• GIS Policy and Protocol
• Needs Assessment and Scoping
• Geo-services for Environmental Management
• Land Management Specialist
• Mapping for Disaster Risk Reduction, Response and Management

Alan is a passionate geographer who has both used and steered policy in GIS and remote sensing for over 35 years conducting research and consultancy in around 60 developing countries, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean.

Alan began his career at the world renowned Natural Resources Institute in the UK working on a range of projects from biogeography of rice pests in Asia and locusts in north Africa to land use and land cover mapping in Southern Africa, peri-urban development in West Africa then coastal zone management in the Eastern Caribbean. This led him to the British Virgin Islands in 2001 where he was both the GIS officer for the Conservation and Fisheries Department and their first National GIS Officer, coordinating all GIS activity in the archipelago including steering technical and strategic development of the territory’s GIS capacity. Working as a freelance consultant since 2004 he continues to have a special involvement in the sustainable development of small island states and a broad interest in documenting natural resources in the marine and land environments, and in formal and customary land tenure documentation and property rights. He still has strong connections with small island developing states in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and has developed products appropriate to their special human and natural circumstances.

Twenty years with the UK based disaster mapping charity MapAction plus many independent consultancies covering all aspects of risk management and disaster risk reduction (DRR) gives him a depth of experience in not only the applicability of geoscience but also on policy issues and strategic requirements. He was MapAction’s representative at the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) for eight years and an active member of its Working Group on Geospatial. Information and Services for Disasters, presenting papers including on the specific utility of geospatial information and services to every element of the Sendai Framework For DRR. He is increasingly looking at vulnerability to climate change, seismology and other natural hazards to disrupting systems and supply chains, including in the telecoms industry, social and health support systems.

Alan’s breadth of experience in GIS spans from technical to strategic. He has used a wide range of software packages to make maps, solve problems, conduct research, prepare customized applications and train others in both the use and management of GIS and remote sensing solutions. But he has also formulated policy, protocols and procedures surrounding GIS, from multiagency national systems in the Caribbean, solutions for large agencies, to grass roots NGOs. His skill in scoping needs for geographical products and systems is to get to the nub of clients’ requirements quickly as well acting as a bridge between them and technologists.