Andrea Cárdenas is from Ecuador. Her desire to specialize in spatial sciences began while she studied her undergraduate degree in her hometown, where she developed a keen interest in remote sensing. Because of her lifelong passion for nature and photography, she became fascinated by the wide range of applications remote sensing offers for monitoring, modelling and mapping the environment.

She enrolled in EAGLE as she believes geospatial data is a substantial tool that will increase in relevance in the future, especially for assessing the consequences of climate change on people and ecosystems, and she aims to be one of the experts addressing the upcoming challenges.  In this sense, she has worked at FAO helping in the estimation of the SDG 15.3.1 indicator in her country and at UNHCR supporting the development of proGres in Ecuador.

In her free time, she loves to read and enjoys outdoor activities such as running, hiking and bouldering.