BIOGRAPHY

Divine Odame Appiah, PhD

  Department of Geography and Rural Development, Faculty of Social Sciences

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

E-Mail: dodameappiah@gmail.com & doappiah.cass@knust.edu.gh
Telephone: +233 555 503 640/ +233 201 332 538 (Cell)

Profession: Teaching, Research and Consulting

Fellow: The Brew Hammond Energy Centre, KNUST, Kumasi Ghana

Member: Ghana Geographical Association (GGA)

Member: American Geophysical Association (AGU) Membership Number: 390805

PERSONAL PROFILE

Professor Divine Odame Appiah is an Associate Professor in Environmental Geography at the Department of Geography and Rural Development in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. He is  a Consultant in Environmental and Social Impact Assessment. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Climate Change and Land Use from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. He also holds a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure, from the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and a Master of Philosophy Degree in Geography and Resource Development, from the University of Ghana, Legon.

He has over 13 years of significant experience in environmental resources management engagements. He has further undertaken projects in the area of Environmental Resource Management, under the EU Chainsaw Project with the Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG)/Tropenbos International-Ghana as a Research Scientist (Co-PI) and also on DFID-funded Climate Impact Research for Capacity Building and Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE) in climate change adaptation among forest fringed communities in Ghana, as a Principal Investigator. He was part of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO, Japan)’s project on Herbal and Medicinal Plants in Ghana.

His specialization is concentrated in the areas of Forestry, Climate Change, Land Use and forest fringed livelihoods and Energy Access issues. His research experiences have delved into issues of climate change adaptation, peri-urban land use dynamics, forest resources governance, social vulnerabilities and community mobilization etc.

Leading as an Environmental and Climate Change Consultant working with for the WASCAL Hybrid Waste to Energy and Solar PV installations as Sustainable Solutions for Ghana Project at Gyankobaah in the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipal, Ashanti Region Ghana.

He was the Environmental and Climate Change Expert working with the Pearl Consultancy, to develop the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) as well as Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) for the ECOWAS proposed 6-lane Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Project. 

He workeed as Environmental and Resettlement Expert with the DNV Dubai Consulting, to develop the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) as well as Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) for the Ministry of Energy’s Solar Mini-Grid Solar Power project in Island communities along the Volta Lake.

He worked as the Environmental and Sustainability Scientist on the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP) with Azimut 360 (Spain) and the Brew-Hammond Energy Centre (TBHEC, Ghana).

He has also worked as Local Expert to conduct Stakeholder engagement of forestry auditing of Miro Forestry Ghana and Miro Forestry, Sierra Leone, for SGS, South Africa, towards Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification.

He applied the techniques of remote sensing and geographic information system (RS/GIS) in ERDAS and ArcGIS environments, to analyze peri-urban Land Use and Cover Change dynamics on climate variability and climate change, leading to the introduction of the new concepts of peri-urban heat and rural cool troughs, into the urban heat island literature, under the West African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL).

He has worked as a sub-consultant to Intelligence Nature International, on the environmental impact scoping of a proposed expansion project of a Newmont Ghana Gold mining company’s tailings dam. He consults for Greenwater Hut, an Environmental Non-governmental Organization as a technical advisor on community water and sanitation project in Ghana. These expertise and enormous experiences would be brought to bear on any assignment hired to deliver. (See Full CV)