Meet the Minds Behind Map Impact: Building the Future of Climate Intelligence

Introduction

At Map Impact, we’re not just building data products, we’re building a new way to understand and respond to climate and environmental risk. Behind our technology is a team of scientists, engineers, and innovators whose diverse expertise powers our mission. In this blog, we introduce three of our senior leaders: Nina Moiseeva, Lily Bell, and Chris Burnett, and explore how their unique journeys and skills are shaping the future of geospatial intelligence.

Nina Moiseeva: Scientific Vision Meets Earth Observation

Chief Scientific Officer, Map Impact

Nina’s career began in classical cartography and geospatial science at Moscow State University. With advanced degrees in natural resource management and computational mathematics, she has worked across academia, industry, and international development, including roles with the United Nations and leading Russian environmental research institutions, as well as commercial space companies.

At Map Impact, Nina leads the scientific design of our climate risk models, including:

• HeatView – assessing heat stress during a heat wave.
• WildfireView – Mapping susceptibility to wildfire .
• DroughtView – monitoring susceptibility during a drought event.

Her approach blends rigorous scientific research with advanced feature engineering and algorithms, transforming satellite data into actionable insights. Nina’s work ensures that every model we build is grounded in ecological reality and scalable for national and global applications.

Lily Bell: Engineering Scalable Climate Intelligence

Chief Technology Officer, Map Impact

Lily brings a rare combination of academic depth and engineering prowess. With a diverse background in academic research, software engineering, and remote sensing, she has worked in both the academic and private sectors, founded the Climate Trace Coalition, and is a leader in applying technology to address global environmental challenges, particularly in biodiversity, nature-based finance, and emissions accounting.

At Map Impact, Lily is the architect of our scalable data infrastructure. She has:

• Designed national-scale processing pipelines using Google Earth Engine.
• Built distributed computing environments on Microsoft Azure.
• Developed parallelized, highly scalable workflows for complex geospatial models.

Her leadership ensures that our products are not only scientifically robust but also engineered for performance, reliability, and real-world impact.

Chris Burnett: From Maps to Market-Ready Products

Chief Product Officer, Map Impact

Chris’s love for Maps began with tracing rivers on his grandfather’s road atlas. With a degree in cartography and a career spanning land surveying, aerial photography, and Earth observation, he has worked on everything from Ordnance Survey updates to marine habitat Mapping in the Middle East.

As co-founder of Map Impact, Chris bridges the gap between data science and user needs. His experience in environmental impact assessment and satellite data delivery ensures that our products are grounded in practical application and designed for decision-makers.

How It All Comes Together

What makes Map Impact unique is the synergy between science, engineering, and product design:

• Nina defines the scientific workflows and data sets.
• Lily scales those workflows into national and global products.
• Chris ensures the outputs meet real-world needs and standards.

Together, they’ve integrated biodiversity data, climate risk models, and computational algorithms into a suite of data products. These products are already helping housing associations, governments, and investors make smarter, more sustainable decisions.

Looking Ahead: Global Scaling and Live Modelling

As Map Impact expands beyond the UK, the team is preparing for new challenges:

• Distributed computing for global-scale habitat mapping and modelling.
• Advanced data architectures for location-based information streamline and storage.
• Scenario-based modelling for live landscape planning and climate resilience.

Our vision is to create a platform where users can simulate interventions such as adding green space or restoring wetlands and instantly see the impact on climate risk.

Conclusion

Map Impact’s strength lies in its people. With deep expertise across science, technology, and environmental systems, our team is redefining what’s possible with Earth observation data. As we scale our products globally, we remain committed to upholding ecological integrity, delivering engineering excellence, and achieving real-world impact