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Hire Dion K.

United States

USD 90 /hr

PhD Remote Sensing & GIS Consultant | Landsat/Sentinel/Aerial analysis, NDVI/LST, Urban Heat & Equity

Profile Summary

I’m a remote-sensing/GIS scientist (PhD, ~9–10 yrs GIS experience) who turns Landsat & Sentinel time series into decision-ready maps. My PhD and postdoc work focused on applying satellite remote sensing to answering questions about plant ecology/urban ecology. Focus: NDVI/LST trends & vegetative-cooling diagnostics, equity overlays, multi-criteria priority indexes (tract/block/parcel), urban wildfire severity/recurrence, and Sentinel-2 classifications (e.g., invasive species). Selected work: Los Angeles multi-decadal greenness/heat & equity; 311-city global cooling trends; U.S. urbanization and luxury-effect studies; El Paso tree-planting priority index; national urban-wildfire analysis (MTBS×LCMS, 1985–2024). Tools: Google Earth Engine, ArcGIS Pro, Python/ArcPy (geopandas, rasterio, xarray, scikit-learn), QGIS, GDAL. Deliverables: clear maps + an 8–12-page brief, GeoTIFF/GeoPackage/CSV, optional web map, and reproducible code so your team can rerun and extend. Most pilots complete in 1–2 weeks on a fixed fee. Share your AOI, timeline, and decision goal, and I’ll send a concise scope and quote.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Remote Sensing
• ☆ Data Analysis
• ☆ Image Processing
• ☆ Data Processing
• ☆ Data Visualization
• ☆ Big Data Analytics
• ☆ Earth & Atmospheric Science
• ☆ Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• ☆ Geography & Cartography
• ☆ Cartography
• ☆ Environmental Science
• ☆ Ecology

Services

• Consulting
• Data & AI

Consulting Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Image Processing, Image Analysis, Algorithm Design-Non ML, Algorithm Design-ML, Data Visualization, Big Data Analytics, Data Mining, Data Cleaning, Data Processing, Data Insights

Work Experience

UC Riverside

- Present

Fellowships

UC Riverside Graduate Research Mentoring Program (GRMP)

January 2020 - May 2020

Fellowships

NASA/UCR FIELDS (Fellowship/Internship in Extremely Large Datasets)

September 2019 - May 2020

Fellowships

UCR EDGE (Environmental Dynamics and GeoEcology) Institute

August 2019 - May 2020

Fellowships

UC Riverside Chancellor's Distinguished Fellowship

September 2016 - May 2018

Fellowships

Los Angeles Urban Center for Natural Resources Sustainability

August 2016 - December 2016

Education

Ph.D. Plant Biology (Botany and Plant Sciences)

University of California, Riverside

- May 2024

M.S. Environmental Science

Indiana University Bloomington

- May 2016

B.S. Environmental Science

Humboldt State University

- May 2014

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Dion Kucera, Matthew Wilfong, Elizaveta Litvak, Noortje H Grijseels, Kristin Hamilton, Lisa Welsh, Joanna Endter‐Wada, G Darrel Jenerette, Diane E Pataki(2025). Irrigation rates and turfgrass evapotranspiration in cities with contrasting water availability . Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 61. (1). Wiley

Wilfong, M., Litvak, E., Grijseels, N.H., Hamilton, K., Kucera, D., Welsh, L., Endter-Wada, J., Jenerette, G.D., Pataki, D.E.(2025). Irrigation rates and turfgrass evapotranspiration in cities with contrasting water availability . Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 61. (1).

Dion Kucera, G Darrel Jenerette(2023). Urban greenness and its cooling effects are influenced by changes in drought, physiography, and socio-demographics in Los Angeles, CA . Urban Climate.

Dion Kucera, G Darrel Jenerette(2023). Urban greenness and its cooling effects are influenced by changes in drought, physiography, and socio-demographics in Los Angeles, CA . Urban Climate.

Kucera, D., Jenerette, G.D.(2023). Urban greenness and its cooling effects are influenced by changes in drought, physiography, and socio-demographics in Los Angeles, CA . Urban Climate. 52.

Dion Kucera, Jun Wang, Lorena Castro‐Garcia, G Darrel Jenerette, Mark Chandler, Cui Ge, Sofia Koutzoukis, Jing Zeng(2022). Resolving and Predicting Neighborhood Vulnerability to Urban Heat and Air Pollution: Insights From a Pilot Project of Community Science . GeoHealth. 6. (5). p. e2021gh000575.

Dion Kucera, Jun Wang, Lorena Castro‐Garcia, G. Darrel Jenerette, Mark Chandler, Cui Ge, Sofia Koutzoukis, Jing Zeng(2022). Resolving and Predicting Neighborhood Vulnerability to Urban Heat and Air Pollution: Insights From a Pilot Project of Community Science . GeoHealth. 6. (5). American Geophysical Union ({AGU})

Wang, J., Castro-Garcia, L., Jenerette, G.D., Chandler, M., Ge, C., Kucera, D., Koutzoukis, S., Zeng, J.(2022). Resolving and Predicting Neighborhood Vulnerability to Urban Heat and Air Pollution: Insights From a Pilot Project of Community Science . Geohealth. 6. (5).

Winslow D Hansen, Joshua P Scholl, Amanda E Sorensen, Kelsey E Fisher, Jessica A Klassen, Leonardo Calle, Gaurav S Kandlikar, Nicholas Kortessis, Dion C Kucera, Danielle E Marias, et al.(2018). How do we ensure the future of our discipline is vibrant? Student reflections on careers and culture of ecology . Ecosphere. 9. (2).

Winslow D. Hansen, Joshua P. Scholl, Amanda E. Sorensen, Kelsey E. Fisher, Jessica A. Klassen, Leonardo Calle, Gaurav S. Kandlikar, Nicholas Kortessis, Dion C. Kucera, Danielle E. Marias, et al.(2018). How do we ensure the future of our discipline is vibrant? Student reflections on careers and culture of ecology . Ecosphere. 9. (2). p. e02099. Wiley

Hansen, W.D., Scholl, J.P., Sorensen, A.E., Fisher, K.E., Klassen, J.A., Calle, L., Kandlikar, G.S., Kortessis, N., Kucera, D.C., Marias, D.E., et al.(2018). How do we ensure the future of our discipline is vibrant? Student reflections on careers and culture of ecology: . Ecosphere. 9. (2).

BOOK CHAPTER

Dion Kucera, Peter Ibsen, Stephanie Piper, G Darrel Jenerette(2023). Urban Climate and the Biophysical Environment . 36--51Taylor \& Francis

Ibsen, P., Kucera, D., Piper, S., Jenerette, G.D.(2023). URBAN CLIMATE AND THE BIOPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT . Routledge Handbook of Urban Biodiversity. p. 36-51.

OTHER

Kucera, D., Jenerette, G.D.(2023). Urban Greenness and its Cooling Effects are Influenced by Changes in Drought, Physiography, and Socio-Demographics in Los Angeles, Ca . Ssrn.

Dion Kucera, G Darrel Jenerette(2023). Urban Greenness and its Cooling Effects are Influenced by Changes in Drought, Physiography, and Socio-Demographics in Los Angeles, Ca .