Our Research

XylemLab's projects combine cutting-edge satellite technology with local expertise to revolutionize agricultural monitoring and food security across Africa. Partnering with NASA, GEOGLAM, AGRA, Lacuna Fund, African governments, and universities, we create scalable, data-driven solutions that address real-world challenges. Together, we're transforming agricultural obstacles into opportunities for sustainable growth and resilience.

On-Going Research

  • Conflict, Displacement and Landuse

  • Drought Mapping and Monitoring

  • Cropland Mapping

  • Weather Shocks on Dietary Quality

  • Mapping Extreme Events

  • Helmets Labeling Crops

  • Yield and Production Estimation

RECENT FUNDED PROJECTS

  • Regional Food Balance Sheet

  • Harvest Africa

  • Helmets Labeling Crops

  • NASA SERVIR

  • Enabling Crop Analytics at Scale (ECAAS)-Kenya

  • EO-FARM SwissRe Foundation

  • Optimizing Crop Yield Data Collection for Supply Chain Enhancement

Recent Publications- Refer to Google Scholar for a complete list of all our research publications

  • Nakalembe, C., Kerner, H. R., Zvonkov, I., Humber, M., Galvez, A. S., Makabe, E., ... & Becker-Reshef, I. (2025). A framework for EO-based National Agricultural Monitoring (EO-NAM) for the African Context. npj Sustainable Agriculture, 3(1), 45.

  • Nakalembe, Catherine, Ivan Zvonkov, Hannah Kerner, Diana Botchway Frimpong, Kenneth Mwangi, Jane Kioko, Bhanu Tokas et al. "Helmets Labeling Crops: Kenya Crop Type Dataset Created via Helmet-Mounted Cameras and Deep Learning." Scientific Data 12, no. 1 (2025): 1496.

  • Rufin P, Meyfroidt P, Akinyemi FO, Estes L, Ibrahim ES, Jain M, Kerner H, Lisboa SN, Lobell D, Nakalembe C, Persello C. To enhance sustainable development goal research, open up commercial satellite image archives. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2025 Feb 18;122(7):e2410246122.

  • Catherine Nakalembe, Hannah Kerner, Ivan Zvonkov et al. A Framework for EO-Based National Agricultural Monitoring (EO-NAM)- For the African Context, 06 September 2024, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4731424/v1]

  • Nakalembe, Catherine, Taryn Devereux, and Alana Ginsburg. "Whose priorities? examining inequities in Earth observation advancements across Africa." Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists 5.1 (2024): e2023CN000220.

  • Nakalembe, Catherine, et al. "A 40-year remote sensing analysis of spatiotemporal temperature and rainfall patterns in Senegal." Frontiers in Climate 7 (2025): 1462626.

  • Kebede, E.A., Abou Ali, H., Clavelle, T., Froehlich, H.E., Gephart, J.A., Hartman, S., Herrero, M., Kerner, H., Mehta, P., Nakalembe, C. and Ray, D.K., 2024. Assessing and addressing the global state of food production data scarcity. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 5(4), pp.295-311.

  • Kerner H, Nakalembe C, Yang A, Zvonkov I, McWeeny R, Tseng G, Becker-Reshef I. How accurate are existing land cover maps for agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa?. Scientific Data. 2024 May 10;11(1):486.

  • Kerner, H. R., Nakalembe, C., Yeh, B., Zvonkov, I., Skakun, S., Becker-Reshef, I., & McNally, A. (2024). Satellite data shows resilience of Tigrayan farmers in crop cultivation during civil war. Science of Remote Sensing, 100140.