- Tor-Gunnar Vågen is a Principal Scientist and head of the Spatial Data Science and Applied Learning Lab (SPACIAL) at CIFOR-ICRAF. He has a background in soil science, hydrology, landscape ecology, statistical modeling and machine learning, computer programming, and remote sensing (earth observation).
- Dr. Vågen has been leading the development and application of the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), which was initially developed in the Sahel and has been implemented in a range of projects across 45 countries in the global tropics.
- He currently leads research initiatives to establish global data-driven networks of sites for comparative assessments of ecosystem health, linking earth observation data and models to biophysical and socio-economic variables to understand drivers of deforestation, land use change and land degradation, and land restoration potential.
- He has also been leading several projects that explore spatial data science and user-centered design principles in the co-design of interactive tools and platforms for evidence-based decision making.
