Allen Roberts

Dr. Allen D. Roberts is a Professor of Geospatial Sciences and Geography within the Department of Geography and Anthropology.  He has over 25 years of research and applied experience within the engineering; hydrological; geospatial; and environmental fields that span the academic, non-profit, federal government, and private sectors.

Since 2005, he has instructed numerous courses in geospatial sciences, meteorology, environmental science, and renewable energy.  From 2014 to the present, his research and creative activities have centered on either: 1) the interlinkages of the spatial composition and configuration of land cover/land use (LC/LU) with hydrology and how relevant geospatial information can be utilized to unearth new correlations between these disciplines or 2) the utilization of citizen (crowdsourced) science-based geospatial data to evaluate how potential spatial and temporal gaps in climatic information may impact the City of Atlanta in the face of the current climatic snapshot, with a secondary interest on potential neighborhoods of underrepresented and lower socioeconomic populations impacted via analysis of LC/LU associations.  Since 2016 and through his research and creative activities, he has received several grants and has published 5 solo journal articles.

In October 2018, Dr. Roberts was chosen as an NSF Workshop Fellow for the 1st National Community Geography Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia in January 2019. The workshop focused on bringing together academic researchers and community leaders interested in using geographic/GIS research for community development, social justice, and environmental sustainability within an engineered world. 

Furthermore and since September 2021, he has been on the leadership team for the Greater Atlanta Community Science Collaboratory (GA-CSC).  The GA-CSC is a consortium of community-based organizations (CBOs) and Atlanta area higher education institutions (HEIs) that form a partnership to address local-to-global issues through knowledge-sharing, problem identification, scientific collaboration, and public engagement.

Dr. Roberts completed his Ph.D. in Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland. He also completed his M.S. in Geography (Hydroclimate Focus) from the University of Delaware in 2000 and his B.S. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 1997.