Sustainable development assessment
Sustainable Development Goals-aligned indicator frameworks, composite-index construction, weighting, validation, and benchmarking across nations, regions, cities, and districts.
Geospatial science · sustainable development indicators · spatial & environmental planning
Decision-ready geoinformatics for planning, policy, and sustainable development.
GEOECO supports governments, United Nations-linked and international programs, non-governmental organizations, legal/project teams, and applied research partners through rigorous geoinformatics, statistical modeling, artificial intelligence-supported data analytics, indicator systems, and decision-support tools that integrate the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including work relevant to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs).
Firm overview
Independent consulting for complex geospatial and sustainable development decisions.
GEOECO Inc. and GEOECO Global OÜ deliver geoinformatics, statistics, data analytics, sustainable development assessment, and decision-support tools across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The firm combines field data collection with multivariate and spatial statistics, geospatial modeling, and artificial intelligence-supported data analytics to produce reproducible, client-ready reports, dashboards, maps, atlases, and technical planning outputs. Work is not geographically constrained, with current and prospective applications across urban, watershed, island, rural, landlocked, and developing-country contexts.
Core services
Integrated analysis from indicators to implementation.
Spatial & environmental planning
Land-use and suitability modeling, watershed and waterfront studies, strategic planning, feasibility studies, and remediation-planning support.
Geospatial analysis & geovisualization
Esri geodatabase development, ordinary kriging, geographically weighted regression, dashboards, three-dimensional geovisualization, and bathymetric or shoreline atlases.
Environmental site assessment
Primary soil, water, air-quality, and lake-sediment sampling; environmental forensics; contamination geovisualization; and defensible technical reporting for project and legal teams.
Sustainable development indicators, ecological modeling, statistics & data analytics
Sustainable development and environmental indicators, ecological and landscape modeling, indicator-based assessments, environmental DNA surveillance, aquatic invasive species risk forecasting, resilience assessment, artificial intelligence-supported data analytics, and multivariate, spatial, and machine-learning methods for aquatic, terrestrial, social, economic, and environmental systems.
Geospatial technology, geoinformatics, training & research
Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, geoinformatics, geodatabase design, statistical workflows, data analytics, technical training, research design, methods development, and capacity-building for applied environmental and sustainable development projects.
What distinguishes GEOECO
Scientific methods translated into practical decisions.
GEOECO is designed for clients who need more than generic mapping or desk-based reporting. Projects are built around transparent methods, reproducible workflows, and deliverables that can support planning, funding, policy, compliance, or technical review.
Field + analytics
Primary data collection paired with peer-reviewed quantitative methods.
Indicator track record
Development of index frameworks across scales: the Mega-Index of Sustainable Development for cross-national assessment, the Megacity Sustainability Index for global urban benchmarking, and local sustainable development index frameworks for spatial planning and decision support.
Internationally contract-ready
North American and Estonian entities enable cross-border contracting, invoicing, and remote or on-mission delivery, including work for island, landlocked, and developing-country contexts.
Representative engagements
Applied experience across sustainable development, planning, and environmental assessment.
Local sustainable-development indicator framework & decision-support dashboard
University of Botswana engagement adapting a Moldova-tested local sustainable development index framework for local spatial planning. Funded by the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Specialist Program, the Botswana framework integrates 10 social, 10 economic, and 10 environmental indicators co-selected with expert stakeholders across government, non-governmental organizations, private-sector organizations, and academic institutions to guide decision-making toward Botswana Vision 2036, Africa's Agenda 2063, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
National sustainable development assessment & local index framework
Fulbright-supported research and technical work delivering Moldova's first national sustainable development assessment and a local sustainable development index framework for spatial planning and decision support.
Village of Afton strategic plan & waterfront revitalization feasibility study
Riverfront revitalization, flood mitigation, and economic development planning for the Village of Afton, New York.
Environmental forensics & special-expert civil litigation support
Forest-patch die-off and septic-system pollution studies conducted as environmental forensics and special-expert support in civil litigation, combining primary soil/water sampling, geospatial analysis, geovisualization, and remediation-planning support.
Aquatic invasive species risk forecasting
Funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), environmental DNA and spatial modeling work supports aquatic invasive species risk infrastructure and surveillance across the basin.
Bathymetric and shoreline geovisualization atlas
Atlas development for the Point Abino Lighthouse Preservation Society to support stewardship, visualization, and site understanding.
Principal
Richard Ross Shaker, Ph.D.
Dr. Shaker is Founder & President of GEOECO Inc. / GEOECO Global OÜ, an Assistant Professor of Landscape Modeling, and a former tenured Associate Professor of Environmental and Urban Sustainability at Toronto Metropolitan University. His consulting practice specializes in sustainable development indicators, spatial planning, site assessment, geospatial technology, environmental indicators, statistics, artificial intelligence-supported data analytics, and applied decision-support methods across the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including applications relevant to SIDS and LLDCs.
His record includes 34 peer-reviewed articles, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification-linked technical reports, Fulbright-supported indicator work, GEOECO consulting studies, funded environmental DNA and aquatic invasive species modeling projects, and university-level training and research experience since 2011.
Selected strengths
- Sustainable Development Goals-aligned measurement and indicator systems
- Composite index construction, validation, benchmarking, and dashboards
- Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, and spatial statistics
- Watershed, waterfront, land-use, and environmental site assessment
- Sustainable development indicators, ecological modeling, statistics, and data analytics
- Geospatial technology, geoinformatics, artificial intelligence-supported data analytics, training, and applied research design
- Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Developing Countries sustainable development contexts
Contact
Discuss a project, proposal, or technical review.
For consulting inquiries, technical teaming, proposal support, or environmental decision-support needs, contact Dr. Richard Ross Shaker.
