Marcela Suárez

spatial@ucsb Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2020–2021

Marcela Suárez received her Ph.D. from the Department of Geography at UC Santa Barbara. Marcela’s research uses spatial analysis, geovisualization, machine learning, and data mining techniques to understand how user-generated content and volunteered geographic information can be used along with other official data sources to inform how social and environmental phenomena are experienced at a local scale. Prior to graduate school, Marcela worked as a consultant for the United Nations Development Program for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Colombian Massif, and as GIS specialist for different governmental organizations in Colombia. She completed an M.Sc. at the Department of Geology at the University of Costa Rica, writing a thesis on mapping landslides susceptibility based on technical and social approaches, and she holds a B.Eng. in Cadastral Engineering and Geodesy from the Universidad Distrital “Francisco Jose de Caldas” in Colombia.