Mercy Ọ̀nàọpẹ́mipọ̀ Akintola
Mercy Ọ̀nàọpẹ́mipọ̀ Akintola is a Geospatial Developer with over five years of experience building scalable and high-performance geospatial applications. His expertise lies at the intersection of remote sensing, GIS, and software development, where he specializes in leveraging open-source tools for disaster resilience, urban heat modeling, and real-time environmental monitoring.
He has contributed to global mapping initiatives, including humanitarian mapping for the HOT Gaza Conflict Initiative and climate resilience projects in West Africa. Akintola has presented his research on flood monitoring and urban heat islands at international conferences, such as ISPRS and the ESRI User Conference. Passionate about open geospatial technologies, he actively mentors emerging GIS professionals and leads community-driven projects focused on open data and collaborative mapping.
Sessions
Increased urbanization rates have had a significant effect on changing land surface characteristics, leading to the rise of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs), localized regions where temperatures are considerably higher than in surrounding rural areas. This phenomenon is primarily driven by dense urban structures, reduced vegetation cover, and anthropogenic heat discharge, which collectively contribute to enhancing the absorption and retention of heat in urban areas (Anjos et al., 2025; Qin & Jiang, 2024). As climate change intensifies, UHIs worsen environmental problems, including increased energy consumption, lower air quality, and severe public health concerns like heat stress and cardiovascular disease (Chanpichaigosol & Chaichana, 2025). The rapid expansion of urban areas has elevated UHI mitigation to one of the highest priorities. Yet, existing detection and analysis methods often lack scalability, automation, limiting their ability to produce high-resolution, globally consistent assessments (Fu et al., 2024).