About Me

Resumé

Work Path

Currently I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Climate Change Adaptation Research Group at McGill University working on methodologies to develop a Vulnerability Index towards Climatic Change for the Inuit peoples of Northern Canada. In general, my research focuses in developing national and regional integrative climatic change approaches and vulnerability indexes to assess natural hazards such as floods, landslides and drought in large scale. In my previous work I have used the IPCC vulnerability triad encompassing exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity indicators considering different climatic change scenarios, and weather extreme indexes with the use of qualitative and quantitative indicators.

In Brazil, I have worked as a consultant for the Brazilian National Plan on Adaptation to CC and the Third National Communication on CC, helping to build research methods to improve adaptation policies for Brazilian most vulnerable populations. Furthermore, I have worked for Canadian’s IDRC VACEA’s Project that assessed the vulnerability of watersheds and farmers to extreme weather events in five countries in the Americas. For the French Project DURAMAZ I have developed research using rain gauges, satellites images, and remote sensing techniques to detect the impact of deforestation in rainfall in Southern Amazonia. Finally, for the European Union, I have worked in LUPIS Project building an integrative framework towards sustainable development policies and land use in the Amazon region using indicators, land use modeling and multi-criteria analysis.

Academic Path

My academic career started in a interdisciplinary manner with a Bachelor’s degree majored in Geography, Wildlife and Fisheries, and Tourism Management in USA (Brigham Young University and Utah State University); Guatemala (Universidad Rafael Landívar); and Brazilian institutions (Faculdades Integradas de Ensino Superior de Santa Catarina) (2005). Following this path I joined a Master program at the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Brasília (2009) in Brazil, and pursued my studies with a Doctor degree in Sustainable Development and Geography in co-tutelle with Laboratoire COSTEL (Climat et Occupation du Sol par Télédéction) at Université Rennes 2 in France (2013).

Between 2014 and 2015 I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Ecology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina State in Brazil, and now, I currently work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Geography in McGill University – Canada (2016).

Nathan S. Debortoli