧑🌾 at local, regional, and global scales
🌍. These help in ensuring optimal monitoring of such
resources and guiding relevant policy interventions. In that
endeavor, I rely on big data on platforms such as
R
,
Python
🐍 and
Google Earth Engine
. I also
embrace Shell scripting, High Performance Computing, and Cloud
Computing with such big data. I take neither coffee ☕ nor hot
🥵 spices 🌶️.
Experience
University of Bonn | Bonn - ILR Land Economics Group, | NRW - Bonn, Germany
Postdoctoral researcher | December 2023 - Present
KALRO - Tea Research Institute | KALRO - Tea Research Institute | Kericho, Kenya
Environmentalist Intern | May 2015 - October 2019
Education Background
University of Bonn | NRW - Bonn, Germany
Doctor of Agricultural Sciences (Dr. agr.) | October 2019 - April 2024
Maseno University | Maseno, Kenya
M.A. in Geography | September 2013 - December 2018
Moi University | Eldoret, Kenya
B.A. in Geography | August 2008 - August 2012
Recent Publications 2020-Date
Predicted changes in distribution and richness of wild edible plants under climate change scenarios in northwestern Kenya link.
Integrated Participatory Approach Reveals Perceived Local Availability of Wild Edible Plants in Northwestern Kenya link.
Indigenous communities’ perceptions reveal threats and management options of wild edible plants in semiarid lands of northwestern Kenya link.
Predicting the potential impacts of climate change on the endangered endemic annonaceae species in east africa link.
Modeling impacts of climate change on the potential distribution of three endemic Aloe species critically endangered in East Africa link.
Combating Climate Change in the Kenyan Tea Industry link.
Works in progress
Impact of land degradation and climate change on livelihoods of tea and coffee farmers globally. In this, I create global maps of tea and coffee fields using high resolution satellite images and visually interpreted cropland polygons within deep learning and machine learning frameworks. The work is not only relevant for the livelihoods of the farmers but also in assessing amount of such crops coming from deforested lands as regulated in the European Commission Regulation on Deforestation-free products link.
Evaluating the impact of land restoration project Restor on net primary productivity and greenness globally. I am part of this project with a team from Land Economics group trying to evaluate whether the restored sites differ from synthetic controls by using a number of relevant variables.
Detecting where mechanization agriculture is profitable across the globe. I am contributing in this project within the Land Economics group by tuning machine learning models. Knowing where in the globe mechanization is profitable is helpful in guiding policy recommendations for deploying mechanized activities in the field.
Assessing the long term policy implications on bird species richness within grasslands across the globe. In this study within Land Economics group, my role is to help with machine learning model formulation to help reveal the relevance of policy changes on bird species richness.
Evaluating the impact of weirs on ecosystem health within dry river valleys of Ethiopia. This is also a project within the Land Economics group where we check whether the ecosystem within the sub-catchments around weirs have better ecosystem health than the control sites.
CV
Who am I?
I am a Geospatial Data expert who uses
Machine
Learning 💻 approaches and applications to
map biodiversity
🌳🎋🐦🐟🦌 and field
crops 🧑🌾 at local, regional, and global
scales 🌍. These help in ensuring optimal monitoring of
such resources and guiding relevant policy interventions.
In that endeavor, I rely on big data on platforms such as
R
,
Python
🐍 and
Google Earth Engine
. I also
embrace Shell scripting, High Performance Computing, and
Cloud Computing with such big data. I take neither coffee
☕ nor hot 🥵 spices 🌶️.
Experience
University of Bonn | Bonn - ILR Land Economics Group, | NRW - Bonn, Germany
Postdoctoral researcher | December 2023 - Present
KALRO - Tea Research Institute | KALRO - Tea Research Institute | Kericho, Kenya
Environmentalist Intern | May 2015 - October 2019
Education Background
University of Bonn | NRW - Bonn, Germany
Doctor of Agricultural Sciences (Dr. agr.) | October 2019 - April 2024
Maseno University | Maseno, Kenya
M.A. in Geography | September 2013 - December 2018
Moi University | Eldoret, Kenya
B.A. in Geography | August 2008 - August 2012
Recent Publications 2020-Date
Predicted changes in distribution and richness of wild edible plants under climate change scenarios in northwestern Kenya link.
Integrated Participatory Approach Reveals Perceived Local Availability of Wild Edible Plants in Northwestern Kenya link.
Indigenous communities’ perceptions reveal threats and management options of wild edible plants in semiarid lands of northwestern Kenya link.
Predicting the potential impacts of climate change on the endangered endemic annonaceae species in east africa link.
Modeling impacts of climate change on the potential distribution of three endemic Aloe species critically endangered in East Africa link.
Combating Climate Change in the Kenyan Tea Industry link.
Works in progress
Impact of land degradation and climate change on livelihoods of tea and coffee farmers globally. In this, I create global maps of tea and coffee fields using high resolution satellite images and visually interpreted cropland polygons within deep learning and machine learning frameworks. The work is not only relevant for the livelihoods of the farmers but also in assessing amount of such crops coming from deforested lands as regulated in the European Commission Regulation on Deforestation-free products link.
Evaluating the impact of land restoration project Restor on net primary productivity and greenness globally. I am part of this project with a team from Land Economics group trying to evaluate whether the restored sites differ from synthetic controls by using a number of relevant variables.
Detecting where mechanization agriculture is profitable across the globe. I am contributing in this project within the Land Economics group by tuning machine learning models. Knowing where in the globe mechanization is profitable is helpful in guiding policy recommendations for deploying mechanized activities in the field.
Assessing the long term policy implications on bird species richness within grasslands across the globe. In this study within Land Economics group, my role is to help with machine learning model formulation to help reveal the relevance of policy changes on bird species richness.
Evaluating the impact of weirs on ecosystem health within dry river valleys of Ethiopia. This is also a project within the Land Economics group where we check whether the ecosystem within the sub-catchments around weirs have better ecosystem health than the control sites.
CV