Kenya
UN-Habitat
Applying City-Level Data for Sustainable Urban Planning
For Stacy Mwangi, some of the most interesting environmental challenges play out at the scale of individual cities. As a GIS analyst working on urban mobility for UN-Habitat, the United Nations Agency tasked with promoting sustainable urban development, she sees firsthand how urban planning intersects with growing climate risks.
“I often find myself thinking beyond technical tasks,” she said. “I’m interested in how data can be used to better understand complex urban and environmental challenges, particularly in rapidly growing cities where resources are limited.”
That interest led Mwangi to enroll in the Environmental Data Science certificate program as a Three Cairns Fellow. The Three Cairns Fellows Program at YSE provides tuition support for mid-career environmental professionals from the Global South to pursue specialized online certificates like this one. Through the program, she deepened her technical skills and sharpened her thinking on how data can be effectively applied in decision-making.
Most data for climate assessments exist at the regional or national scale, Mwangi noted, but her capstone project tackled a challenging city-level analysis. She focused on translating satellite-based flood detection data into practical information on how flooding cuts off access to jobs and services in her hometown of Nairobi.
“My project was not about building a perfect flood model; it was about assessing the usefulness of available datasets and exploring how they can be combined with population and transport data to answer practical questions,” she said. “The whole experience reinforced my belief that meaningful analysis begins with identifying the right data, understanding its limitations, and using it to better understand how cities function.”
Environmental Data Science Spotlight
Demystifying Data for Forest Communities
As a program associate at Sustainable Northwest, an Oregon-based nonprofit, Jeremy Kwok Choon assists with research, policy, and stakeholder engagement on issues from regenerative ranching to clean energy.
His work, he said, taught him that the best model is not the most complex — it is most clear, reproducible, and accessible. That desire to “demystify data” led him to enroll in the certificate program in Environmental Data Science where he sharpened his technical skills and learned valuable lessons alongside a global cohort.
Other Certificate Programs Spotlights
Breaking Down Silos to Increase Climate Resilience in Central Asia
Urban Climate Leadership Certificate
Advancing Green Chemistry Through Education
Green Chemistry for Climate and Sustainability Certificate
Cultivating Chemistry for a Cleaner Harvest
Green Chemistry for Climate and Sustainability Certificate