Silvia Petrova serves as E3/Land’s Geospatial Analyst and provides geospatial analytics and technology solutions assistance to missions, across land and urban portfolio and cross-sectoral programs. She focuses on generating new evidence through the use of innovative geospatial and technology approaches to support land and resource governance, sustainable urban services, and cross-sectoral programming for climate change, biodiversity, and food security initiatives.
Educational Background
Ms. Petrova holds a master’s degree in Geospatial Information Science for Development and Environment from Clark University, Worcester, MA and both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science from Technical University, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Regional Experience
Ms. Petrova has worked in Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana, Guatemala, Peru, Zambia and Vietnam supporting USAID programming and previously worked in Guyana, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia.
Previous Experience
Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Petrova worked at Winrock International where she applied remotely sensed and geospatial technology to international development projects focusing primarily on agriculture, forestry, and climate change sectors. She brings experience in analyzing land cover and land use dynamics, climate mitigation and adaptation, forest carbon measurements and assessment, training and capacity building, and project implementation.
Publications and Presentations
- Does de Facto Community Forest Tenure Affect Forest Condition? Policy-relevant Baseline Findings From a Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of a Forest Carbon Mitigation Project in Zambia (co-author) – submitted to Forest Policy and Economics, 2016
- Benchmark map of forest carbon stocks in tropical regions across three continents (co-author) – PNAS, 2011
- Identifying optimal areas for REDD intervention: East Kalimantan, Indonesia as a case study (co-author) – Environmental Research Letters, 2008