Dr. Gerald Forkuor

Gerald Forkuor is a geospatial analyst with special interest in the application of earth observation (EO) data in addressing environmental change problems. Gerald has about fifteen years of research experience, having worked for the International Water Management Institute (IWMI, www.iwmi.org) as a research officer from 2004 to 2011, the West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL, www.wascal.org) as a senior scientist from 2015 to 2018, and now as research fellow (water and land) at the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA).

His research interests include climate change, water resource management, land management and food security, disaster risk management, Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing. His previous research projects focused on: (1) assessing the impact of climate change on water resources in the Volta basin, (2) assessing and mapping groundwater potential for irrigated agriculture in northern Ghana, (3) analyzing linkages between climate and land use/land cover changes at local (watershed) and regional (West Africa) scales, (4) monitoring storage volumes and irrigation water demand around informal irrigation schemes and (3) disaster risk reduction practice research and capacity building for ECOWAS states. His current research focuses on the risk of stranding Africa’s mineral wealth and its impact on the continent’s development.

Gerald has consulted for reputable institutions such as USAID’s Advance project, the University of Ghana, the University of Twente (ITC Faculty) and IWMI. Apart from research, he is actively involved in capacity development, especially in the use of open access earth observation data and software for addressing societal challenges. In terms of scientific output and contribution, Gerald has authored and co-authored more than thirty publications including journal articles, book chapters and conference papers (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qu4UhqYAAAAJ&hl=en). He also reviews for over fifteen international peer-reviewed journals in diverse fields.