Zachary Posnik

Interest and Expertise

My research with the Nature-Based Solutions Initiative will focus on building code in multiple geographic information systems which can identify and map nature-based solutions across the United Kingdom. This work will help to examine nature-based solutions opportunities, natural capital and ecosystem services accounting, green infrastructure implementation, and climate adaption and mitigation. The result will be a set of maps which can define the landscape through these terms. I will be using a combination of vector files and newly developed raster files to map these availabilities and specialise in developing the code and working across GIS platforms which will create these open-source products for our partners.

Background

I completed my MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford in 2022. My research focuses on nature-based solutions for pyro-ecological environments and the ecological effects of decentralized prescribed burning. I am also currently researching modelling social-ecological systems and cross-scale tipping point dynamics. Prior to my time in the United Kingdom, I spent time as a conservation fellow with Americorps in Butte, Montana mapping riparian areas and analysing land cover change and fire vulnerability. I have also continued my conservation work with the IUCN and Oceanic Society helping to develop and build a new open-source geodatabase of sea turtle biogeography that will help to redefine marine turtle conservation areas.