prof.dr. J.I. Blanford (Justine)

Since my time of scrambling over mountains and through bat guano, I have accumulated considerable and varied research experiences as an active researcher and educator.  I use GIS, big datasets, and a variety of geospatial computational and analysis methods to address applied research questions across a range of topics from sinkholes to sky islands, tornadoes, malaria and migration, among others.  At its core, my research has focused on societal impacts related to climate and changing climates, examining causes and consequences from local to global spatial and temporal scales, and anywhere in between that is relevant to the system of study.

Many complex problems (e.g., pandemics, climate change) are challenging to address as they cross social-ecological systems (SES) that are comprised of many components distributed across scales and often compounded by different socio-economic and environmental drivers operating nonlinearly. Geographic Information Science (GIScience), an integrative and technical science is well suited to address a range of local and global health challenges that cross social-ecological systems.

As the quantity and availability of geospatially enabled data continue to increase, so do the concomitant challenges and opportunities associated with the appropriate gathering, analyzing and dissemination of the findings from these data.  Spatial Data and GIScience clearly plays a central role in addressing many of the global challenges we are facing in society. From an educational perspective, I am interested in expanding and strengthening Spatial Data and GIScience education to foster multi-disciplinary research and education.

Areas of Expertise: GIS, Spatial Data Science, spatial analysis, education, climate extremes, climate change, disaster-response

Organisations

Disasters, changing seasons and societal impacts.

In the last decade more than 2.6 billion people have been affected by disasters with climate change being one of the single biggest health threats facing humanity ranging from infectious diseases to mental health and nutrition. Now more than ever we need to understand what changes are taking place spatially and temporally, locally and globally and the short-term and long-term effects of these changes on the health of our environment and ultimately us. 

We are living in a time of transformations where changes are complex crossing social-ecological systems (SES) that are comprised of many components distributed across scales, often compounded by different socio-economic, environmental and disaster drivers, many operating non-linearly. The effects are driven by a range of factors such as those that relate to the environment, a host, an agent, and how they interact in space and time where disasters often act as a catalyst. Geographic Information Science (GIScience), an integrative and technical science is well suited to address a range of local and global challenges that cross these social-ecological systems.

We integrate a variety of data (some novel, some volunteered, some authoritative, some big and messy) in a GIS and use a mix of methods ranging from spatial analysis, data science, social and citizen science methods to machine learning methods and geocomputational models to address applied research questions across a wide range of topics.

Our work centers around three main facets that essentially capture exposure pathways, vulnerability factors and health system capacity and resilience:

• understanding the ecological drivers across space and time (host-agent-environment interactions in dynamically changing environments) and what this means for risk and outcomes;
• how to respond (e.g. intervention, policy-change, education), and;
• what to communicate how.

We examine how changes in environments including disasters affect the population. We look at this from a variety of angles since risks and outcomes are complex and multi-dimensional.  We examine

• disasters (risks pre, during and post weather events); understanding how disasters such as extreme weather events (e.g. heatwaves, flooding) and other changes in the climate affect health. We look at the relationship between diseases and different parts of a disaster event (pre, during and post). We also look at the social and mental health associated with disasters and climate extremes. mobility (e.g. climate-drivers and how they contribute to mobility and disease circulation and transmission); vulnerabilities of different populations (e.g. due to heat-related events, floods, accessibility to necessary infrastructure);
• climate extremes and how it affects different populations due to seasonal variations as well as extreme weather events. Examining how heatwaves and floods affect health risks and outcomes based on different socio-economic characteristics.
• accessibility (e.g. seasonal effects of access to services; use of different modes of transport to access services; location-allocation models; mass vaccination and physical accessibility; urban inequity);
• communication (e.g. data structuring for effective communication; what is being communicated and what to communicate; user needs); dashboards, static and interactive maps.
• vector-borne diseases (e.g. mosquito-vectored diseases such as dengue and malaria; tick-vectored diseases); We examine risk to different vector-borne diseases and how changes in climate and seasons can affect the spatial and temporal distribution of the vector and the diseases they transmit.
• healthy food environments (e.g. effect of frost-freeze events on the environment in intense agricultural cropping systems; when and where biopesticides can be used for controling agricultural pests);
• etc..

Within the themes we fit into:

Disaster Resilience: Disasters rise as a result of mechanical, climatiological and anthropogenic effects and can affect the population in many different ways before, during and often long after an event has occurred during the recovery phase. By taking preventative actions ahead of time or shortly after an event has occurred can reduce the populations at risk. We are working on this in different ways that include how to respond through communication and warnings, anticipatory actions and modelling of different risks.

Urban Futures: Built environments can affect the populations in many different ways. This can be through inadequate access to necessary infrastructure services such as electricity, running water, sanitation, formalised housing, schools, fresh food and so on. Since much of the world's population now resides in an urban landscapes affect different populations is important. We do this through a variety of work in formal and informal settlements among others.

GeoAI: The development of new methods to sift through large geographic areas and vast amounts of data to extract meaningful information, conduct pattern analysis, trend analysis, forecasting and development of models for improved prediction of risk and outcomes.

Resource Security: Healthy environments result in reduced health risks and outcomes. By understanding the ecology of disease within the natural environment we can better understand how changes in the environment may affect outcomes. This may be due to changes in the quality of food due to a rise in vectors and the diseases they transmit or a response to a disaster event or create a disaster (e.g. sinkholes).

Much of the work we do cuts across the various themes since health is affected in many different ways both directly and indirectly. Our ongoing projects are being implemented in Africa (Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa), Europe (Netherlands, Germany), Asia (India), North America (USA, Canada) and Brazil.

Education

Responding to disasters through education. The COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutes to pivot their F2F learning environments to online learning environments and has subsequently transformed societal expectations about education. Although there are many benefits associated with these changes in education (e.g. multi-dimensional interactions, flexibility and richer/deeper learning) there are still many challenges that can result in poor and often inadequate educational experiences (e.g., lack of real student-student and student-teacher interaction, and effective discussions).

Alongside this we have seen a rise in AI technologies and methodologies being used to answer questions via chat bots, create images, enhance our computing capabilities and drive many common household items such as the vacuum cleaner, much of which are using technologies and methods being developed in the geospatial field. These technologies and methods are already very much embedded in our daily lives.

How do we ensure we, as educators are at the forefront of these developments and are incorporating these into our curriculums? How do we maintain the geospatial aspects of our curriculums? What resources, skills and communities are needed?

For education and in particular geospatial education, I am interested in:

• expanding and strengthening Geographic Information Science education;
• improving the uptake and use of GIScience methods in the health science;
• building scholarly communities and networks to foster multi-disciplinary GIScience education and research;
• promoting education that balances interactions in both a face-to-face and online learning environment
• redesigning programmes and curriculums

As an academic who has taught in a program geared towards working professionals, and who has also worked outside of academia, I appreciate the many levels of education needed to help students and professionals develop skill sets that enable them to excel within the realm of GIS, GIScience and the Spatial Data Sciences across a wide range of disciplines and industries.  As a result, I am interested in enhancing online/blended learning experiences for students (and staff) by promoting student scholarship that enables the exchange of knowledge, enhances collaborations between students, and builds professional social networks.

It is an exciting time to be in the field of GIS/ Geospatial (Data) Sciences! Technologies. Although there has been an explosion in the availability of geospatial data, asking pertinent questions and sifting through streams of data to make sense of the world in which we live, remains a challenge.

Publications

Other contributions

Selected Publications

Spatial and temporal analyses

• Marghidan, C. P., van Aalst, M., Blanford, J.I., Guigma, K., Maure, G., Pinto, I., Arrighi, J., and Marrufo, T. (2023) Assessing the spatio-temporal distribution of extreme heat events in Mozambique using the CHIRTS temperature dataset for 1983-2016. Weather & Climate Extremes. 40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2023.100565
• Aurit, M., Peterson, R.O., Blanford J.I. (2013) A GIS analysis of the relationship between sinkholes, dry-well complaints and groundwater pumping for frost-freeze protection of winter strawberry production in Florida. PLoS One. 8(1)
• Blanford, J.I. and MGIS Geog 586 Students (listed in alphabetical order T. Belcher, T. Black, E. Derner, J. Dunham, E. Galvan Campanero, M. Gority, R. Jones, B. Kaley, J. Kuli, R. Ligon, E. Mandal, T. Quink, J. Shinsky, M. Sodek, N. Teigland, S. Turner) (2020) Pedal Power: Explorers and commuters of New York Citi Bikesharing scheme. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0232957
• Pfau, L. and Blanford J.I. (2018) Enhancing wilderness search and rescue through the use of geospatial data and technology. The Professional Geographer. 70(3):434-442

Mobility & Accessibility

• Blanford, J.I., N. Beerlage-de  Jong, S. Schouten, A. Friedrich, V. Araujo-Soares (2022) Navigating travel in Europe during the pandemic: from mobile apps, certificates, quarantine to traffic-light system. Journal of Travel Medicine. taac006, https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taac006
• Green, B. and Blanford, J.I. (2020) Estimating populations in refugee camps: a toolkit using remotely sensed data. Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Pp 2197- 2206.
• Blanford, J.I., Huang, Z., Savelyev, A. and MacEachren, A.M. (2015) Geo-located tweets. Enhancing mobility maps and capturing cross-border movement. PLos ONE 10(6): e0129202DataLink
• Al-Huraibi, A., Amer, S., Blanford, J.I. (2023) Cycling to get my vaccination: how accessible are COVID-19 vaccination centers in the Netherlands? AGILE: GIScience Series, 4, 16, 2023
• Blanford, J.I., Kumar, S., Luo, W. and MacEachren, A.M. (2012) It’s a long, long walk: accessibility to hospitals, maternity and integrated health centers in Niger. International Journal of Health Geographics.

GeoVisualisation

• Tjaden, N. and Blanford, J.I. (2023) ENDIG. Interactive GeoVisualisation of Notifiable Diseases for Disease Surveillance Systems in Europe. AGILE GIScience Ser., 4, 46, https://doi.org/10.5194/agile-giss-4-46-2023
• Felmlee, D., Blanford, J.I., Matthews, S., MacEachren, A.M. (2020) The Geography of Sentiment towards the Women’s March of 2017. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0233994
• Blanford, J.I., Bernhardt, J., Savelyev, A., Wong-Parodi, G., Carleton, A.M., Titley, D.W. and MacEachren, A.M. (2014) Tweeting and Tornadoes. 11th International ISCRAM Conference. State College, Pennsylvania, USA.
• MacEachren A. M., Jaiswal, A., Robinson, A.C., Pezanowski, S., Savelyev, A., Mitra, P., Zhangi, X. & Blanford, J. (2011) SensePlace2: GeoTwitter Analytics Support for Situational Awareness. Visual Analytics Science and Technology (VAST), IEEE Conference. 181-190.
• Tomaszewski, B., Blanford, J.I., Ross, K., Pezanowski, S. & MacEachren A.M. (2011) Supporting Geographically-aware WebDocument Foraging and Sensemaking. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems.35:192-207

Host-Pathogen-Environment Modelling / Disease Ecology

• Logan, J., Jolly, A., and Blanford, J.I. (2016) The Sociospatial Network: Risk and the role of place in the transmission of infectious diseases. PLoS One 11(2):e0146915
• Kioko, K. and Blanford, J.I. (2023) Malaria in Kenya during 2020: malaria indicator survey and suitability mapping for understanding spatial variations in prevalence, intervention and risk. AGILE GIScience Ser., 4, 31
• Taber, E., Hutchinson, M.L., Smithwick, E.A., Blanford, J.I. (2017) A decade of colonization: the spread of the Asian Tiger Mosquito in Pennsylvania and implications for disease risk. Journal of Vector Ecology. 42(1):3-12
• Blanford, J.I., Blanford, S., Paaijmans, K., Schreiber, K., Crane, R., Mann, M., Thomas, M.B. (2013) Implications of temperature variation for malaria parasite development across Africa. Scientific Reports
• Paaijmans, K.P., Blanford, S., Bell, A.S., Blanford, J.I., Read, A.F. & Thomas, M.B. (2010). Influence of climate on malaria transmission depends on daily temperature variation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107: 15135–15139.
• Klass, J.I., Blanford S., & Thomas M.B. (2007) Development of a model for evaluating the effects of environmental temperature and thermal behaviour on biological control of locusts and grasshoppers using pathogens. Agricultural and Forest Entomology. 9(3): 189-199.
• Klass, J.I., Blanford S., & Thomas M.B. (2007) Use of a geographic information system to explore spatial variation in pathogen virulence and the implications for biological control of locusts and grasshoppers. Agricultural and Forest Entomology. 9(3): 201-208.

Geospatial & Education

• Frazier, A., Nelson, T., Kedron, P., Shook, E. Dodge, S., Murray, A., Goodchild, M., Battersby, S., Blanford, J., Claramunt, C., Holler, J., Koylu, C., Lee, A., Manson, S., Salap-Ayca, S., Wilson, J., Zhao, B.,  Bennett, L., Cabrera-Arnau, C., Franklin, R., McKenzie, G., Miller, H., Oshan, T., Rey S., Rowe, F., Shook, E.,  Spielman, S., Xu, W., (2025) Evolving Curriculum for GIScience in an Age of Disruptions. Transactions in GIS. 29:e70048. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/tgis.70048

• Primera, R., Blanford, J.I., Lemmens, R., Ronzhin, S. (2025 accepted) A Comprehensive Approach to Curriculum Development: Integrating a 5-Phase Redesign, ABC Learning Design, and GeoCourseHub Ontology for Multi-Modal Geospatial Education. SEFI Conference
• King, J., Primera, R., Verkroost, M.J., Verheij, L.,Cray, L., Blanford, J.I. (2024) Collaborative course (re)design: adapting learning design to support curriculum transformations. SEFI Conference, Lausanne, September 2024.
• Blanford, J.I. and Verplanke, J. (2023) Transforming curriculums for an age of multi-modal education: a 5-phase approach. SEFI conference, Dublin September 12^th 2023
• Blanford, J.I.Bowlick, F., Gidudu, A., Gould, M., Griffin, A.L., Kar, G., Kemp, K., de Róiste, M., de Sabbata, S., Sinton, D., Strobl, J., Tate, N., Toppen, F., Unwin, D. (2021) LOCKDOWN LESSONS: an international conversation on resilient GI science teaching. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. 10.1080/03098265.2021.1986687
• Blanford, J.I.,Kennelly, P., King, B., Miller, D., Bracken, T. (2020) Merits of capstone projects in an online graduate program for working professionals. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. DOI: 10.1080/03098265.2019.1694874

Research profiles

I am involved in a number of educational activities that range from teaching to educational transformations

GeoHealth

For Geohealth we offer courses and run a variety of projects with Master and PhD students.

Courses: GeoHealth: Interested in learning how to make planetary health a reality and help create a sustainable, healthy liveable world? Are you interested in assessing how changes in our environment can affect the health and well-being of populations?

- health risks due to changes in the environment (e.g. climate, landuse) or evaluating who is at risk and how to respond, or just want to make a map from known cases to understand where something is taking place and identify key hotspots?

Take our 10-week online geohealth course to learn how to integrate geographic information, use different geospatial technologies and apply spatial data science methods to better understand different aspects of health.  See Geographic Information, Geospatial Technologies and Spatial Data Science for Health to learn more.

Want to learn more about some of the topics we cover then check out these free short lectures through Geoversity. Sign up for the Geospatial for Planetary Health MOOC.

Master's Programme (MGEO)

I am the Programme Director for our Master's in Geo-Information and Earth Observation Sciences. We offer a wide range of courses that enable you to build your geospatial/ giscience competencies as well as learn how to apply these skills to tackle real-world challenges and find or create sustainable solutions.

Currently we are innovating our programme.  To learn more about how we updating our programme, we have captured this in the following articles.

• Blanford, J.I. and Verplanke, J. (2023) Transforming curriculums for an age of multi-modal education: a 5-phase approach. SEFI conference, Dublin September 2023
• King, J., Primera, R., Verkroost, M.J., Verheij, L.,Cray, L., Blanford, J.I. (2024) Collaborative course (re)design: adapting learning design to support curriculum transformations. SEFI Conference, Lausanne, September 2024.
• Primera, R., Blanford, J.I., Lemmens, R., Ronzhin, S. (2025) A Comprehensive Approach to Curriculum Development: Integrating a 5-Phase Redesign, ABC Learning Design, and GeoCourseHub Ontology for Multi-Modal Geospatial Education. SEFI Conference

Other educational activities

Education Projects 

• ATMODOR - Atmospheric pollution and integration of odor management in European cities: where are we?. ECIU Seed Project
• Re-designing a Master's programme.
• Geospatial Education: fit for the future. AGILE Funding initiative
• Becoming fit for the future: Facilitating transformational change in a Master’s program. Smarter Academic Year.
• Digital education: resilient blended learning environments. ERASMUS+ blended intensive programme
• Geoversity
• Education: building community - e!geoCommunity@ITC - join our geospatial education community to learn more about important topics concerning education.

Education Workshops

• GeoHealth for disaster epidemiology: the link between disasters and health and minimizing short and long-term risks. Oct 16-17. 2024. EUMA - European Master on Disaster Management.
• Geospatial Education Session. What education and training is needed for a new generation of geospatial scientists? AGILE, Glasgow, 2024
• GI Science education in an AI world: educating scientists and practitioners. GIScience, Leeds, September 2023
• Geospatial Education - Geospatial Education 5.0: New Paradigms for Geospatial Training and Education. AGILE, Delft, June 2023
• Geospatial Education – Transitioning from emergency online to a new normal. AGILE, Lithuania, 2022
• Geospatial Education – Teaching through a pandemic and beyond.  AGILE, Greece. 2021
• Global Conversations on GIScience Education: Global. Panel 3: Convergence, 2021
• Global Conversations on GIScience Education: EU Region. Panel 2: Implementation Pedagogies for Resilient GIScience Education, 2020
• Global Conversations on GIScience Education: EU Region.  Panel 1: Pedagogies for Resilient GIScience Education, 2020
• Online Symposium: Advancing geospatial education for working professionals on campus and online. UCGIS, 2020

Advisees

PhD

See the research projects and current students

• Ann Njogu - working on zero vaccination rates, Kenya
• Caroline Kioko - working on ticks in Kenya
• Irene Amuron - working on heat and health risks in Uganda
• Caroline Pereira Marghidan - working on heatwaves and health impacts in the Netherlands and a variety of global south countries.
• Chen Song - working on floods and the social and mental health effects in older adults 
• Kasandra Poague  (completed 2025) - COVID-19 and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Schools. Implications, Challenges, Solutions.

Msc - Master's in Spatial Engineering and Master's in Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation

• Courdet Azong (MGEO 2025-2026) Disaster and health: Cholera in Cameroon
• Chigovanyika, T. (MGEO-GEM 2024-2025) Indoor heat risk in Tanga City, Tanzania: the role of urban growth and roof materials.
• Matajinimvar, Z. H. (MGEO 2023-2024) Air pollution and health impact analysis using deep learning models.
• Jiang, T. (MSE 2023-2024) Is heatwave a risk in Enschede, Netherlands?
• Ifejube, J. (MSE 2022-2023) Assessing the risk of leptospirosis in relation to flooding in Kerala, India. Selected for the Research Honours Programme at University Twente.(see publications)
• Pereira, C. (MSE 2021-2022) Addressing the rising risk of extreme heat events: a case-study of Maputo and Matola City, Mozambique (see publications).
• Al-Huraibi, A. (MSE 2021-2022) Accessibility of COVID-19 Vaccination Sites and Testing Centers in the Netherlands by bicycle. (see publications)
• Mishra, A. (MGEO 2021-2022) A forsenic analysis of post-flood 2018 solid waste management and investigation on health risk impacts on sanitation workers
• Liu, M-H. (MGEO 2021-2022) Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards COVID-19 among College Students in Enschede, Netherlands: A Cross Sectional Study

Affiliated study programs

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Recent Project

• ATMODOR - Atmospheric pollution and integration of odor management in European cities: where are we? For more info check out our website.
• Becoming fit for the future: Facilitating transformational change in a Master’s program.
• GeoSocioTechMed Solutions: Developing a collaborative network to fight undiagnosed emerging vector-borne and zoonotic infections locally, regionally and globally.
• EUMA - European Master on Disaster Management: development of a European Masters on Disaster Management in collaboration with universities across the EU.
• Geospatial for Health Education and Research (Geo4HER): advancing solutions for health and wellbeing in times of change.
• Fighting undiagnosed emerging vector-borne and zoonotic infections using near-real time interactive mapping. 
• Digital education: resilient blended learning environments. ERASMUS+ blended intensive programme

• De cruciale rol van GeoHealth in de moderne geneeskunde. Oct 25 2024. ICT & Health https://icthealth.nl/magazine/editie-5-2024/de-cruciale-rol-van-geohealth-in-de-moderne-geneeskunde  
• https://malariaworld.org/scientific-articles/managing-vector-borne-diseases-in-a-geo-ai-enabled-society-malaria-as-an-example
• Leptospirosis - https://www.itc.nl/global-impact/geo-health/news/2024/5/1518017/more-leptospirosis-cases-after-floods
• Planetary Health - https://www.itc.nl/global-impact/geo-health/news/2023/7/1050726/knaw-prioritise-research-into-the-risks-to-human-health-posed-by-global-environmental-change
• Communicating risk - https://www.itc.nl/global-impact/geo-health/projects/travel-measures-during-a-pandemic/
• UT research: ‘EU needs an integrated approach to travel measures’
• New approaches alters malaria maps
• De cruciale rol van GeoHealth in de moderne geneeskunde. Oct 25 2024. ICT & Health https://icthealth.nl/magazine/editie-5-2024/de-cruciale-rol-van-geohealth-in-de-moderne-geneeskunde  
• https://www.itc.nl/global-impact/geo-health/geo-health-research-knows-no-limits/

News on utwente.nl

• UT research: GeoHealth Research knows no limits Campus. Dec 2022
• UT research: ‘EU needs an integrated approach to travel measures’ UToday.  Feb 25 2022

Address

University of Twente

Langezijds (building no. 19), room 1318
Hallenweg 8
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations