Sera Tolgay Marshall is an urban planner and hydrologist from Istanbul, whose fieldwork follows water through some of the world’s most stressed and least documented river basins. As a Gates Scholar and doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering, she combines earth observation and machine learning with environmental sensing and field campaigns to understand how continental drying is reshaping terrestrial water storage, from groundwater depletion to surface water dynamics in arid climates.
A National Geographic Explorer, Sera uses field hydrology to guide evidence-based restoration of freshwater and estuarine wetland habitats. She has led regional planning initiatives to establish protected areas for flooded forests and coastal wetlands across the Marmara Sea basin and the Asi River Delta. Her team’s work in the Asi Delta was featured at the 2025 World Water Forum alongside the National Geographic Society’s World Water Map.
Her current fieldwork documents the impacts of extreme events across transboundary watersheds of the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Orontes (Asi) and Tigris–Euphrates rivers, where water scarcity and climate stress are intensifying but monitoring data remains sparse and access must often be negotiated across borders. Alongside hydrological measurements, she uses eDNA and water quality sampling to monitor how pressures on the water cycle impacts habitat biodiversity and public health.
Sera brings over a decade of applied experience in engineering and planning firms focused on nature-based infrastructure, water management and climate resilience. She has managed award-winning coastal adaptation and post-storm reconstruction projects along the US Atlantic coast with Scape Studio, and consulted for UNEP, UN-Habitat and the World Bank. Through NASA’s DEVELOP programme, her team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory applied satellite earth observation to map riparian ecosystems and inform freshwater conservation in South Africa. Her professional work has been recognised with a number of design and planning awards.
Sessions at Explore Weekend
Saturday
5.00pm-6.00pm: Fieldwork Frontiers
