Juan Carlos Laso Bayas profile picture

Juan Carlos Laso Bayas

Research Scholar

Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group

Advancing Systems Analysis Program

Biography

Juan Carlos Laso Bayas joined IIASA in September 2015 as a research scholar. He currently works with the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Program. His scientific interests include the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial statistics, more specifically mixed models, to analyze remote sensing and citizen science data, aiming to contribute to agricultural production, food security, disaster management, and community resilience. He has led several projects funded by the European Union, the European Space Agency, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, and others.

He obtained his BSc in Agricultural Sciences at Zamorano University, Honduras, specializing in Socioeconomic Development and Environment. He continued his studies in Germany where he obtained his MSc in Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics as well as his PhD in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart. For his dissertation, he studied the mega-tsunami event of December 2004 and combined remote sensing, GIS, and generalized linear mixed models to relate land use, distance to the sea, and topography to tsunami casualties and damage in West-Aceh, Indonesia, and the Seychelles.

His previous work experience includes: Advanced tropical agriculture and forestry field work at Zamorano; field technician at a joint USAID-Zamorano rehabilitation project after hurricane Mitch (1998) in south Honduras; student counselor at Zamorano; research assistant for the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; technical assistant for the Illinois Crop Improvement Association, Champaign, USA; and researcher in cooperation with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF-SEA), at Bogor, Indonesia.

Before joining IIASA, he worked as a statistical consultant for the Biostatistics Institute, at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.


Last update: 23 MAR 2023

Publications

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Fritz, S. , Lesiv, M. , See, L. , Shchepashchenko, D. , Pérez Guzmán, K. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , Shchepashchenko, M., Georgieva, I. , Collivignarelli, F., Meroni, M., Kerdiles, H., Rembold, F., & McCallum, I. (2024). A new global hybrid map of annual herbaceous cropland at a 500 m resolution for the year 2019. Environmental Research Letters 19 (8) e084025. 10.1088/1748-9326/ad6a71.

Lesiv, M. , Pérez Guzmán, K. , Shchepashchenko, M., Collivignarelli, F., Kerdiles, H., Georgieva, I. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , & Fritz, S. (2024). Reference data set used to validate the hybrid cropland map at 500m (Fritz, S. 2024). 10.5281/zenodo.11517295.

Van Tricht, K., Degerickx, J., Gilliams, S., Zanaga, D., Battude, M., Grosu, A., Brombacher, J., Lesiv, M. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , Karanam, S., Fritz, S. , Becker-Reshef, I., Franch, B., Mollà-Bononad, B., Boogaard, H., Pratihast, A.K., & Szantoi, Z. (2023). WorldCereal: a dynamic open-source system for global-scale, seasonal, and reproducible crop and irrigation mapping. Earth System Science Data 15 (12) 5491-5515. 10.5194/essd-2023-184.

See, L. , Gilliams, S., Conchedda, G., Degerickx, J., Van Tricht, K., Fritz, S. , Lesiv, M. , Laso Bayas, J.C. , Rosero, J., Tubiello, F.N., & Szantoi, Z. (2023). Dynamic global-scale crop and irrigation monitoring. Nature Food 4 (9) 736-737. 10.1038/s43016-023-00841-7.

Fraisl, D. , See, L. , Bowers, R., Seidu, Omar, Fredua, K.B., Bowser, A., Meloche, M., Weller, S., Amaglo-Kobla, T., Ghafari, D., Laso Bayas, J.C. , Campbell, J., Cameron, G., Fritz, S. , & McCallum, I. (2023). The contributions of citizen science to SDG monitoring and reporting on marine plastics. Sustainability Science 18 2629-2647. 10.1007/s11625-023-01402-4.