Georgina Sanchez

Bio
Georgina leads the Center’s engaged research initiatives, communication strategy, and stakeholder partnerships to foster high-impact, interdisciplinary collaboration. With a background in engineering, natural resources, and geospatial analytics, her research explores the dynamic interactions between land and climate change.
Her work focuses on scenario-based modeling of urbanization, climate-induced migration, and human adaptation, assessing social and environmental impacts across scales and applying decision science to inform urban planning and conservation efforts. Committed to knowledge co-production, she works closely with community leaders, practitioners, and end-users to co-develop actionable solutions to pressing societal challenges.
Georgina holds a Ph.D. in Forestry and Environmental Resources from NC State University, an M.S. in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University, and a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Costa Rica.
Publications
- Creating spatially complete zoning maps using machine learning , COMPUTERS ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN SYSTEMS (2024)
- Global patterns in river water storage dependent on residence time , NATURE GEOSCIENCE (2024)
- Projecting the long-term effects of large-scale human influence on the spatial and functional persistence of extant longleaf pine ecosystems in the Florida Flatwoods Pyrome , CONSERVATION SCIENCE AND PRACTICE (2024)
- The safe development paradox of the United States regulatory floodplain , PLOS ONE (2024)
- Simulation of future streamflow and irrigation demand based on climate and urban growth projections in the Cape Fear and Pee Dee River Basins, North Carolina and South Carolina, 2055–65 , (2023)
- Spatially interactive modeling of land change identifies location-specific adaptations most likely to lower future flood risk , SCIENTIFIC REPORTS (2023)
- Value-aligned planning objectives for restoring North Carolina aquatic resources , (2023)
- Integrating principles and tools of decision science into value-driven watershed planning for compensatory mitigation , ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS (2022)
- Predicting flood damage probability across the conterminous United States , ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS (2022)
- Riparian buffers increase future baseflow and reduce peakflows in a developing watershed , SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT (2022)