New paper: Participatory mapping for unveiling the values of blue spaces
We are happy to share that Oleksandr recently co-authored a paper published in the journal Cities. In this paper, the authors investigated the socio-cultural values of ecosystem services in managed, semi-managed, and low-managed urban blue spaces in Warsaw, Poland, using participatory mapping (PPGIS) data. The work was led by the
New paper: Predicting household income with satellite and street-level imagery
Oleksandr lead-authored a paper published in the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. In this paper, Oleksandr and the international team of authors (Evelyn Uuemaa and Tiit Tammaru from the University of Tartu, Olle Järv from the University of Helsinki, Monika Kuffer from the University of Twente) investigated
New article out in Nature Communications! Significant proportion of world’s rural population missing from global estimates
Our latest paper lead by Dr. Josias Láng-Ritter was published at Nature Communications! Our study reveals that Global population datasets, crucial for decision-making by governments and institutions, underestimate rural populations by as much as 53% to 84%. Accurate estimation of population distribution is essential for social and environmental decision-making as well as research. Scientists, governments,
New project funded by CHIST-ERA (2025-2028)
We are happy to announce that GIST Lab was awarded together with an international consortium a 3-year research project focusing on GeoLLMs. The project titled as “Knowledgeable and multimodal Geographic Large Language Models Grounded with Reasoning and Retrieval” (Geo-R2LLM) is run by five Universities: Aalto University, University of Toulouse 3 (France), University of Basque Country
New member joining! Seyed Hosseini
We are happy to announce that we have a new team member joining the GIST Lab, MSc Seyed Hossein Hosseini! Welcome! Seyed is doing his PhD related to Digital Waters project focusing on modelling water balance in agricultural fields and surrounding areas using Artificial Intelligence approaches.
Geoportti RI was funded and the project continues (2025-2029)
We are happy to announce that the Geoportti RI, an open geospatial data research infrastructure, was selected in the top 21 of Finnish research infrastructures in the Research Council of Finland’s roadmap for Finnish research infrastructures 2025–2028. Geoportti services promote Finland’s RDI goals by, for example, providing open easy-to-use geospatial
Cesar’s visit to ISI Foundation in Torino
I just returned from a valuable visit to the ISI Foundation in Torino, where I had the opportunity to connect with experts in urban mobility. A highlight was catching up with my PhD co-supervisor, Prof. Leo Ferres, as we exchanged insights on mobility dynamics, particularly in Latin America and Chile.
New publication out! Spatial accessibility and transport equity in Finland
We are happy to share that our paper was published in Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. In the paper, we investigate spatial accessibility and transport equity at national level in Finland with open source tools! The work was lead by the brilliant Matti Pönkänen and in great collaboration with Miloš
Farewell to Bryan who starts a new job in Galápagos Islands!
We are sad (but excited at the same time!) to say that our beloved team member Bryan Vallejo will return to his home country Ecuador in September and starts a cool job at Charles Darwin Foundation in Galapagos islands. Bryan has been a dear colleague of ours for many years
MAPICO workshop I
We are delighted to announce the successful initiation of the MAPICO workshops, which began in September 2024. These workshops aim to foster collaboration and innovation among professionals and researchers in urban planning and transport, supporting the broader goals of the MAPICO project. The first workshop, held on Friday, 20th September
Prof. Martin Tomko (University of Melbourne) visited GIST Lab and gave a GeoSPA Talk
We were happy to host Prof. Martin Tomko from the University of Melbourne, Australia who gave an exciting talk at the GeoSPA Seminar Series. A fun fact: Martin was the PhD co-supervisor of our GIST Lab team member Subhrasankha Day. 🙂
New member joining! Dr. Oleksandr Karasov
We are happy to announce that we have a new team member joining the GIST Lab, Dr. Oleksandr Karasov. Welcome! Oleksandr is leading a new project called Ukrainability that explores the impact of war on human-environment interactions in Ukraine. Before joining GIST Lab, Oleksandr worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at