Maria Paula Velásquez García

Profile

I am a first-year PhD student in the School of Earth and Environment (SEE) at the University of Leeds. Since 2018, I have worked in different research groups assessing the air quality and atmospheric process at local and regional scales, mainly focusing on northern South America. I led investigations on air quality in the Aburrá Valley, Colombia, characterising the impacts of wildfire emissions. The results supported the need to understand further the long-range transport of pollutants, mainly from wildfire emissions, their physical interactions, and chemical dynamics to make better human and ecosystem health decisions. My master's dissertation aligned with my motivation to understand fire risk and emissions better. I analysed strategies to reduce BC and CO2 emissions from forest fires in Colombia, aiming to contribute to the Colombian NDC  (National Determined Contributions). Currently, I am continuing my research career supporting wildfire impact assessment using satellite observations and modelling funded by NERC Panorama DTP and NCEO.

I plan to explore different wildfire emission inventories, along with satellite products of key pollutants and coupled biosphere and atmosphere models (e.g., JULES/INFERNO), to characterize and analyse the wildfire emissions in South America. Finally, I will calculate the impact of wildfire emissions on air quality and climate.  

Research interests

• Wildfire emissions' physical and chemical interactions in the atmosphere. 
• Impact of wildfire emissions on air quality and climate in South America (e.g. Wildfire aerosols and dust transport to northern South America).
• Air quality impact of long-range transport of pollutants.
• The interaction between local emissions and meteorology (e.g., low clouds in the Aburra Valley).
• Air quality monitoring network (e.g., SIATA network in the Aburrá Valley).

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

• Novel satellite and modelling studies to assess wildfire emission impacts on air quality and climate

Qualifications

• BSc Environmental Engineer, Faculta de Minas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín
• MSc Environmental Science and Management, University of York