About me.

Hi! my name is Benny Istanto, an agricultural meteorologist by training and a certified GIS Professional (GISP). With over 15 years of experience working with the United Nations and various international organizations, specializes in integrating advanced GIS modeling with climate technology to drive international development initiatives.

I create maps, play with spatial data and satellite imagery. In addition to technical activities, I enjoy listening to Iwan Fals, Led Zeppelin, and MR.BIG, as well as other similar music genres. During my free time, I practice pencak silat, hike, cycle, draw, and occasionally post on social media.

My formal education background was actually Meteorology, I got my Bachelor for this major in 2006 from IPB. However my interest has been growing much broader since I was a student. I love GIS, Remote Sensing and computer programming and decided to work on those fields. I’ve been very lucky to get various working opportunities. Got the chances to work with governments, non-government and international organizations in disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation and mitigation and some other interesting fields.

From my work I’ve got chances to travel, live in some interesting places, learn interesting cultures, eat lots of delicious (or sometimes weird) foods!. I love what I do and I am eager to keep continuing this path. People says that the more we get involved, the more interesting this is. The more I learn, the more I realized how much I do not know.

From June 2012 - August 2021, I was an Earth Observation and Climate Analyst at the United Nations World Food Programme based in Indonesia, and played the role of geospatial and climate technologist for Indonesia Country Office and Regional Bureau Bangkok (RBB) for Asia and Pacific, covering 17 country offices and 5 oversight countries. During my service with WFP, my two-others colleagues and I started working on an award-winning tech innovation project to solve hunger called VAMPIRE (Vulnerability Analysis and Monitoring Platform for Impact of Regional Events) in 2015. In the last 4 years within WFP, I have been working on the process of transforming satellite-based data product into actionable and life-saving insight for hydro-meteorological hazards early-warning early-action.

Currently, I work as a Climate Geographer at Geospatial Operation Support Team (GOST) of Data Analytics and Tools (DECAT), under Development Economic Data Group (DECDG) at The World Bank, Washington DC.

I run a “casual weekend project” called Climate Social Responsibility (CSR), to provide satellite-based climate and vegetation products for free, i.e. rainfall and anomaly, dry and wet spell, standardized precipitation index, and crop phenology.

Disclaimer: All content on this website does not represent the views of my (current or previous) employer.

Acknowledgement: Development of this website is supported by my cheering team El and beloved-wife Kiki Kartikasari.