Abena Boatemaa Asare-Ansah

Abena Boatemaa Asare-Ansah is a Geospatial Humanitarian Researcher and Doctoral Student in the Xylem Lab within the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. Her work applies advanced Earth Observation (EO) and machine learning techniques to global challenges, with a core focus on food security in displacement-affected landscapes.

Her current doctoral research sits at the nexus of machine learning, AI foundation models, and food security, concentrating on mapping complex agricultural dynamics in Uganda. She is particularly driven by the challenge of "statistical invisibility" — recognizing that global models, often trained on Western large-scale farming systems, fail to accurately capture the heterogeneous, small, and intercropped plots vital for refugee and smallholder survival. Her work aims to close this data gap by providing reliable evidence on who is farming and where crops are failing in fragile contexts, ensuring humanitarian aid is effectively directed and that geospatial science serves as a tool for empowerment rather than exclusion. Her broader interests include urban forest assessment, ecosystem services estimation, land use and land cover analysis, and natural resource management.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Ms. Asare-Ansah held roles as a Remote Sensing Specialist at CERSGIS and a Faculty Assistant at NASA Harvest, where she developed land-cover products and created AI-driven cropland maps across Sub-Saharan Africa. She has also presented on the LCLUC project at the AGU conference.

Ms. Asare-Ansah holds an MSc in Urban Forestry from Southern University, Louisiana, and a foundational background in Geomatic Engineering from KNUST, Ghana.