Dr Israel Ropo Orimoloye joined the Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, South Africa in March 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher in Geoinformatics and Earth Observation. He is also currently working as a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, (January 2020 till date) lecturing environmental science (EVS5012), Natural Science Option I, II, III (NST11ES, NST21ES, NST31ES) and introduction to research methodology and project (IRP0011). Prior, he worked at the University of Fort Hare as a part-time lecturer (2017 to 2019) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2018 – 2019).
Dr Orimoloye is an established researcher, with over 7 years of experience in the field. His research focuses on Geoinformatics and Earth observation (EO) applications in environmental resources, disaster management, environmental management and climate change, vegetation monitoring and assessment using satellite technology. He research contemporary issues, focuses on the use of cutting-edge satellite-based Earth observation (EO) technologies in monitoring and understanding various components of drought and desertification, climate change, hazard, invasive species mapping and land cover analysis. His research work has been extensively supported by the Central Research Fund, University of the Free State, South Africa. He has also been involved in intensive United Nations training and capacity building held in Germany. Dr Orimoloye is a registered and professional environmental scientist with South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and a member of the American Association of Geographers and Society of South African Geographers. His experience using Earth observation (EO) applications is not only restricted to Africa only but also involves collaboration with various Earth observation (EO) experts from the United States, India and Hong Kong Scholars, promoting Earth observation (EO) knowledge and skills transfer to enhance policy formulation and decision making in the African continent.
Dr Orimoloye a principal researcher in several projects including drought disaster risk assessment across the Free State Province, South Africa; and assessment of the ecological and environmental degradation funded by the Central Research Fund. He has published over forty-one (41) scientific articles including book chapters in high impact factor ISI and Scopus journals. He is a revered reviewer for both local and international journals and project funders. He is proficient in ArcGIS, machine learning, Quantum GIS, Google Earth Engine, GRASS, R programming, ENVI, Vensim, Python, GRETL, InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) and other statistical packages which I exhibited in my various publications.
