Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Helena Vladich is a system scientist who applies geographic information systems and related spatial tools to the environmental conflict resolution. She earned her doctorate at the University of Vermont, Rubinstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and her M.S. in Automatic Control Systems from the Department of Applied Mathematics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, specializing in modeling of ecological-economic systems, particularly water reservoirs. Starting at the Institute of Aquatic Research, USSR Academy of Sciences, she has been involved in the building and processing of models for large irrigation systems in arid zones of the Aral basin to optimize water distribution and consumption. Helena joined the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics (formerly the International Institute of Ecological Economics, or IIEE, located in the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland) in 1994 as a researcher, taking part in the development of the Patuxent Landscape Model (PLM). Since 2004, she was working as a Research Associate in the project Redesigning the American Neighborhood (RAN, http://www.uvm.edu/~ran/), designed to identify cost-effective solutions to stormwater problems in existing residential neighborhoods that are typical of the northeast USA, developing new participatory tools for environmental consensus building, based on high resolution LiDAR, Quick Bird data and landscape ecosystem services targeting and valuation.
Her work at IEDS is focusing on ways to use system analysis, technical tools, and the concepts of ecological economics in environment decision making. Areas of Interest:
Participatory spatial analysis based on high resolution remote system data and ecosystem services valuation as the tools of environmental consensus building