I am a Postdoc at Stirling University starting out my academic career. I love teaching and research, and work to understand links between natural resources and development. Currently I am working on the Beacon Project at the University of Stirling in central Scotland. The project looks at the pros and cons of large dam infrastructure. This is firstly a deep-dive into four case study contexts (India, Brazil, Kazakhstan, and Scotland) and secondly a global comparative analysis of dam impacts using satellite imagery.
Education
PhD (2017-2021), Development Economics. School of Oriental and African Studies.
MSc (2014-2015), Research for International Development. School of Oriental and African Studies.
BMus (2011-2014), Music. King’s College London.
Skills
Quantitative: GIS, earth observation, econometrics; spatial analysis; cluster analysis; agent-based modelling.
Qualitative: international fieldwork experience; CAPI surveys; sampling.
Theory: new institutional economics; property rights; game theory; social ontology.
Programming: R (expert); Python; C++; web delopment (html/css/JS with PostgreSQL and PostGIS).
Other: teaching; curriculum development; tutoring; supervision; marking.
Publications and future plans
I have one accepted paper at Land Use Policy on measuring the scarcity of agricultural land by combining household survey data and earth observation.
Four papers are currently under review, in the system. These are:
- Protecting more forests will not reverse deforestation (Nature Ecology and Evolution);
- Customary tenure and land reform in Nigeria: theory and reality in policy;
- damAOI: an R package to define an “Area of Interest” around dams for impact assessment;
- A seasonal classification system interpolating biome classifications within the year for better temporal aggregation in climate science
In the pipeline for this year is:
- A case study paper on water scarcity and irrigation infrastructure on the Syr Darya river basin, in collaboration with Kazakh researchers.
- A website to visualize how landscapes change after large dams are built for 320 big dams globally.
- A paper exploring the drivers between land cover changes following dam construction.