I'm Iniobong Benson, a geospatial analyst and earth observation specialist pursuing a PhD at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. I build geospatial tools and earth-observation products, working mainly in remote sensing and hydrological modelling. I also founded and host Geospatially Africa, a podcast about geospatial work across the continent.
Research Interests
Drought & Water Scarcity MonitoringGRACE Terrestrial Water StorageHydrological & Hydrodynamic ModellingDiscrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS)Spatial Data Science for AfricaEarth Observation for Environmental Change
At ITC, University of Twente
Fieldwork in Nigeria
Deltares internship, Delft
ISDE21 - Youth Forum
Mapping session
Tartu, Estonia
Education
2026 - PresentPhD
PhD in Environmental Resources and Policy
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA
- Researching water resources monitoring and climate impact assessment using Earth observation
- Focus areas: GRACE TWS downscaling, NISAR InSAR, cloud-native geospatial systems
2023 - 2025MSc
MSc in Geo-information Science and Earth Observation for Environmental Modelling and Management (GEM Erasmus+)
University of Tartu, Estonia & ITC, University of Twente, The Netherlands
- Erasmus+ Scholarship recipient
- Thesis: A Novel Multi-Variate Drought Index Based on GRACE TWS, Precipitation, Evapotranspiration, and Soil Moisture for Drought Monitoring in the Greater Horn of Africa
- Developed the GHDI - a probabilistic copula-based drought index; validated using FEWS NET and compared with SPI and ENSO across timescales
2022 - 2023Dip.
Diploma in Backend Engineering
Altschool Africa, Nigeria
- Diploma in Backend Engineering (2023)
2022Dip.
Fullstack Developer Nanodegree
Udacity, USA
- Udacity Fullstack Developer Nanodegree Scholarship (2022)
2014 - 2019BSc
BSc in Geoinformatics and Surveying
University of Uyo, Nigeria
- Thesis: A Web-based Tourism Information System Using GIS for Uyo Metropolis
Experience
Sep 2025 - Nov 2025Advocate
DGGS & Geospatial Data Platform Advocate
Geolynx OÜ · Tartu, Estonia
- Develop technical resources including Python notebooks, QGIS tutorials, and API documentation to support developers and GIS analysts
- Produce promotional content (blogs, social media) to highlight platform features, datasets, and partnerships
Jun 2024 - Aug 2024Intern
Geospatial Data Science Intern
Deltares · Delft, The Netherlands
- Developed a validation framework for Delft3D Flexible Mesh (FM) ocean models using in situ data
- Processed, analysed, and visualised hydrodynamic datasets
- Integrated geospatial workflows into hydrodynamic modelling pipelines
Mar 2023 - Jul 2023GIS Spec.
GIS Specialist
ipNX Nigeria Ltd · Nigeria
- Designed and optimised enterprise geospatial databases
- Implemented network routing optimisation for fibre optic systems
- Conducted advanced spatial analyses for infrastructure planning
Nov 2021 - Feb 2023Lead GIS
Lead GIS Analyst
Kyle Christian Nigeria Ltd · Nigeria
- Automated workflows with Python, significantly reducing processing time
- Built and deployed ArcGIS Field Apps for property data digitisation
- Processed LiDAR data to generate elevation and topographic outputs
Jun 2020 - Oct 2020GIS Tech.
GIS Technician
Global Education Infrastructure Service LLC
- Integrated field-collected data for unified geospatial databases
- Produced demographic and allocation maps for 50+ communities
Skills
GIS & Earth Observation
QGISArcGISGoogle Earth EngineSNAPGDAL / OGRDelft3D FM
Programming & Data Science
PythonRGeoPandasRasterioxarrayDjangoPostgreSQL
Satellite & Sensor Data
Sentinel-1 SARSentinel-2Landsat 8/9MODISGRACE TWSSRTM DEM
Hydrology & Climate
Copula ModellingDrought IndicesFEWS NETSPIHydrodynamic Modelling