Biography

Dr. Žiga Malek is a research associate in land use and ecosystem dynamics at the Biotechnical faculty of the University of Ljubljana and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna. After graduating in landscape architecture, he continued his studies at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his PhD in 2015 in geospatial modelling. He has over 14 years of international research, teaching and consulting experience, and has worked in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the Caribbean island of Bonaire, and Slovenia.He (co)authored over 45 peer-reviewed publications, and has published in high-impact journals such as Global Change Biology (IF 10.8), Global Environmental Change (IF 8.6), PNAS (IF 10.8) in One Earth (IF 15.1). 

 

Žiga studies environmental change on different scales, from local to continental and global. In his research he uses different methods and a variety of spatial data, from remote sensing, machine learning, spatial statistics and environmental modelling. He studied environmental change in over 65 countries from all over the world: European Union Member States and the United Kingdom, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries; Iran, Kenya, Brasil, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, China, Northern Mariana Islands, Bonaire, and countries of Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

 

His research is interdisciplinary and cover different environmental aspect: land degradation, biodiversity, water resources and climate change. He is responsible for numerous innovations in the field of spatial land use models, such as:

 

    integration of social dimensions in land use models, such as the ability and motivation to change the land use; spatially explicit models usually assume that the abilities to change land use are uniformly spread over the whole terrestrial surface limited natural resources such as water available for irrigation; often, existing spatially explicit models consider water as one of the determinants and do not limit land use activites with available water resources more realistic responses to climate change in the sector agriculture, forestry and other land use; climate variables are often considered as one indicator or determinant in estimating the land use potential, while they can actually also be a major driving force development of the spatial distribution of ruminant livestock at a high resolution on a continental scale; using an innovative combination of statistical data, spatial analysis and machine learning, Žiga developed the so far only existing high spatial and thematic resolution of ruminant livestock for the European Union.

 

Žiga successfully used his research experience in actual policy support, as he has consulted numerous international organisations in planning measures for more sustainable land use. Among others, he consulted the following:

 

  • European Commission, Directorate General for Trade
  • European Environment Agency
  • United Nations Development Programme
  • United Nations Environment Programme
  • Interamerican Development Bank
  • World Bank
  • Fairtrade International
  • Birdlife Europe and Central Asia

Dr. Malek is also a member of the Strategic Council for Food and Nutrition of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, where he contributes to the study of the environmental impacts of different dietary patterns. He ia also a member of the international panel "Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Envieronmental Change" MEDEcc, and was coordinating lead author of the chapter on Climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Special Report Interlinking climate change with the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) nexus in the Mediterranean basin.


Work Experience

From July 2024:       

 Research associate, Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana (80%)

 

From October 2023:

Research scholar, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria (20%)

 

July 2019 – September 2023:                                             

Assistant professor, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 2022 ibtained permanent tenure.

 

January 2019 – July 2019:

Environmental consultant. Wolfs Company / Grant Thornton Impact House, Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands

 

July 2015 – December 2018:

postdoctoral researcher, Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands

 

February 2013 - July 2013:

guest researcher, Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). Universiteit Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands

 

August 2011- July 2015:

Research assistant, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria


Selected Bibliography

Most recent publications:

  • See L, Chen Q, Crooks A, Laso Bayas JC, Fritz S,… Malek Ž, et al. 2025. New Directions in Mapping the Earth’s Surface with Citizen Science and Generative AI. iScience https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.111919  
  • Malek Ž, Romanchuk Z, Yashchun O, Jones G, Petersen JE, Fritz S, See L. 2024. Improving the representation of cattle grazing patterns in the European Union. Environmental Research Letters https://doi.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad858a
  • Parente LL, Sloat L, Mesquita V, Consoli D, Stanimirova R, Hengl T, Bonannella C, Teles N, Wheeler I, Hunter M, … Malek Ž. 2024. Annual 30-m maps of global grassland class and extent (2000–2022) based on spatiotemporal Machine Learning. Scientific Data https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04139-6
  • Malek Ž, Romanchuk Z, Yashchun O, See L. 2024. A harmonized data set of ruminant livestock presence and grazing for Europe. Scientific Data https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03983-w
  • Venier-Cambron C, Helm L, Malek Ž, Verburg PH. 2024. Representing justice in global land-use scenarios can align biodiversity benefits with protection from land grabbing. One Earth https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.03.006 
  • Malek Ž, Schulze K, Bartl H, Keja W, Petersen J-E, Tieskens KF, Jones G, Verburg PH. 2024. Mapping livestock grazing in semi-natural areas in the European Union and United Kingdom. Landscape Ecology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-024-01810-6 
  • Venier-Cambron C, Malek Ž, Verburg PH. 2023. Avoiding an unjust transition to sustainability: An equity metric for spatial conservation planning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216693120 

 

More articles available on my Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NsePDZEAAAAJ&hl=en