About me

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Land Economics Group at the Institute for Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn. I am primarily working on the ERC project LAND-POLICY, in which I am producing global gridded geographical data to quantify land degradation. The data will be the basis for further econometric analysis evaluating public policies aimed at mitigating/reversing land degradation. Furthermore, I help supervising doctoral and undergraduate students, as well as do some teaching. Previously, I worked as a research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, and as a data scientist (remote sensing) at Mantle Labs Gmbh. I have a Master of Science degree in Geoinformation and Earth Observation for Environmental Modeling and Management from Lund University in Sweden and University of Twente in the Netherlands, and a Doctor of Science (Geo-informatics, Remote Sensing) degree from Aalto University in Finland.  

I am an applied quantitative researcher and practitioner with a domain expertise in remote sensing data applications for natural resources monitoring particularly in vegetated systems. I have used satellite optical (multi-to-hyperspectral), SAR, and LiDAR in applications ranging from land cover to vegetation biophysical (e.g., biomass) and biochemical mapping. I employ statistical learning, process-based (physics-based) simulation, time series analysis, and data-centric, human-centric machine learning methods in my work. I use mainly R and Python, Google Earth Engine, and increasingly cloud-native open source geospatial tools (Pangeo) for scalable frameworks. I have worked in various international environments, as well as in local stakeholders facing roles (e.g., capacity development). I am currently working on the applications of satellite data in land economics research. 

Email: h.hadi@ilr.uni-bonn.de