Aleksander Berg
PhD Candidate in Geography

I am a PhD candidate in Geography and a graduate research assistant in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Overarchingly, my research focuses on how to use big data at fine grained scales to answer questions about natural hazards, health, and population dynamics to better inform decision making in and for those communities. My current work pushes these pathways further through the development of data products and methodologies that apply these data to deepen our understanding of how people and the environment interact across scales.

Aleksander Berg, PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder
CU Geography
CU Institute of Behavioral Science

Research Fields

Natural Hazards: Wildfire

Where are communities most exposed to wildfire, and how does that exposure change over time? I combine remote sensing imagery and property-level data to build fine-grained, dynamic maps of wildfire risk across the wildland-urban interface.

Wildland Urban Interface Wildland Conflagration Built-Hazard Interface

Health and Economic Geographies

Does where you live shape how long you live, or how far you can go economically? I use large-scale administrative and spatial data to study how place drives disparities in health and economic mobility, from the geography of midlife mortality to the long-run costs of growing up in a left-behind community.

Economic Geography of Place Statistical Modeling Complex Data Integration

GIScience

High-resolution spatial data unlocks new insights, but only if used carefully. I study the methodological pitfalls of fine-grained geodata: from address geocoding error and spatial misalignment to identifying the scales that best represent the processes under study. I develop best practices that make applied research more reliable across domains.

Geocoding Remote Sensing Foundation Models Satellite Imagery Embeddings

Publications

  1. TRANSACTIONS IN GIS (2026)

    Why it's so hard to match residence addresses to census blocks—and how to fix it

    Berg, A., Gutmann, M., Leyk, S., & Kwon, H. — DOI: 10.1111/tgis.70225

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  2. JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY (2026)

    Workforce patterns and income disparities in a growing US city

    Berg, A. K, Howell, A., & Bagchi-Sen, S. — DOI: 10.1093/jeg/lbaf071

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  3. APPLIED GEOGRAPHY (2024)

    Remapping California's wildland urban interface: A property-level time-space framework, 2000–2020

    Berg, A. K, Connor, D. S., Kedron, P., & Frazier, A. E. — DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2024.103271

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  4. CAMBRIDGE JOURNAL OF REGIONS ECONOMY AND SOCIETY (2023)

    Who gets left behind by left behind places?

    Connor, D. S., Berg, A. K, Kemeny, T., & Kedron, P. J. — DOI: 10.1093/cjres/rsad031

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Curriculum Vitae

Last updated: April 2026

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