Elia Machado
Elia Machado is a nature-society geographer, geospatial scientist, and educator who works towards a better understanding environmental change, reducing its negative impacts, and increasing social mobility and justice.
She is an Associate Professor of Geography and Geospastial Sciences (EEGS) at Lehman College where she directs the Geography, Geographic Information Science (GISc), and internship programs and doctoral faculty in the Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) and the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEB) subprogram at the Graduate center of CUNY.
She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University and an M.S. and B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Granada in Spain. Prior to joining CUNY, she was a graduate fellow at UC Berkeley and l’École d'Ingénieurs en informatique et environnement (ESAIP, France), and held research appointments at several institutions including the Biogeography lab at UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, and Clark Labs and the Marsh Institute at Clark University.
Dr. Machado's research centers on Global Environmental Change (GEC) and related health and environmental hazards with a focus on the characterization and reduction of vulnerability to their negative impacts integrating geospatial and socio-ecological approaches. More specifically, her interests include: i) development and assessment of composite vulnerability indices to environmental and health hazards; ii) geospatial techniques to support decision-making processes, iii) application and development of remote sensing and spatial methods to monitor GEC and map its impacts; and iv) assessment and identification of mitigation and adaptation strategies for GEC, and v) community-based curriculum development and environmental justice assessments.
She teaches courses on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), mapping, and remote sensing at CUNY, and has instructed GIS and Remote Sensing workshops nationally and internationally.
This video of an invited talk at The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Scientific Seminar Series) shows and overview of my research.
Current Positions:
- Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences (EEGS) & Director of Geography, Geographic Information Science (GISc), and internship programs at Lehman College, CUNY.
- Doctoral faculty, Earth and Environmental Sciences Program (EES) & Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEB) Biology subprogram, The Graduate Center (CUNY).
Education
- Ph.D. 2011 Geography Graduate School of Geography, Clark University.
- M.A. 2009 Geography Graduate School of Geography, Clark University.
- M.S. 2002 Environmental Sciences University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
- B.S. 1999 Environmental Sciences University of Granada, Granada, Spain.
Additional Education
- Education Abroad Program Fellow, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, 2000-2001.
- Graduate International Technical Studies, Institut Supérieur d’Áction Internationale ét de Production (ISAIP). Angers, France, 1999.
Professional Life
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2023-Present Doctoral faculty, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEB) Biology subprogram, CUNY Graduate Center.
- 2018-Present Associate Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences. Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY).
- 2013-Present Doctoral faculty, Earth and Environmental Sciences Program, CUNY Graduate Center.
- 2011-2018 Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences. Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY).
- 2010-2013 Project Associate. Urban and Land Use Planning Lab. University of Granada, Spain.
- 2005-2011 Research Assistant. Clark Labs, Clark University.
- 2005-2007 Research Assistant. Marsh Institute, Clark University.
- 2002-2004 Research Assistant/GIS Analyst. University of California at Santa Barbara. Biogeography Lab, Geography Department.
- 2000-2001 Research Assistant. University of California at Berkeley. Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and Intern, Geographic Information Science Center.
Click references for full text access when available
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
- Hirvonen, K., Machado, E.A., Simons, A.M. and Taraz, V., 2022. More than a safety net: Ethiopia’s flagship public works program increases tree cover. Global Environmental Change, 75, p.102549.
- Machado, E.A., Gorokhovich, Y. and Ghahremani, M., 2022. Landslide inventory dataset post Hurricane Stan (2005), Lake Atitlan region, Guatemala. Data in Brief, p.108356.
- Machado, E.A., Purcell, H., Simons, A., and S. Swinehart. 2020. The quest for greener pastures: evaluating the livelihoods impacts of providing vegetation condition maps to pastoralists in Eastern Africa. Ecological Economics.
- Machado, E.A., and S. Ratick. 2018. Implications of indicator aggregation methods for global change vulnerability reduction efforts. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 1-33.
- Runfola, D.M., Ratick, S., Blue, J., Machado, E.A., Hiremath, N., Giner, N., White, K., and J. Arnold. 2017. A multi-criteria geographic information systems approach for the measurement of vulnerability to climate change. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 22: 349-368. doi:10.1007/s11027-015-9674-8.
- Gorokhovich, Y., Machado, E.A., Girón-Melgar, L.I., and M. Ghahremani. 2016. Improving landslide hazard and risk mapping in Guatemala using terrain aspect. Natural Hazards 81: 869-886. doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-2109-8.
- *Eastman, J.R., *Sangermano, F., *Machado E.A., Rogan, J.R., and A. Anyamba. 2013. Global Trends in Seasonality of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), 1982–2011. Remote Sensing 5 (10): 4799-4818. doi:10.3390/rs5104799. *: denotes equal contribution.
- Machado-Machado, E.A. 2012. Empirical mapping of suitability to dengue fever in Mexico using species distribution modeling. Applied Geography 33: 82-93.
- Machado-Machado, E.A., N. Neeti, J. R. Eastman, and H. Chen. 2011. Implications of space-time orientation for Principal Components Analysis of Earth observation image time series. Earth Science Informatics 4 (3): 117-124.
- Eastman, J. R., Sangermano, F., Ghimire, B., Zhu, H., Chen, H., Neeti, N., Cai, Y., Machado, E.A., and S. Crema. 2009. Seasonal Trend Analysis of Image Time Series. International Journal of Remote Sensing 30 (10):2721-2726.
- Machado, E.A., Davis, F.W., D.M. Stoms, and J. Kreitler. 2006. Prioritizing farmland preservation cost-effectively for multiple objectives. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 61 (6): 250-258.
- Stoms, D.M., Davis, F.W, Costello, C.J., Machado, E.A., and J. Metz. 2004. A framework to extend gap analysis to multi objective conservation planning. Gap analysis program annual bulletin 12.
Book Chapters
- Machado, E.A. 2023. Towards More Actionable Vulnerability Indices for Global Environmental Change in Actionable Science for Global Environmental Change, Ziheng Sun (Ed.). Springer. Pre-print available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4425794
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Machado, E.A. 2011. Vulnerability in the European Program for Food Aid and Food Security: knowledge gaps, obstacles and opportunities across the science-practice interface. In Integrating science and policy: Vulnerability and resilience in global environmental change, eds. R.E. Kasperson and M. Berberian, 416. London, UK: Earthscan.
Maps, Mapping Tools, Datasets
- Machado, E.A., Gorokhovich, Y., and M. Ghahremani. Landslides post Hurricane Stan (2005), Lake Atitlan region, Guatemala (dataset). Shapefiles and additional information available through OSF.
- Malmay, T., Tooher E., Machado E.A., A. Jerolleman, et al. 2019. Web mapping tool for coordination and planning of disaster response and preparation, including instructional materials. CWS/DHA Advisory Group. Prepared for and in collaboration with Church World Service (CWS).
- Machado, E.A. 2011. Map of the Japan Tsunami affected areas: Onagawamachi, Miyagi Prefecture. Rapid mapping assessment for the International Charter Space and Major Disasters (www.disasterscharter.org), Clark Labs, Clark University, Worcester, MA.
- Gallo, J., Studarus, J., Machado, E.A., and G. Helms. 2005. Southern California Regional Conservation Guide. Conception Coast Project. 158pp.
- Machado, E.A. and K. Lundberg. 2002. Map Appendix (74 illustrated maps). In: John Volmar (ed.), Wildlife and Rare Plant Ecology of Eastern Merced County’s Vernal Pools Grasslands. Book Report for the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and the County of Merced. 76pp.
Encyclopedia Entries
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Machado, E.A. 2013. El Niño-Southern Oscillation. In Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science and History, ed. B. Black. Vol. 2: 459-467. Santa Barbara, CA. ABC-CLIO.
Conference Presentations, Posters, and Invited Lectures
Conference Presentations (posters indicated by ‡)
- 2022 Machado, E.A., Hirvonen, K, Simons A., and V Taraz. More than a safety net: Ethiopia’s flagship public works program increases tree cover. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Virtual meeting.
- 2021 Machado, E.A. Map It! Integrating Mapping in the Classroom and Beyond. CUNY Professional conference. Virtual.
- 2021 Machado, E.A. and Simons. A. Assessing the vulnerability of pastoralism in Northeastern Ethiopia: an analysis of Land Use - Cover change and long term NDVI trends in pastoralists' grazing lands. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Virtual meeting
- 2020 Simons, A., Hirvonen, K., Machado, E.A., and V. Taraz. The Ecological Impacts of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program. Nov 13th, 2020, LAC-DEV: Liberal Arts Colleges Development Economics conference (annual) at Colgate University.
- 2020 Hirvonen, K., Machado, E.A., Simons A., and V Taraz. The Environmental Impacts of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme. Northeast Agricultural and Resource Economics Association (NAREA) 2020 Annual Meeting NAREA Annual Meeting. Virtual meeting.
- 2019 Machado, E.A., Swinehart, S., Purcell, H., and A. Simons. The quest for greener pastures: evaluating the livelihoods impacts of providing vegetation condition maps to pastoralists in Eastern Africa. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Washington, D.C.
- 2018 Swinehart, S., Machado, E.A., Purcell, H., and A. Simons. Impact Evaluation of a Satellite-Assisted Resource Management Tool for Pastoralists. Sustainability and Development Conference. Ann Arbor, MI.
- 2018 ‡*Carey, L., Machado, E.A., Girón Melgar, I., and Y. Gorokhovich. Poster presentation: Risk perception of Disasters and Environmental Hazards in Latin America.10th Annual Student Scholarship Showcase. Lehman College, Bronx, NY. * Undergraduate student.
- 2018 Machado, E.A. and Y. Gorokhovich. Assessing hurricane preparedness in New York City and Long Island: a collaborative project with Earth Science high school teachers. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. New Orleans, LA.
- 2017 ‡*Johnson, T., Machado E.A., Gorokhovich, Y., Ripka, J. and D. Friedman. Poster presentation: Are you ready? Assessing hurricane preparedness in New York City and Long Island. 9th Annual Student Scholarship Showcase. Lehman College, Bronx, NY. * Undergraduate student.
- 2017 Gorokhovich, Y. and E.A. Machado. Natural hazards and disasters: mapping preparedness of New York City to hurricanes using schools. 39th Annual SCONYC (Science Council of New York City) conference. Stuyvesant High School. New York City, NY.
- 2016 Gorokhovich, Y., Moncada Vasquez, M. M., and E.A. Machado. Landslide occurrence in Guatemala: spatial terrain characteristics and atmospheric factors. II Congreso Guatemalteco de Geociencias Ambientales. Asociación Guatemalteca de Geociencias Ambientales and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. Antigua, Guatemala.
- 2015 Gorokhovich, Y., Machado, E.A., Girón Melgar, L.I., and M. Ghahremani. Specifics of landslide processes in Guatemala: aspect of the terrain and wind circulation during hurricanes, AGU Fall Meeting 2015, San Francisco, CA.
- 2015 Machado, E.A., Tuy, H., Girón Melgar, L.I., Sandoval Cumes, K., Orozco, M. and Y. Gorokhovich. Risk perception and preparedness in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán (Guatemala), Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, IL.
- 2014 Bronwen, D., Machado, E.A., and J. Seto. Building Active Learning Practices with Grassroots Research Tools. CUNY's 13th Annual IT Conference. New York City, NY.
- 2014 ‡ Becerra, M., Castellanos, E., Fuentes, C., Garcia, M., House-Peters, L., Machado, E.A., Seguinot, J. Modelos Conceptuales de la Problemática Ambitental de la Cuenca del Lago Atitlán (Concetpual Models of Environmental Issues in Lake Atitlan, authors in alphabetical order). I Simposio de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas en la Cuenca del Lago Atitlán. Panajachel, Sololá, Guatemala.
- 2013 Eastman J.R., Sangermano F., Machado E.A, Rogan J. and A. Anyamba. Global Trends in Seasonality of NDVI, 1982-2011. NESTVAL, Worcester, MA.
- 2013 Machado, E.A. Identifying potential areas at risk of dengue fever in Mexico due to climate change and population increase. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Los Angeles, CA.
- 2011 Eastman, J.R. and E.A. Machado. Implications of space-time orientation for Principal Components Analysis of earth observation image time series. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Seattle, WA.
- 2011 Herrero-Jáuregui, C., Machado, E.A., Sangermano, F., Foster, D., Reuter, F., Guzmán, A., and M. Brassiolo. Land sparing vs. Land sharing in the Gran Chaco: the case of the Argentinean province of Santiago del Estero. 22ndAnnual Harvard Forest Ecology Symposium. Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA.
- 2011 Matarán Ruiz, A., Pérez Campaña, R., España Villanueva, M., Russo Cardozo, F., Rodríguez Rojas, M., Collados Alcaide, A., Martínez Yañez, C., Villodres, L., Fayos, C., Machado Machado, E., Martín-Ortega, J., and J.M. Martín Civantos. Integración del paisaje en los procesos de planificación: una propuesta metodológica para el análisis identitario (Integrating lanscape in planning process: a methodological approach for cultural identity analysis). XII Congreso de la Asociación Andaluza de ciencia regional. Granada, Spain.
- 2010 Machado, E.A., Ratick, S., and C. Polsky. Putting it all together: a comparison of methods to derive composite vulnerability indices. Global Land Project Open Science Meeting 2010: Land systems, Global change and Sustainability. Tempe, AR.
- 2010 Machado, E.A., Polsky, C., and S. Ratick. Vulnerability Indices. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Washington, DC.
- 2010 Machado, E.A. Dengue fever in Mexico (1999-2006): trends and socio-ecological factors. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Washington, DC.
- 2010 Machado, E.A. Putting it all together: a comparison of methods to derive composite vulnerability indices. 7th Annual Graduate Student Multidisciplinary Conference. Clark University, Worcester, MA.
- 2008 Machado, E.A. Climate Variability and Dengue in Mexico: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis. Session: Climate Variability and Health Effects (I). International EcoHealth Forum 2008. Mérida, Mexico.
- 2008 Machado, E.A. Climate variability and dengue in Mexico: Towards a climate-based Early Warning System? Session: Communicable, Infectious and Other Diseases. Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Boston, MA.
- 2008 Machado, E.A. Climate variability and dengue in Mexico: Towards a climate-based Early Warning System? 5th Annual Graduate Student Council Multidisciplinary conference. Clark University, Worcester, MA.
- 2005 Stoms, D. and E.A. Machado. Prioritizing Farmland Preservation cost-effectively. CalGIS XI symposium on agriculture. Bakersfield, CA.
- 2002 Davis, F.W. Costello, C.C., Stoms, D. Machado E.A., and J. Metz. A framework for setting Land conservation Priorities in the Sierra Nevada. Sierra Nevada Science Symposium, Kings Beach, CA.
Invited Talks, Lectures, and Workshops
- 2020 Machado, E.A. Invited lecture. Geospatial Applications for vector borne diseases: mapping, surveillance, and modelling (virtual). College Now Research academy, New York City of College of Technology, Brooklyn, NY
- 2019 Machado, E.A. Why GIS and Remote Sensing are so cool: research applications. Invited lecture for the Chemistry department seminar. Lehman College, Bronx. NY.
- 2016 Machado, E.A. Spatial analysis of vulnerability to Dengue in Mexico. C3 Seminar Series, World Health Day: Vector-borne Diseases, New Jersey City University, GSUB 129, New Jersey City.
- 2015 Machado, E.A. Modelo socio-ecológico para el monitoreo del Aedes aegypti: una aplicación para el distrito Panama. Workshop: Socio-ecological modeling for monitoring Aedes aegypti: an application to the Metropolitan areas of Panama (Panama). Graduate School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan (Puerto Rico).
- 2015 Machado, E.A., Preparedness, risk perception, and vulnerability in rural Guatemala & the migration-climate-health nexus. Talk given as participant in the workshop: Migration, Climate and Health: Disasters and Displacement, CU Population Center (CUPC) – IBS. Denver, CO.
- 2013 Machado, E.A. Mapping and Assessing the Potential Risk to Dengue Fever in Mexico: What Do Climate Projections Tell and Do Not Tell Us? Sigma Xi Honorary society for scientific research. Lehman College, Bronx, NY.
- 2008 Machado, E.A. Using GIS in Dengue research. Guest lecture, Biology 217, Ecology of Infectious Disease. Clark University, Worcester, MA.
- 2006 Machado, E.A. Addressing Vulnerability in the European Program for Foodaid and Food Security: the case of Nicaragua. Sustainable Development Seminar, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Lehman College, CUNY Graduate Center, and broader CUNY
- GEP 204/504 - Basic Mapping: Applications and Analysis (course redesigned)
- GEP 321/621 - Introduction to Remote Sensing (new course developed)
- GEP 470/GEP 670 - GISc Internship Seminar
- GEP 606/3060 - Advanced Raster Analysis (new course developed)
- GEP 690 - Workshop in GISc Research
- GEP 691 - Independent Study in Geography
- GEH 101 - Introduction to Geography
- GEH 235/613 - Environmental Conservation
- GEH 490 Honors in Geography
- EES Introduction to GIS: methods and applications (CUNY Graduate Center).
Professional Development Seminars
- Machado, E.A. Map It! Integrating Mapping in the Classroom and Beyond. CUNY Professional conference. Virtual. 2021.
- Professional Development Seminar for Earth Science teachers (and conference talk): Natural hazards and disasters: mapping preparedness of New York City to hurricanes using schools. 39th Annual SCONYC (Science Council of New York City) conference, April 8, 2017. Stuyvesant High School, New York City, NY. 2017.
- Professional Development Seminar for Earth Science teachers, with support from NYC Department of Education. Remote Sensing Data for the Visualization of the Water Cycle in the Current Climate System. Lehman College (CUNY), May 14th, 2014.
- Professional Development Seminar for Earth Science teachers, with support from NYC Department of Education. Conducting Earth/Environmental Science Research: Crowd Sourcing Data for Hurricane Emergency Preparedness. Lehman College, CUNY, May 27th, 2014.
Intensive training courses and semester long courses at other institutions
- Using Idrisi Land Change Modeler for Ecological Sustainability, 50 Hrs. (2011). Universidad Javeriana and Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazi, (IGAC), Bogotá, Colombia, 2011.
- Using Idrisi Land Change Modeler for Ecological Sustainability, 56 Hrs. Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Heredia, Costa Rica, 2006.
- GEOG 190, Introduction to GIS. Clark University, Graduate School of Geography, Worcester, MA, 2009.
The best way to reach me is via email: elia.machado@lehman.cuny.edu
Dr. Elia Machado
Department of Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences (EEGS)
Lehman College, The City University of New York
323 Gillet Hall, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West, Bronx, NY 10468
Phone: 718-960-1103
Fax: 718-960-8584
