Co-Director, Galapagos Science Center (USFQ)
Director, Galapagos Research (USFQ)
Director, Institute of Geography, USFQ
Professor, Geography, USFQ
Adjunct Professor, Geography, UNC-CH
GSC Advisory Board, Member
Dr. Carlos Mena is a geographer interested in a wide variety of issues that emerge from the interaction between social and natural systems, including the impacts of extractive industries (oil and mining), land use and land cover in the tropics, climate change and infectious diseases, and tourism research.
Methodologically, his research uses a combination of social survey methods, remote sensing and spatial analysis, complex models (Agent Based Models), and participatory/community methods of data collection.
His work has been funded by the US Academy of Sciences, The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NASA, The Inter-American Institute for Global Change, HIVOS, the Ecuadorian Government, USAID, and USFQ.
Read more about Dr. Mena’s work here
Publications
- Sampedro, C., Pizzitutti, F., Quiroga, D., Walsh, S.J., Mena, C.F. (2018). Food Supply System Dynamics in the Galapagos Islands: Agriculture, Livestock, and Imports. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 33(1):1-5.
- Pizzitutti, F., Walsh, S.J., Rindfuss, R.R., Reck, G., Quiroga, D., Tippett, R., Mena, C.F. (2017). Scenario planning for tourism management: A participatory and system dynamics model applied to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(8): 1117-1137.
- Walsh, S.J. and Mena, C.F. (2016). Interactions of social, terrestrial, and marine sub-systems in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Sackler Colloquium on Coupled Human and Environmental Systems (Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Sustainability Science), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(51): 14536-14543.
- Walsh, S.J., Carter, R.W., Quiroga, D., Mena, C.F. (2014). Examining Threats to Iconic National Parks through Modeling Global Change, Biocomplexity, and Human Dynamics. The George Wright Forum, A Special Issue on “Global Change and the World’s Iconic Protected Areas,” (P. Eagles & P.A. Taylor), 31(3): 311-323.
- Pizzitutti, F., Mena, C.F., Walsh, S.J (2014). Modeling Tourism in the Galapagos Islands: An Agent-Based Model Approach. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 17(1): 1-25.