About me

I am a geospatial researcher specialising in Earth Observation, spatial modelling, and disaster risk.

I recently completed my PhD in Geomatics at The University of Melbourne, where I worked with the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructure and Land Administration (CSDILA), the Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety (CDPMS), and the Research Group in EO and AI. I was co-supervised by Assoc. Prof. Jagannath Aryal and Prof. Abbas Rajabifard.

Before moving to Australia, I worked as a Lecturer and Researcher in Geomatics at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, where I also collaborated with the Research Group on Urban and Regional Sustainability (SUR) and the Research Portfolio on Historical Ecology and Social Memory (EHMS).

I hold a BS in Civil Engineering and a BS in Environmental Engineering from Universidad de Los Andes, and an MSc in Civil Engineering for Risk Mitigation from Politecnico di Milano.

Research focus

My research explores how informal urban settlements evolve in disaster-prone cities, and how these dynamics interact with risk, governance, and public policy.

More specifically, I investigate:

how informal settlements grow and change over time
how disasters disrupt urban growth trajectories
how Earth Observation and spatial modelling can help explain these changes
how this evidence can support resilience planning and decision-making

My PhD research focused on the spatial dynamics of informal urban growth in Mocoa, Colombia, combining:

multi-temporal remote sensing
machine learning for land-use classification
cellular automata and counterfactual modelling
policy and governance analysis

Featured work

Counterfactual modelling of disaster impact

A central contribution of my PhD was the development of a “What If” framework to explore how urban growth may have evolved in the absence of disaster.

This work combines deep learning, Earth Observation, and cellular automata to compare observed post-disaster urban growth against simulated no-disaster scenarios.

Earth Observation of informal urban growth

My research uses multi-source and multi-temporal imagery, including historical aerial photography and satellite imagery, to map long-term urban change in data-scarce environments.

This work helps identify patterns such as densification, peripheral expansion, and post-disaster regrowth in hazard-prone areas.

Disaster governance and policy disruption

I have also examined how disasters reshape governance and public policy around informal settlements, showing how disruptive events can expose and intensify pre-existing planning and institutional weaknesses.

Selected publications

How do disasters disrupt the spatial growth of informal settlements? A multi-temporal remote sensing approach – The case study of Mocoa, Colombia
R. Camacho, J. Aryal, and A. Rajabifard
Habitat International, 2025
DOI: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2024.103272

Disaster-induced disruption of policies for informal urban settlements
R. Camacho, J. Aryal, and A. Rajabifard
Cities, 2024
DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2024.105098

Late Holocene volcanic stratigraphy and eruption chronology of the dacitic Young Doña Juana volcano, Colombia
N. Pardo, R. Sulpizio, F. Lucchi, G. Giordano, S. Cronin, B. Pulgarin, M. Roverato, A. M. Correa, R. Camacho, and M. Cabrera
GSA Bulletin, 2023
DOI: 10.1130/B36557.1

… see all publications

Teaching experience

Tutor, University of Melbourne
Digital Infrastructure Systems Capstone (2023)
Tutor, University of Melbourne
Integrated Spatial Systems (2022)
Course Coordinator and Lecturer, Universidad de Los Andes
Geomatics (2017–2019)
Lecturer, Universidad de Los Andes
Statics (2017)

Awards

Dejar Huella Award: Best Impactful Project, Universidad de Los Andes (2022)
Biannual Javeriana Award in Research (2021)
PhD scholarship from Colombia’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, plus partial Melbourne Research Scholarship (2020)
UniverLecco Gold Scholarship (2014)

Latest news

25/03/2026: Thesis examination outcome: Passed with minor revisions.
10/12/2025: Submitted my thesis: Spatial Dynamics of the Informal Urban Growth in Disaster-prone Cities.
09/12/2025: Presented and passed my PhD Completion Seminar.
10/11/2025: Presented at the Victorian Disaster Research Forum at RMIT.
30/12/2024: Second PhD article published.
18/06/2024: Presented part of my PhD research at the 43rd EARSeL Symposium.
05/05/2024: First PhD article published.
10/05/2023: Oral presentation at LOCATE23 Conference.
14/12/2020: Officially started my PhD at The University of Melbourne.

… see all news