Reason Mlambo is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences, and the Satellite Data in Environmental Science (SENSE) Centre for Doctoral Training – a UKRI collaborative which includes the Universities of Leeds and Edinburgh, the National Oceanography Centre and the British Antarctic Survey.
His academic background is anchored in geomatics: He earned his bachelor’s degree in Surveying and Geomatics from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. Following his undergraduate education, he gained early professional experience as an engineering survey professional before advancing to a master’s degree in Geographical Information Science at the University of Edinburgh.
He then returned to Zimbabwe where he was a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and at Midlands State University. During this tenure, he taught undergraduate courses in Geographical Information Systems and Earth Observation while spearheading a curriculum review for the geomatics program, aiming to keep it concurrent with evolving trends and tailor it to Zimbabwe’s specific requirements.
Concurrently, Reason was appointed research manager and data scientist at Place Alert Labs – a research initiative investigating the impacts of physical and social geographies on pregnant women and their babies in sub-Saharan Africa.
His notable collaborative research projects include PRECISE (Pregnancy Care Integrating translational Science Everywhere) and the HE2AT Centre (Heat and Health Africa Transdisciplinary Centre) in partnership with the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research (CeSHHAR) Zimbabwe.
Research focus and plans
The ambitious objective of the United Nations’ first Sustainable Development Goal – “to eradicate poverty in all its forms everywhere” underscores a profound acknowledgment of the imperative to safeguard development gains, fortify resilience against poverty, and ultimately narrow down global inequalities. However, one major obstacle in tracking the progress of SDGs is the scarcity of detailed, frequent, and up-to-date data on poverty and welfare. Without accurate and timely data, policymakers face difficulties in making informed decisions and implementing effective poverty alleviation strategies. With the SDGs timeframe (2015 – 2030) rapidly approaching its conclusion, there is an urgent need to develop robust methodologies for monitoring socioeconomic trends, thereby enabling policymakers to make informed decisions and prioritize targeted interventions where they are most needed.
Through his PhD research, entitled ‘Spatio-temporal poverty mapping using earth observation data and deep learning in Africa’, Reason is exploring the potential of data from earth observation satellites to create intuitive geospatial proxies that reflect contextual drivers of socioeconomic welfare. These proxies are being integrated into explainable machine learning models to provide detailed insights into socioeconomic conditions across different scales of time and space, specifically targeting sub-Saharan Africa. His work aims to address the significant data deficits that typically hinder policymakers and aid organizations in these regions.
Jameel Observatory significance
Under the guidance of Gary Watmough and Sohan Seth at the University of Edinburgh, Ian McCallum at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis and Vikki Houlden at Leeds University, Reason’s work will contribute to the observatory by providing evidence on vulnerable communities within data-poor regions. This work will also be useful in forecasting impacts on socioeconomic status due to environment and climate-related shocks in the pastoral regions in which the Jameel Observatory operates.
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