• GIS
• ENVI, ERDAS
• PostgreSQL

2012 present  Consultant for the various companies, based at the EC – Joint Research Centre.

Responsible for the fire monitoring activity in support to several projects about conservation, land management and land-cover change.

The job assignment involves i) analysis of satellite data using PostgreSQL scripting and GIS softwares to derive environmental variables and fire indicators, ii) design and maintenance of on-line tools to distribute environmental information and fire indicators to conservationists, scientists and decision makers, iii) support users of the tools and services.

2012 Consultant for FAO Global Forest Resources Assessments (FRA)

Producing global burned area statistics over the period 2002-2012, based on the MODIS Burned Area Product

2009 – 2012 Scientific / Technical Project Officer at the EC – Joint Research Centre.

Responsible for satellite data collection and analysis to monitor vegetation fires in African protected areas. Time series analysis to study fire seasonality, fire intensity and protected areas threats and pressures.

2007 – 2009 Research associate at the University of Leicester. Working for the CARBOAFRICA Project (http://www.carboafrica.net, EU funded).

Responsible for the assessment of fire dynamics and the related carbon emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Testing burned area mapping in Africa using AATSR images, deriving statistics of burned areas in African countries from MODIS products.

I took part in field experiments in the Kruger National Park (South Africa). The experiment was carried out in collaboration with south African park rangers, CSIRO, Kings College (London) and other universities and research institutes.

 2004 – 2007 PhD candidate in Forest Ecology, Universitࠤella Tuscia. Dipartimento per la Innovazione nei sistemi Biologici, Agroalimentari e Forestali (DIBAF). Supervisor: Riccardo Valentini

The research work contributed to the CarboEurope Project (http://www.carboeurope.org, EU funded). Focus of the work was on the quantification of emissions from fires in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The research activity was carried out in collaboration with the Land Management Unit (EC- Joint Research Centre).

Main activity and tasks: developing a fire detection algorithm for Meteosat Second Generation-SEVIRI imagery, implementing a methodology to derive the Fire Radiative Power (FRP) and Fire Radiative Energy (FRE) from MSG-SEVIRI. The FRE was used to quantify the amount of biomass burned during the fire events. Deriving greenhouse gases emissions from forest fires. Organizing and working in several field campaigns to collect data for ground truthing.

February 2006 Volunteer in Kenya for an Italian NGO (field surveys for an irrigation and agriculture project).

June 2002-July 2003  Trainee at the EC – Joint Research Centre, Ispra (Italy).

Work on the master thesis in Environmental Science. Scope: analysis of the Global Burned Area 2000 product to study the temporal and spatial distribution and impact of burned areas in African national parks. Deriving a land-cover classification for Parc W using Landsat TM images. The work contributed to publications, conferences and workshops.

Education

2004- 2007 PhD student in Forest Ecology at the University of Tuscia

November 2003-May 2004 Post-lauream training on Environment Assessment and Management using GIS and Remote Sensing techniques. University of Milano-Bicocca, Environmental Science Department. Course title: Valutazione e gestione dell'Ambiente e del territorio attraverso l'uso di Sistemi informativi Territoriali (VAST).

Main subjects: remote sensing and GIS techniques applied to habitat vulnerability assessment, risk assessment, digital cartography (geology, geomorphology, land use and land cover change).

September 2000 WWF Training on Protected Areas management at the National Park Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga (Abruzzo, Italy)

1997-2003 Italian degree, 5 years, BSc and MSc in Environmental Science: University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy.

Courses

22-26 September 2014 Composite Indicators and Multicriteria Decision Analysis (JRC, Ispra)

April June 2013 Statistical data analysis (University of Toronto, Coursera)

6-7 July 2011 Scientific Writing (JRC, Ispra)

16-17 February 2011 Advanced Public Speaking (JRC)

19-21 May 2010 Shell Programming

May 2010 Introduction to Linux and Bash scripting (JRC, Ispra) 

December 2009 Effective Public Speaking (JRC, Ispra)

23-25 February 2010 Intermediate Programming in IDL – ITT Visual Information Solutions (JRC, Ispra)

10-12 October 2007 Intermediate Programming in IDL – ITT Visual Information Solutions (Bracknell, UK)

November 2005 Introduction to ArcGIS Working with ArcGIS Spatial Analyst Advanced Analysis with ArcGIS (ESRI Italia)

October 2005 Introductory Course to Geostatistics – Prof. Isobel Clark (JRC, Ispra) 

November / December 2004 Basic and Multivariate Statistics with applications on ecology and landscape ecology (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Roma)

April 2003 Exploring ENVI (Research System Italy)

 Mother Tongue

ITALIAN  

Other  Languages

ENGLISH Proficient user

FRENCH Basic

GERMAN Basic

Informatic Skills

Operating Systems: Windows, Linux, Macintosh

Image processing: ENVI, ERDAS Imagine

Data Analysis and GIS applications: ArcGIS, QGIS, R, ArcView

Programming Languages: postGIS SQL, bash scripting, IDL

Publications

Journals

Gr駯ire J-M., Eva H.D., Belward A.S., Palumbo I., Simonetti D., Brink A., 2012. Effect of land-cover change on Africas burnt area. International Journal of Wildland Fire http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/WF11142.

M. J. Wooster, P. H. Freeborn, S. Archibald, C. Oppenheimer, G. J. Roberts, T. E. L. Smith, N. Govender, M. Burton, and I. Palumbo, 2011. Field determination of biomass burning emission ratios and factors via open-path FTIR spectroscopy and fire radiative power assessment: headfire, backfire and residual smouldering combustion in African savannahs.  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 11, 1159111615.

J.-P. Muller, V. Yershov, D. Fisher, M. Krol, W. Peters, J. San-Miguel, I. Palumbo, F. Sedano, P. Strobl, C. Clerbaux, M. George, J. Helbert, and B. Guillaume, 2011. New products for a better characterisation of smoke plume and gas/aerosol dispersion from boreal eurasian forest fires: the ALANIS Smoke Plume project. Biogeosciences Discuss., 8, 9747-9761.

V. Lehsten, P. Harmand, I. Palumbo, and A. Arneth, 2010. Modelling burned area in Africa. Biogeosciences, 7, 31993214.

Paulo Barbosa, Andrea Camia, Jan Kucera, Giorgio LibertଠIlaria Palumbo, Jesus San-Miguel-Ayanz, Guido Schmuck, 2013. Assessment of Forest Fire Impacts and Emissions in the European Union Based on the European Forest Fire Information System. Developments in Environmental Sciences 8:197-208.

Palumbo I., J. Kucera, P. Barbosa, V.W. OBrien, R. Valentini. Using SEVIRI geostationary imagery for active fires analysis and burned biomass estimation: A case study in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 234, Supplement 1, 15 November 2006, Page S222.

V.W. OBrien, K. Boettcher, W. Mehl, I. Palumbo, P. Barbosa. Evaluation of potential erosion risk after forest fires applying spectral mixture analysis incorporating spectroradiometric field data. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 234, Supplement 1, 15 November 2006, Page S183.

Other publications

Palumbo I., Clerici M., Pekel J., Gr駯ire JM., 2011.  Monitoring ten years of fire activity in West and Central Africa. In: Advances in Remote Sensing and GIS applications in Forest Fire Management. Luxembourg, Publications Office of the EU (Luxembourg), EUR 24941: 269-273.

Palumbo, I., 2007. The Emissions of Greenhouse Gases from Forest Fires in the Mediterranean Region. PhD Thesis. Universit͊ della Tuscia. Dipartimento per la Innovazione nei sistemi Biologici, Agroalimentari e Forestali (DIBAF).

Palumbo I., 2003. Analisi della distribuzione spazio-temporale degli incendi nei parchi naturali in Africa nellanno 2000. Tesi di Laurea, Universita' Degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Facoltࠤi Scienze Matematiche, Fisiche e Naturali. Publications of the European Commission, SP. I.03.100, 100 p + annexes.

Book Chapters

Barbosa P., Camia A., Kucera J., Liberta G., Palumbo I., San-Miguel-Ayanz J., Schmuck G. 2009. Assessment of Forest Fire Impacts and Emissions in the European Union Based on the European Forest Fire Information System, Developments in Environmental Science, Volume 8, pp. 197-208. In: Wildland Fires and Air Pollution. A. Bytnerowicz, M. Arbaugh, A. Riebau and C. Andersen (Editors).

Palumbo I., The importance of fire ecology in protected areas management. In: Kenya: a Natural Outlook. Geo-Environmental Resources and Hazards. P. Paron, D.Olago, C.T. Omuto (Editors). Published by Elsevier as part of the "Developments in Earth Surface Processes" series, J. Shroder (Editor). 2013

Andreas B. Brink, Catherine Bodart, Graeme Buchanan, Marco Clerici, Fran篩s Donnay, George Eshiamwata, Jean-Marie Gregoire, Bernard K. Kirui, Andrea Lupi, Ilaria Palumbo, Jean-Fran篩s Pekel. In: Kenya: A Natural Outlook, Geo-Environmental Resources and Hazards, Chapter 12: Vegetation. 2013

In preparation

Palumbo I., Gregoire, J.-M., Simonetti, D., Punga, M. Understanding the relation between fire intensity and fire seasonality: a tool for habitat management in the protected areas of sub-Saharan Africa. In preparation.

Palumbo I., Gregoire J.-M., Brink, A. Analysis of 20 years land cover change in Eastern Africa and their correlation with fire occurrence. In preparation.

Conference papers

Palumbo, I., Temperley, W., Brink, A. Fire Observation as an Indicator of Land Cover Change in Eastern Africa. Global Land Project Open Science Meeting (GLP OSM). March 19-21, 2014. Berlin, Germany.

Palumbo, I. Verbeeck B., Gr駯ire J-M. New Online Fire Monitoring Tool for Conservation. GTO Conference Tropical Ecosystems. 25-28 February 2014, Germany.

Palumbo I., Verbeeck B., Clerici M., Gr駯ire J-M. A Web Client for Fire Monitoring in Support to Protected Area Management in Africa. EARSeL Symposium, Towards Horizon 2020 Earth Observation and Social Perspective. 3-6 June 2013 Matera. Awarded Best Paper.

Palumbo I., Gr駯ire J-M., Clerici M., Pekel J-F. Ten years fire observations from space: trends and anomalies of African fires. International Conference On Fire Behaviour And Risk Modelling Alghero – Italy, 4-6 October 2011.

Palumbo I., Gr駯ire J-M., Punga M. Linking fire seasonality and burning intensity derived from MODIS time series: a tool for the management of African protected areas. 5th International Wildland Fire Conference, 9-13 May 2011 Sun City, South Africa.

Dubois, G., P. Mayaux, D. Gross, I. Palumbo, F. Gollnow, M. Clerici, M. Punga, S. Peedell, J. Skien. On the contribution of remote sensing to DOPA, a digital observatory from protected areas. 34th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment, April 10-15, 2011, Sydney, Australia.

Palumbo I., Gregoire, J.-M., Simonetti, D., Punga, M. Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Fire Activity in Protected Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa derived from MODIS Data. 1st Conference on Spatial Statistics 2011 Mapping Global Change. University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, 23-25 March 2011. In: Procedia Environmental Sciences Vol. 7, pp. 26-31. www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

Palumbo I., Gregoire, J.-M., Simonetti, D., Punga, M. 2010. Characterization of Fire Seasonality and Intensity in Protected Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa Using MODIS Data. VI International Conference on Forest Fire Research. Coimbra, Portugal. Universidade de Coimbra 15-18 November 2010.

Palumbo I., Gregoire, J.-M., Simonetti, D., Punga, M., Dubois, G. Fire Activity Inside and Outside Protected Areas in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Continental Analysis of Fire and its Implications for Biodiversity and Land Management. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 12, pp. 15356. European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2-7 May 2010. Vienna, Austria.

Szumski, A., Hoscilo, A., Palumbo, I. and Balzter, H. A comparison of active fire detection and burned area mapping from satellite in the Congo basin, CARBOAFRICA conference, Pointe Noire, March 2010.

Palumbo, I., Lehsten, V. and Balzter, H. Analysis of causal factors of fire regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa, EGU General Assembly 2009, Geophysical Research Abstracts 11, EGU2009-595-1.

Palumbo, I., Balzter H. and Tansey, K. Analysis of satellite imagery to map burned areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. Accepted for oral presentation at Open Science conference on Africa and Carbon Cycle: the CarboAfrica Project, 23-28 November 2008, Ghana.

Palumbo, I., Balzter H. and Tansey, K. The CarboAfrica Project: Quantification, understanding and prediction of carbon cycle, and other GHG gases, in Sub-Saharan Africa. 6th International Workshop of the EARSeL. Special Interest Group (SIG) on Forest Fires. 26-29 September 2007. Greece.

Palumbo, I., Balzter H. and Tansey, K. Assessment of the Wildfires in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Satellite Remote Sensing: Mapping the Burned Areas. Carbon-Climate-Human Interactions in Africa. The Global Carbon Project, 23-25 August 2007, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Palumbo, I., Kucera, J., Barbosa, P., OBrien, V. W., Valentini, R. Monitoring fire activity in a Mediterranean ecosystem using SEVIRI geostationary imagery: a case study. 2nd Workshop on Geostationary Fire Monitoring and Applications. GOFC/GOLD Fire Monitoring and Mapping Implementation Team. December 4-6, 2006, EUMETSAT, Darmstadt, Germany. 

Palumbo I., J. Kucera, P. Barbosa, V.W. OBrien, R. Valentini. Using SEVIRI geostationary imagery for active fires analysis and burned biomass estimation: A case study in a Mediterranean ecosystem. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 234, Supplement 1, 15 November 2006, Page S222. In: Viegas D.X. (Ed.) Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Forest Fire Research, ADAI/CEIF, Coimbra (Portugal). 27-30 November 2006.

V.W. OBrien, K. Boettcher, W. Mehl, I. Palumbo, P. Barbosa. Evaluation of potential erosion risk after forest fires applying spectral mixture analysis incorporating spectroradiometric field data. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 234, Supplement 1, 15 November 2006, Page S183. In: Viegas D.X. (Ed.) Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Forest Fire Research, ADAI/CEIF, Coimbra (Portugal). 27-30 November 2006.

Palumbo I. The use of MODIS data for the estimation of burned biomass in forest fires: a case study over Southern Europe. Workshop BBSO, 14-15 December 2005. Toulouse.

Palumbo, I., Gr駯ire, J-M., Boschetti L., Eva, H.D. Fire Regimes in Protected Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa Derived from the GBA2000 Dataset.
Proceedings of the 4th Internal Workshop on Remote Sensing and GIS Applications to Forest Fire Management, 2003. Pp. 135-145 E. Chuvieco, P. Mart� C. Justice (Editors).

Mayaux, P., Eva, H., Fournier, A., Sawadogo, L., Palumbo, I. et Gr駯ire, J-M., 2006 Apport des techniques spatiales pour la gestion des aires prot駩es en Afrique de l'Ouest, in "Am鮡gement et gestion des aires prot駩es en Afrique de l'Ouest", Fournier A. et Sinsin B. (eds). Actes du s魩naire de Parakou, B鮩n, 14-19 avril 2003, co-publication IRD UNESCO.

Gr駯ire J-M., K. Tansey, I. Palumbo & H. Eva. A multi-scale analysis of fire patterns in West Africa's savannas and woodlands. International Conference Tropical Savannas and Seasonally Dry Forests: Ecology, Environment and Development, Edinburgh, September 2003.

Palumbo I., Gr駯ire J-M., L. Boschetti and H. Eva. Fire regimes in protected areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, derived from the GBA2000 dataset. Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Remote Sensing and GIS applications to Forest Fire Management: Innovative concepts and methods in fire danger estimation, Ghent University, 2003. EARSeL, 222 pages, ISBN: 2-908885-25-5. Editors: Emilio Chuvieco, Pilar Martin and Chris Justice, pp. 139-149.

Palumbo I., e L. Boschetti. Analisi del regime degli incendi nei parchi naturali in Africa nellanno 2000. 7a Conferenza Nazionale ASITA L'Informazione Territoriale e la dimensione tempo, 28 – 31 ottobre 2003. Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Verona.