Dean Berkowitz

Data Project manager

As Data Project Manager for the Smart Surfaces Coalition, Dean oversees and coordinates the development of the Cost-Benefit Analytic Tool for cities and projects, which empowers city planners to enact cost-effective policies that equitably adapt urban contexts to the increased heating and flooding risks driven by the urban heat island effect and climate change. He is currently working on expanding the user interface and refining the research methodology to enable customization and integration across partner workflows.

With a background in geographic information systems, data science, and ecology, Dean brings a spatial approach to his work. Previously, he served as Project Lead at the NASA DEVELOP Program, Idaho node where he spearheaded a study using satellites to assess National Weather Service smoke pollution forecasting methods in order to improve health and air quality outcomes associated with prescribed burns conducted by the National Park Service. Prior to that, he worked as a Remote Sensing Analyst at the Asheville, North Carolina node of NASA DEVELOP building a composite moisture index to enable the Montana Climate Office and the NOAA NWS Missouri Basin River Forecast Center to support farmers and ranchers through improved drought and flood risk management.

He holds a B.A. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley, where he conducted undergraduate research on vascular plant biodiversity hotspots in the Mojave Desert to prioritize conservation lands in the context of solar energy infrastructure development.