Christian Ariza Porras is a Data Architect at The Water Institute, where he focuses on data management and analysis. With a background in academia and experience as a technical lead, advisor, researcher, and developer, Christian leverages his expertise to help organizations maximize the value of their data. He is a certified Apache Spark 2.4 developer with Python 3 and skilled in Python, Java, and shell scripting, among other programming languages.

Christian's areas of interest include information engineering, big data, linked data, software architecture, and creative problem solving. He has previous experience implementing a platform based on the Open Data Cube, allowing Colombian environmental analysts to access and process Analysis Ready Data, centralizing preparation steps, and maintaining lineage tracking for reproducibility and reusability.

At The Water Institute, Christian is involved in several significant projects, including the Louisiana Watershed Initiative; Texas General Land Office, river basin flood study; and SmartPort.