At HHI Markus Enenkel concentrates on the use of earth observation data to detect and predict patterns between extreme weather/climate events, social conflict, food security and migration. He coordinates one of the World Bank’s projects on drought risk financing and represents HHI in the Black Marble Alliance, an initiative of NASA and USRA that aims to exploit the added-value of global high-resolution night time light observations. Markus is the co-founder of an ESA-funded start-up named Perigee, that links emergency data to a novel social listening approach to close critical fundraising gaps and decrease uncertainties in extreme climate forecasts. Until early 2019, Markus supported the Global Emergency Response Team of SOS Children’s Villages International as disaster risk management coordinator. He has worked with different other humanitarian aid organizations (e.g. Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, UN WFP/OCHA), UNDP, UN FAO, UN SPIDER, ESA, NASA, reinsurance companies, etc.

Markus is mainly interested in linking satellite-derived information to socioeconomic assessments for advanced decision-support. Working closely with end users on all levels he tries to integrate risk perception and behavioral changes into new DRM strategies to strengthen disaster impact prediction and mitigation. Markus completed his MSc at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Vienna, Austria) and Lincoln University (New Zealand). He holds a PhD in microwave remote sensing from Vienna University of Technology and finished his post-doctoral research position at Columbia University’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).