- Built greenhouse gas inventories across transportation, industrial, agricultural, and energy sectors.
- Ran MOVES4/MOVES5 motor-vehicle emissions simulations for regional NAAQS air-quality conformity analyses.
- Applied SMOKE and AERMOD for emissions processing and air dispersion simulations.
- Performed QA/validation on large environmental datasets and supported air-quality sensor deployment & calibration.
Climate & Environmental Data Scientist
Libert Niyonkuru Katabogama
I work at the intersection of climate and environmental science — turning data analysis, remote sensing, and policy insight into clear-eyed impact and risk assessments, from a soil‑moisture model built column by column to regional emissions and climate‑risk work relied on by government agencies and industry.
Data Analysis
Large-scale climate & environmental datasets, statistics, and ML pipelines in Python.
Remote Sensing
Satellite & GIS analysis — GOES, MODIS, Landsat, Sentinel, Google Earth Engine.
Policy Analysis
Translating climate science into compliance-ready, actionable strategy.
Impact & Risk
Quantifying climate risk, drought, emissions & resilience impacts.
01 · About
Where climate science meets code
I'm a climate and environmental scientist and data specialist with experience in climate analytics, risk analysis, and sustainability strategy. I work with large-scale environmental datasets and geospatial analysis to support climate adaptation, resilience, and sustainable infrastructure across the transportation, industrial, agricultural, and energy sectors. My background spans government agencies and cross-sector teams — emissions analysis, environmental modeling, and quantitative climate assessments using Python, GIS, and scientific computing tools.
It started with a one-dimensional soil column at Texas A&M — a numerical model built to understand how soil moisture responds to shifting precipitation and temperature — and grew into work spanning satellite-based land analysis, drought impact assessment across the Greater Horn of Africa, and emissions policy and climate-risk strategy for government and industry clients. I like problems where messy, multi-terabyte datasets have to become a decision someone can act on.
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Years in climate research & industry
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Climate & environmental datasets used
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Sectors: transport, industry, ag, energy
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Research & industry roles
02 · Toolkit
Skills & tools
Hover a category to see what I reach for.
PythonRSQL
C / C++LinuxGit / GitHub
PandasNumPySciPy
xarraygeopandasrasterio
matplotlibscikit-learnTensorFlow
netCDF4Jupyter
MOVES4 / MOVES5SMOKEAERMOD
Greenhouse Gas Inventories
ArcGIS ProQGISGoogle Earth Engine
GDALRemote Sensing Analysis
ERA5CMIP6GOES
MODISLandsatSentinel
CHIRPSNLDASSMAP
MERRA-2
Regression AnalysisMachine Learning
Time Series AnalysisClimate Diagnostics
Uncertainty AnalysisEnvironmental Statistics
03 · Journey
Experience
Hover a role to see what I actually did there.
- Developed climate and carbon strategies for clients using quantitative climate risk analysis.
- Ran sustainability and climate impact analyses across transportation, industrial, agricultural, and energy systems.
- Translated complex climate datasets into actionable recommendations for emissions reduction and resilience planning.
- Supported client reporting alignment with sustainability and regulatory disclosure frameworks.
- Analyzed climate model outputs to assess greenhouse gas-driven impacts on long-term climate variability.
- Processed large-scale, multi-decadal climate datasets spanning multiple environmental variables.
- Conducted statistical analyses supporting climate diagnostics and environmental assessments.
- Communicated findings through technical reports, presentations, and data summaries.
- Developed a 1-D numerical soil moisture model to study hydroclimatic response to precipitation and temperature change.
- Applied regression and machine learning to evaluate modeled soil moisture against observational datasets.
- Processed multi-terabyte climate and remote-sensing datasets with Python scientific computing tools.
- Used GOES satellite data to quantify urban heat island dynamics.
- Conducted drought impact assessments for the Greater Horn of Africa and the United States using GIS and climate datasets.
- Used GIS and Google Earth Engine to analyze rainfall deficits and drought severity patterns.
- Built and maintained analytical databases in Excel and R for drought monitoring.
- Operated and analyzed hydrologic model outputs.
- Investigated ENSO impacts on precipitation variability and drought across agricultural regions.
- Presented findings on teleconnections and drought variability at regional scientific conferences.
04 · Education
Academic background
MS
Atmospheric Sciences
Texas A&M University · College Station, TX
Aug 2021 – Aug 2024
Thesis: Investigating Statistical Approaches for Diagnosing Soil Moisture Behavior Using the Simplified Soil Moisture Model
Advisor: Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon
Coursework: Atmospheric Dynamics, Atmospheric Physics & Chemistry, Climate Modeling, Statistical Methods in Climate Science, Climate Change Analysis
BS
Integrated Sciences
University of Nebraska-Lincoln · Lincoln, NE
Aug 2017 – May 2021
Minors: Applied Climate Sciences, Conservation Ag, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Advisor: Dr. Mike Hayes
Coursework: Climate in Crisis, Applied Climate Sciences, Energy and the Environment, Earth's Climate (Past, Present, Future)
05 · Projects
Selected projects & research
Filter by focus area, then click a card for details.
Jun 2025 – Oct 2025
Air Quality & Emissions Modeling for Transportation Conformity
Modeled emissions impacts of new transportation projects across Indiana and Kentucky.
- Ran emissions and air dispersion simulations using MOVES4/5, SMOKE, and AERMOD.
- Supported greenhouse gas inventory development and transportation emissions assessments.
Jun 2022 – present · Phase 2 in progress
Simplified Soil Moisture Model
A 1-D numerical model of hydroclimatic response to precipitation & temperature variability.
- Developed a one-dimensional numerical soil moisture model for a soil column.
- Applied regression and machine learning to validate modeled behavior against observations.
- Investigated drought sensitivity and environmental response under changing climate conditions.
Oct 2021 – Apr 2022
Urban Heat Island Analysis
Investigating impacts of land use and land cover change on urban heat islands.
- Applied remote sensing with GOES-16 and GOES-17 to quantify UHI intensity and diurnal temperature variability.
- Conducted geospatial and statistical analyses across varying urban landscapes and surface characteristics.
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020
Drought Impact on Human Health
Mapping drought severity and its human-health implications across two continents.
- Applied GIS, drought datasets, and climate diagnostics to assess severity and environmental impacts.
- Covered the United States and the Greater Horn of Africa.
Jan 2020 – May 2020
Energy & the Environment: Economics and Policies
The U.S. Should Rejoin the Paris Agreement — moral, economic & political reasons.
- Policy essay examining the case for U.S. re-entry into the Paris Agreement.
06 · Contact
Let's talk climate, data, or both
Have a role, dataset, or research question? I'd love to hear from you.