Research Bio

Iryna Dronova is an environmental scientist whose research focuses on the ecology, restoration, and design of wetlands and urban green infrastructure. She studies how vegetation, hydrology, and landscape structure interact to support biodiversity, water quality, and carbon cycling in dynamic ecosystems, and how landscape structure and change in cities contributes to amenities and disservices of their environments to people. Using remote sensing, GIS, and ecological modeling, Dronova develops methods to assess ecosystem functions across scales—from local restoration sites to global wetland networks and urbanized regions with complex patchworks of built environment and green space. Her work bridges landscape architecture, environmental planning, and ecology to inform sustainable design and climate adaptation strategies. 

She is a professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and an affiliate of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley. At Berkeley, she mentors students in ecological design, environmental modeling, and nature-based solutions for resilient cities and watersheds.

Research Expertise and Interest

landscape ecology, remote sensing, GIS, spatial analysis, urban geography, ecosystem change, biodiversity, ecosystem services, wetlands, urban regions, landscape dynamics