Fwd: [Pedometrics] Léa Courteille's defence on Thursday, March 6th
Alessandro Samuel Rosa
Dear pedometricians,
I am glad to announce that I will defend my thesis, whose title is "Impact of cartographic representation of uncertainty for decision-making : the case of soil quality in land-use planning" on Thursday, March 6th at 9:30 AM (Paris time, UTC+01:00), in front of the following jury:
- Christian Walter, Professor, Institut Agro Rennes-Angers - reviewer
- Christina von Haaren, Professor, Leibniz Universität Hannover - reviewer
- Véronique Bellon-Maurel, Researcher, INRAE - examiner
- Aidan Slingsby, Assistant Professor, University of London - examiner
- Philippe Lagacherie, Researcher, INRAE - thesis director
- Evelyne Lutton, Research director, INRAE - thesis co-supervisor
- Nadia Boukhelifa, Researcher, INRAE - thesis co-supervisor
- Léa Tardieu, Researcher, INRAE - thesis co-supervisor
The presentation will last approximately 45 minutes,
and will be followed by around 2 hours of questions. The
whole defence will be held in English.
In case you would like more information, I have included a summary of my work at the end of this email.
You are welcome to attend this event using the following link: https://institut-agro.zoom.us/j/91075909194?pwd=bf1gvzpUwOaWivqGAk9gFPutRGCSlm.1
Best regards,
Léa Courteille
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Summary:
Accurate and spatially explicit information is essential for more informed spatial planning decisions. However, this information comes with significant uncertainty which is often poorly communicated. While map producers have primarily focused on quantifying uncertainty, they have largely overlooked end-users' needs and preferences regarding its representation. As a result, users struggle to interpret and incorporate this information into their decision-making, frequently leading to its disregard.
In this thesis, we took the example of a soil quality
map produced using Digital Soil Mapping techniques, and
followed its entire lifecycle, from the initial spatial
predictive mapping to its use in land planning
decisions. Along the way, we developed and implemented
specific methodologies to improve the map from an
end-user’s point of view. To improve the relevance of
the map for local decision making, we tried to reduce
the uncertainty by increasing the size of the soil
dataset used to calibrate the DSM model. To improve map
integrity, we performed an uncertainty analysis that
included not only the mapping errors but also the errors
conveyed by the soil quality indicator. To improve the
intelligibility of map uncertainty representations, we
tested both spatial aggregations of predicted maps using
an agglomerative clustering algorithm and an alternative
visualisation technique involving a coincident
representation of uncertainty using glyphs. Ultimately,
we conducted an experiment involving 283 end-users of
soil maps using a web-based survey to identify their
preferences regarding the representation of uncertain
soil quality information, and assess the impact of map
features on their decision-making.
Our main findings were that 1) increasing the size of
the calibration datasets significantly reduced the
uncertainties of the DSM products involved in the
production of the soil quality map, but resulted in only
a moderate reduction in the uncertainty of the final
soil quality map, 2) errors affecting the definition of
the soil quality indicators made a small but
non-negligible contribution to the overall uncertainty
of the soil quality map, 3) agglomerative clustering
outperformed other spatial aggregation techniques in
reducing uncertainty while preserving the representation
of fine soil variation, 4) end-users tend to prefer
moderately aggregated map products over traditional
raster DSM products and uncertainty representations by
separate maps over coincident representations, 5)
decision-making was significantly hindered when
uncertainty values exceeded a given threshold, 6) there
were clear differences in the factors influencing
decision making depending on whether the decision was to
authorise soil sealing or to protect against sealing.
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Léa Courteille
PhD student at INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment)
UMR LISAH Centre de Montpellier (Laboratoire d'Étude des Interactions entre Sol-Agrosystème-Hydrosystème)
Bât. 24 – 2 place Pierre Viala
34060 Montpellier - France
http://www.umr-lisah.fr
dos Solos (2015-2024)
Alessandro Samuel-Rosa
Professor & Pesquisador
Ciência do Solo – Pedometria
www.pedometria.org
Universidade Tecnológica Federal do
Paraná
Prolongamento da Rua Cerejeira, s/n, Sala E8
Bairro São Luiz
CEP 85892-000
Santa Helena, Paraná, Brasil
Telefone: +55 (45) 3268-8800
Website: www.utfpr.edu.br/santahelena