Professional pages

I am a scientist focusing on natural resources modeling, mapping, monitoring and management using spatial data. To do that I have created my own Big Spatial Data processing framework, available via my GeoImagine GitHub pages. I work part-time at the Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University and half time as a private researcher (Karttur AB).

I have deep knowledge in hydrology, wetlands, agroforestry, forestry, systems ecology, spatial data processing, remote sensing, geoinformatics and web map building. I have worked 15 years at different universities (Sweden and South Africa), and 15 years for UN-related research organizations in Africa and Asia.

I speak Swedish, English and German fluently, and can manage in French and Spanish (after a week or two). I am also fluent in several programming languages, especially related to spatial data processing.

I have been the head of the Geoinformatics unit at the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, and I created and led the Geoinformatics unit at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). I also created and led the Spatial modelling group within the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE).

I took my PhD at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in 1996. Before starting my doctoral studies I worked for 4 years (1984-1988) at a private consulting company (K-Konsult) following my BSc (Kalmar University College, 1984). During my doctoral studies (1998-1996) I worked in parallel with teaching at MSc level. Initially I worked as the assisted for an MSc course on Natural Resources Management, and from 1991 I took over this course. I expanded and rearranged the curricula to include Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and then I used this curricula to create the basis of the first international MSc curricula at KTH (still on offer), Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure. The international aspect led to field work and research in many other countries, including Austria, Brazil, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama and Poland,. Results from the more research oriented projects have been published in journals, whereas projects oriented towards training and dissemination either have been presented at international conferences and/or as training material.

I have supervised 1 PhD project, 2 licentiate projects (a Swedish research degree half way between PhD and MSc), and 13 MSc projects (See supervision for details).

The initial years of my doctoral studies focused on wetlands for wastewater treatment, and I got my Technical Licentiate in 1992. I then got my PhD, Modelling water and vegetation reciprocity, in 1996.

After my PhD I stayed with KTH and worked within a cooperation framework on geoinformatics, including supervision of 2 PhD students. In 1998 I took up the position as head of the Geoinformatics unit at the department of Earth sciences at Uppsala University. I developed a new curricula for geoinformatics, including development of distance learning courses offered online .

In 1999 I visited Africa for the first time, and fell for the Okavango Delta in Botswana (a huge inlands wetland and one of the most wild and pristine areas in Africa). This led me to quit my career as a lecturer/scientist at Uppsala University and take up a post-doc position at University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg). The research was great, and the field trips to the Okavango even better. After finishing my post-doc I also worked (voluntarily) with the tourist industry in the Okavango, training the guides and developing interactive web-map solutions.

In 2002 I got a position as hydrologist with ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre) and moved to Entebbe, Uganda. I set up and led a new office in Entebbe, for research focusing on Lake Victoria and the River Nile. During 2 years I attracted funding and got several projects started, including on Lake Kyoga in Uganda and the Mara River Basin shared between Kenya and Tanzania. Reorganization at ICRAF meant that I scientifically started to work in a project developing a land degradation surveillance framework (LDSF), with initial focus on the West African Sahel.

In 2003 I met my former spouse in Entebbe, and we moved back to Sweden when our daughter was born in 2005. I continued working half time for ICRAF, including on farmer field schools and land degradation and on land degradation in the Sahel. But I also took up a half-time position as senior lecturer at KTH (link to lectures). In 2006 I participated as the scientist of the 100 year anniversary climb to the summit of Mount Rwenzori, straddling the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Africa pulled the family back, and in 2009 we moved to Nairobi, Kenya, and I started working for ICRAF full time again. I worked on UNEP projects for climate mitigation and a UNDP financed project on Lake Tanganyika. Within the latter I organized workshops and trainings in Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. During 2010 I developed the plan for setting up a geoinformatics unit within ICRAF, including designing and developing an open source based web-map service. During 2011 the unit was implemented under my leadership. At the time of writing this (March 2018), the web-map is at version 3, but still built on my original component design, and accessible online as landscapeportal.org. The role as head of the geoinformatics unit meant that I travelled to other ICRAF offices (in Africa, China and South East Asia) assisting in implementing geoinformatic tools and methods, projects and training.

In early 2012 the family moved back to Sweden, mainly for reasons of education for my family members. Since then I am working as a scientist from a private base in Stockholm, mostly for international organisations (including ICRAF). The lions share of the scientific work has been directed towards mapping global tropical wetlands and peatlands. Since July 2018 I also work part time as a researcher with Stockholm University, with multi-source mapping of global Arctic wetlands.

To see my publications either use the link to Publications at the top of the page, or go directly to my profile pages on Google scholar, Researchgate or Scopus to the left.

Some of the teaching material that I have developed are available via the Teaching link at the top of the page.

In late 2017 I started a set of blogs on how I process spatial data, including how to set up a processing environment for spatial data and how to use machine learning. You reach these blogs via the Blog link at the top of the page.

I have a daughter born in 2005, and I spend most of my free time with her, including sailing in our yacht, hiking, skiing, skating and staying at our weekend cottage while exploring the forests (e.g. for mushrooms) and lakes (e.g. kayaking and fishing). I have enjoyed outdoor activities all my life since I was a boy-scout, and later also became a youth leader in scouting.

I was trained as an officer in the Swedish armed forces (engineering troops), and I was head of the student union at my highschool (and also at my basic school). I have been a part time politician for 20 years, including as a member of different boards and committees.