Felicia Akinyemi

 
Associate Professor, Docent in Geomatics

Research

Felicia is a certified Geographic Information System professional (GISP). As a land system and ecological remote sensing researcher, her work intersects geoinformatics, environmental change and sustainability. Her research focuses on how land system change relates to degrading processes in coupled human-natural systems over multidecadal timescales. Land system change, that is, the spatial and temporal changes in the interplay of systems that shape land use and land cover, is implicated in ongoing sustainability challenges such as biodiversity decline, climate change and land degradation. These three interrelated themes are the pillars of her research: i) Land system change, ii) Land Degradation Neutrality - LDN (Sustainable Development Goal 15.3.1 - Life on Land), and iii) Modelling land use futures in the face of climate change for alternative development pathways, considering potential trade-offs and synergies between competing land uses. She is leading efforts to develop frameworks integrating GeoAI and remote sensing-based metrics for assessing land degradation, and predicting crop types in heterogenous smallholder farming systems. 

Teaching

Felicia has experience teaching courses in graduate and undergraduate programmes across different disciplines in both physical and online settings. Courses taught include the following: 

  • Spatial Modelling and Remote Sensing of Natural Systems
  • Land Systems and Sustainable Land Management 
  • Assessing and Monitoring Land Surface Dynamics
  • Environmental Assessment and Monitoring with Earth Observation 
  • Principles of Geographic Information System
  • Principles of Remote Sensing

Currently, she supervises two PhD and one MSc theses as well as four Bachelor projects.

Collaboration

Felicia collaborates with universities and research institutes and sometimes with government departments. Countries include Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Norway and across Africa, especially in South Africa, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Rwanda and Botswana.

She contributes to expert groups such as the Science Policy Interface group of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; the Natures Future Framework modelling of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES); and the European Geosciences Union Biodiversity Task Force.

Projects include:

  • Land-use change and the resilience of food production systems (LucFRes). European Union Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101025259
  • Monitoring land degradation in the Central District of Botswana. A three-tier land degradation index mapping approach (LDIMapping). United States Agency for International Development. https://arcg.is/uuGjK                            

Selected publications

Wingate VR, Akinyemi FO, Ifejika Speranza C. 2023. Archetypes of remnant West African forest patches, their main characteristics and geographical distribution.  Applied Geography 158, 103024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2023.103024

Bär V, Akinyemi FO, Ifejika Speranza C. 2023. Land cover degradation in the reference and monitoring periods of the SDG Land Degradation Neutrality Indicator for Switzerland. Ecological Indicators 151, 110252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110252

Ifejika Speranza C, Akinyemi FO, Baratoux D, Benveniste J, Ceperley N, Driouech F, Helmschrot J. 2023. Enhancing the uptake of earth observation products and services in Africa through a multi-level transdisciplinary approach. Survey in Geophysics 44, 7–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-022-09724-1 

Akinyemi FO, Ifejika Speranza C. 2022. Agricultural landscape change impact on the quality of land: An African continent-wide assessment in gained and displaced agricultural lands. International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation 106:102644.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2021.102644

NASA Earth Observatory featured study: Crop Expansion Accelerates in Africa (March 28, 2022) https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149624/crop-expansion-accelerates-in-africa

Wingate VR, Akinyemi FO, Iheaturu C, Ifejika Speranza C. 2022. A Remote Sensing-Based Inventory of West Africa Tropical Forest Patches: A Basis for Enhancing Their Conservation and Sustainable Use. Remote Sensing 14, 6251. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14246251

Osemwegie I, da Cruz Delgado K, Arimiyaw AW, Kanneh AB, Todota CT, Faye A, Akinyemi FO. 2022. Diagnostic Analysis of the Canary Current System of West Africa: The need for a paradigm shift to proactive natural resource management. Ocean Coast. Res. 69. https://doi.org/10.1590/2675.2824069.21022io 

Akinyemi FO, Ghazaryan G, Dubovyk O. 2021. Assessing UN indicators of Land Degradation Neutrality and proportion of degraded land over Botswana using Remote Sensing based national level metrics. Land Degradation and Development 32(1), 158-172. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3695

Akinyemi FO, Tlhalerwa LT, Eze PN. 2021. Land degradation assessment in an African dryland context based on the Composite Land Degradation Index and Mapping method. Geocarto International 36(16): 1838-1854. https://doi.org/10.1080/10106049.2019.1678673

Akinyemi FO. 2021. Vegetation trends, drought severity and land use-land cover change during the growing season in semi-arid contexts. Remote Sensing 13: 836. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050836 

Akinyemi FO, Ikanyeng M, Muro J. 2020. Land cover change effects on land surface temperature trends in an African urbanizing dryland region. City and Environment Interactions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cacint.2020.100029 

Mhete M, Eze PN, Rahube TO, Akinyemi FO. 2020. Soil properties influence bacterial abundance and diversity under different land-use regimes in semi-arid environments. Scientific African 7, e00246.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2019.e00246

Akinyemi FO, Kgomo MO. 2019. Vegetation dynamics in African drylands: An assessment based on the Vegetation Degradation Index in an agro-pastoral region of Botswana. Regional Environmental Change 19(7), 2027-2039. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01541-4 

Akinyemi FO, Abiodun BJ. 2019. Potential impacts of global warming levels 1.5oC and above on climate extremes in Botswana. Climatic Change 154:387-400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-019-02446-1 

Akinyemi FO, Mashame G. 2018. Analysis of land change in the dryland agricultural landscapes of eastern Botswana. Land Use Policy 76:798-811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.03.010 

Akinyemi FO 2017. Land change in the central Albertine Rift: Insight from analysis and mapping of land use-cover change in north-western Rwanda. Appl Geogr 87:127-138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.07.016 

Akinyemi FO, Pontius, Jr RG, Braimoh AK 2017. Land change dynamics: Insights from Intensity Analysis applied to an African emerging city. J. Spat Sci 62(1):69-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/14498596.2016.1196624 

Akinyemi FO 2017. Climate change and variability in semi-arid Palapye, Eastern Botswana: An assessment from smallholder farmers’ perspective. Weather Clim. Soc 9:349-65. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-16-0040.1

Kebonye N, Eze P, Akinyemi FO. 2017. Long-term treated wastewater impacts and source identification of heavy metal in semi-arid soil of Central Botswana. Geoderma Reg 10:200-214.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geodrs.2017.08.001

Mashame G, Akinyemi FO. 2016. Towards a Remote Sensing based assessment of land susceptibility to degradation: Examining seasonal variation in land use-cover for modelling land degradation in a semi-arid context. Annals Photogram RS Spat Infor Sci 3(8):137-144.  https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsannals-III-8-137-2016