Expertise

Remote Sensing, Land System Science, Sustainability Science, Biodiversity Conservation, Spatial Modeling, Landscape Ecology

Biography

I study changes in the biosphere resulting from people-nature interactions, as mediated by human use of the land, and the implications of these changes for nature conservation and people’s well-being. I do this through a combination of remote sensing and spatial modeling among others. With my work, I aim to produce knowledge that can help to identify avenues to address the current global environmental crisis.

My research includes 1) the identification of land system change in urban and rural environments, 2) the understanding of social and biophysical drivers of land system change, 3) the analysis of relationships between land system change and broader ecological and environmental processes that affect biodiversity and people’s well-being including the proliferation of fires, air pollution, and the spread of infectious disease vectors, and 4) the production of spatial information, infrastructure, and knowledge that inform decisions to promote ecological integrity and people’s well-being.

I have a master’s degree in Geographic Information Science from Clark University and a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology from Columbia University.

Curriculum Vitae | Website

Selected Publications

• Marcus, MS, Hergoualc’h, K, Coronado, ENH and Gutiérrez-Vélez, VH. 2024. Spatial distribution of degradation and deforestation of palm swamp peatlands and associated carbon emissions in the Peruvian Amazon. Journal of Environmental Management, 351, p.119665.
• Lapola D. et al._. 2023. The drivers and impacts of Amazon forest degradation. Science.379:6630. 11p.
• Lara Henao W, Londoño-Murcia MC, Gonzalez Garzón, I; Gutierrez Velez,VH***. 2022. ecochange: An R-package to derive biodiversity indicators processing spatial ecosystem variables. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 13:11, 2379-2388
• Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gilbert MR, Kinsey D, Behm JE. 2022. Beyond the urban and the rural: conceptualizing a new generation of infrastructure systems to enable rural-urban sustainability. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 56, 101177.
• Karkun SS, Pearsall H, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gilbert MR. 2021. Measuring Equity through Spatial Variability of Infrastructure Systems across the Urban-Rural Gradient. Land 10. 
• Gutierrez-Velez VH, Rodriguez J, Lara W, Sarmiento V. 2021. Probabilistic approximation to change and no change in multispectral remote sensing. International Journal of Remote Sensing.42:19, 7428-7453
• Estupinan-Suarez LM, Gans F, Brenning A, Gutierrez–Velez VH, Londono MC, Pabon–Moreno, DE, Poveda G, Reichstein M, Reu B, Sierra CA. 2021. A regional Earth system data lab for understanding ecosystem dynamics: An example from northern South America. Frontiers in Earth Science 9, 574.&

• Pearsall H, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gilbert MR, Hoque S, Eakin H, Brondizio ES, Solecki W, Toran L, Baka JE, Behm JE. 2021. Advancing equitable health and well-being across urban–rural sustainable infrastructure systems. npj Urban Sustainability 1, 1–6. 
  Contribution: 25% team effort.

• Wiese D, Stroup AM, Maiti A, Harris G, Lynch S, Vucetic S, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Henry KA. 2021. Measuring Neighborhood Landscapes: Associations between neighborhood’s landscape characteristics and colon cancer survival. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18. 4728.
• Gutierrez-Velez VH & Wiese D. 2020. Sampling bias mitigation for species occurrence modeling using Machine Learning Methods. Ecological informatics. 58. 101091.
• Anaya JA, Gutiérrez-Vélez VH, Pacheco-Pascagaza AM, Palomino-Ángel S, Han N, Balzter H. 2020. Drivers of forest loss in a megadiverse hotspot on the Pacific Coast of Colombia. Remote Sensing. 12(1235).
• Mahecha MD, Gans F, Brandt, G, Christiansen R, Cornell SE, Fomferra N, Kraemer G, Peters J, Bodesheim P, Camps-Valls G, Donges JF, Dorigo W, Estupinan-Suarez LM, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Gutwin M, Jung M, Londoño MC, Miralles DG, Papastefanou P, Reichstein M. 2020. Earth system data cubes unravel global multivariate dynamics. Earth System Dynamics 11, 201–234.
• Wiese D, Escalante A, Murphy H, Henry K, Gutierrez-Velez, VH***. 2019. Integrating environmental and neighborhood factors in MaxEnt modeling to predict species distributions: A case study of Aedes albopictus in southeastern Pennsylvania. PLOS ONE. 14(10): e0223821.
• Glinskis E^†, Gutierrez-Velez VH. 2019 Quantifying and understanding carbon emissions from land cover changes between large and small oil palm expansion regimes in the Peruvian Amazon. Land Use Policy. 80: 95-106
• Croog R, Hayes-Conroy A, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Saenz-Montoya A. 2018. Real world food justice and the enigma of the scholar-activist label: A reflection on research values. ACME. 17(4): 1024:1044.
• Bolivar JM., Gutierrez-Velez VH, ,and Sierra CA. 2018. Carbon stocks in aboveground biomass for Colombian mangroves with associated uncertainties. Regional Studies in Marine Science 18:145-155.
• Schwartz NB, Uriarte M, DeFries R, Bedka K., Fernandes K., Gutierrez-Velez V., Pinedo-Vásquez M. 2017. Fragmentation increases wind disturbance impacts on forest structure and carbon stocks in a western Amazonian landscape”. Ecological applications. 27: 1901–1915.
• Schwartz, NB, Uriarte, M, DeFries., Gutierrez-Velez, V., Pinedo-Vásquez, M. 2017. Land-use dynamics influence estimates of carbon sequestration potential in tropical second-growth forest. Environmental Research Letters 12(7).
• Sierra CA, Mahecha M, Poveda G, Álvarez-Dávila E, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Reu B, Feilhauer H, Anáya J, Armenteras D, Benavides AM, Buendia C, Duque Á, Estupiñan-Suarez LM, González C, Gonzalez-Caro S, Jimenez R, Kraemer G, Londoño MC, Orrego S.A, Posada JM, Ruiz-Carrascal D, Skowronek S. 2017. Monitoring ecological change during rapid socio-economic and political transitions: Colombian ecosystems in the post-conflict era. Environmental Science & Policy 76:40-49.
• Fernandes, K, Verchot, L., Baethgen, W, Gutierrez-Velez, V, Pinedo-Vasquez, M. Martius, C. 2017. Heightened fire probability in Indonesia in non-drought conditions: the effect of increasing temperatures. Environmental research letters. 12(5): 054002
• Hergoualc’h K, Gutierrez-Velez VH, Menton M, Verchot LV. 2017. Characterizing peat palm forest degradation in the Peruvian Amazon from space and on the ground: An exploratory study in the Peruvian Amazon. Forest Ecology and Management. 393: 63-73
• Baptiste B, Pinedo-Vasquez M, Gutierrez-Velez V, Andrade GI, Vieira P, Ming Lee T, Estupiñán L. 2017. Greening Peace in Colombia. Nature Ecology and Evolution. 2: 0102.

Courses Taught

• Remote Sensing/Environmental Remote Sensing (designed course undergraduate/graduate)
• Advanced Remote Sensing (designed course -undergraduate/graduate)
• Sustainable Natural-Human Systems (designed course -graduate)
• Land system Science (designed course -undergraduate)
• Applied Machine Learning for Spatial Analysis (designed course -graduate)
• Spatial Statistics (undergraduate/graduate, restructured lab sections)