Dr Samira Barzin
Senior Researcher on Geospatial Economic Analytics,
Environmental Change Institute (ECI)
Samira develops innovative data driven geospatial economic approaches to address the double challenge of economic development and climate change within developing countries. She uses geospatial data science methods and satellite data to address some of the most burning questions economic policy makers face in developing countries in the era of climate change. Contextually she focuses on the effects of climate change within developing countries which includes topics as distributional aspects of climate extreme events, carbon constrained poverty eradication, climate justice in developing countries and just transition and economic decarbonisation within developing countries. Geographically, she is particularly interested in the socio-economic consequences of climate change in countries located in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and in the Middle East (MENA). Methodologically, she combines machine learning approaches for prediction analyses, traditional econometrics approaches for causality questions with satellite and big data and geospatial survey information to generate innovative data driven insight particularly for those countries that suffer from low data availability. Within the ECI, Samira is responsible for leading the geospatial economics workstream.