CV

Work Experience

Jan 2012 – Present: Geographer, The World Bank Group Washington, DC

2008 - 2011: Research Assistant, University of Victoria Victoria, BC

2007 - 2008: Software Consultant, ESRI Canada Ottawa, ON

Educational History

2009-2011: Master of Science in Geography, University of Victoria

2006-2007: Advanced diploma in GIS, Centre of Geographic Sciences Lawrencetown, NS

2002-2006: BSc, Combined Honours in Biology and History of Science and Technology, University of King's College

Project Experience

2018 Poverty Mapping in Kinshasa

  • Provided numerous geospatial metrics for mapping poverty in Kinshasa: satellite imagery, mobility, distance, and market access metrics
  • Applying similar methodology in other countries, including Monrovia and Mauritania.

2018 Geo-enabling and ICT: Azerbaijan

  • Assisted the FCV GEMS team with a platform for disseminating their geo-enabling results
  • Worked with partners in the Azerbaijan PIU to standardize the data collection and dissemination framework to smooth the process of data updating

2017 Mapping Poverty from Satellite Imagery

  • Worked with TTLs in the Poverty GP to use metrics from satellite imagery to improve and supplement traditional analysis
  • Implemented these methods in both Sri Lanka and Mexico

2017 Haiti Urbanization Review

  • Developed methodology for evaluating and measuring urbanization objectively and consistently using gridded population, nightlight, and travel time data
  • Presented the results to in-country partners to start a discussion on what the official definition of urban is, and what purpose that definition serves

2016 Palestine Sampling Framework Design

  • Developed spatially random sampling framework in Palestine
  • Managed team who manually adjusted points based on the locations of homes in high resolution satellite imagery

2015 GAFSP Web Mapping Application

  • Designed web mapping application in coordination with client teams
  • Worked with external consultants in development of additional story telling features

2012 Management and aggregation of climate data

  • Managed and organized World Bank climate data in NetCDF format
  • Utilized climate data to estimate climate change for every state globally

2009 Detection and delineation of edges in remotely sensed data

  • Development of algorithms to extract resource extraction landscape features from remotely sensed data in a number of languages (IDL, R, C# ArcObjects).
  • Submission of finished product for peer-reviewed journal

 

Teaching and Presentations

Presentations

Apr 2017 GIS in renewable energy assessments Nepal

Mar 2017 Urbanization and Development Venue: American Association of Geographers

Oct 2015 WorldPop and Urbanization Venue: WBG BBL

Feb 2015 GIS Standards and Development Venue: ESRI Federal User Conference

Dec 2014 Extracting Urban Footprints from Nighttime Lights Venue: American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting

Publications

Roberts, Mark; Blankespoor, Brian; Deuskar, Chandan; and Stewart, Benjamin P. 2017. Urbanization and development : is Latin America and the Caribbean different from the rest of the world? World Bank Policy Research Working Paper: WPS 8019.

Addison, Douglas M., Stewart, Benjamin P. 2015. Nighttime lights revisited: the use of nighttime lights data as a proxy for economic variables. Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 7496. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.

Klytchnikova,Irina I.; Sauer,Anna-Lena; … Stewart,Benjamin P. 2013. Environmental management in Bolivia : innovations and opportunities. World Bank Group Report.

Stewart, B.P.; Nelson, T.A.; Wulder, M.A.; Nielsen, S.E.; Stenhouse, G. Impact of disturbance characteristics and age on grizzly bear habitat selection. 2012. Applied Geography 34: 614-625.

Awards

Apr 2018 World Bank Group VPU award for Geo-enabling: Capacity building for M&E

Apr 2018 President’s award for excellence Haiti Urbanization Review

Apr 2018 World Bank Group VPU award for Haiti Urbanization Review

Apr 2016 World Bank Group VPU award for South Asia Urbanization Flagship

Sep 2015 Finalist for the World Bank Innovation Challenge in Big Data