Contact Dr Joanna Zawadzka
Areas of expertise
- Carbon, Climate and Risk
- Digital Agriculture
- Monitoring and Environmental Informatics
- Natural Capital
- Soil
- Soil Resources
Background
Dr Joanna Zawadzka is a geospatial scientist specialising in applications of data science techniques in natural capital mapping and modelling. In her role has completed numerous research projects concerning spatially-explicit ecosystem services assessments as well as digital soil mapping and assessment. Her research interests evolve around developing methods for smart space allocation supporting environmentally sound planning decisions at various spatial scales.
Over her extensive career at Cranfield University Joanna has contributed to ecosystem services assessment for the Northern Norwich Distributor Road, Natural Capital assessment for the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway, and ecosystem services assessments for nature based solutions in water treatment sector. She has also contributed to the creation of soil resilience map for Great Britain, and soil health and quality map for England and Wales as well as soil map at 1:250,000 mapping scale for the Republic of Ireland. Through her PhD project, has also gained experience in the assessment of urban heat mitigation capacity of green infrastructure.
Joanna's MSc degree is linked to Interdisciplinary Studies of Environmental Protection and Geographical Information Management studied jointly at Warsaw University of Life Sciences and Cranfield University. She also holds a PhD degree awarded by Cranfield University in urban heat mitigation through adequate spatial configuration of urban form.
Current activities
Joanna Zawadzka has a strong interest in spatial data analysis in the context of the environmental mapping and modelling. She uses various GIS, remote sensing, and machine learning methods to extract, analyse, and interpret data on natural environment, contributing to a variety of research and commercial projects.
Joanna's recent activities include:
Assessment of carbon storage and sequestration potential for all Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty located in England
Assessment of carbon sequestration potential for the MoD estate
Automated detection of flood damage from UAV imagery using machine learning methods
Spatially-explicit assessments of ecosystem services and natural capital for major road infrastructure developments as well as nature based solutions for water and wastewater treatment
Investigating and mapping soil health, quality and resilience across England and Wales
Detecting patterns of spatial configuration of urban form conducive to heat mitigation at local scales
Application of data-mining techniques for understanding water purification processes in artificial wetlands located within the South Florida Water Management District;
Researching carbon sequestration in soil and biomass under various types of vegetation including energy crops;
Teaching digital terrain analysis and digital soil mapping at the Geographical Information Management MSc course.
Clients
Natural England (NE)
Ministry of Defense (MoD)
Innovate UK
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Mott MacDonald
Jacobs
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
EU Horizon 2020
EU Framework 7
Teagasc - Irish Environmental Protection Agency
ISRIC - World Soil Information
Joint Research Centre (Ispra)
Publications
Articles In Journals
- El Fartassi I, Milne AE, Metcalfe H, El Alami R, Diarra A, .... (2025). An agent-based model of farmer decision making: application to shared water resources in Arid and semi-arid regions. Agricultural Water Management, 310
- Hassall KL, Zawadzka J, Milne AE, Corstanje R, Harris JA, .... (2025). Putting numbers to a metaphor: a Bayesian Belief Network with which to infer soil quality and health. European Journal of Agronomy, 168
- El Fartassi I, Milne AE, Oulaid B, Bezrhoud Y, Metcalfe H, .... (2025). Trade-offs associated with changing cropping patterns in semi-arid areas of Morocco. Science of The Total Environment, 979
- Toumasis N, Simms D, Rust W, Harris JA, White JR, .... (2024). Emerging resilience metrics in an intensely managed ecological system. Ecological Engineering, 200
- Verma R, Zawadzka JE, Garg PK & Corstanje R. (2024). The relationship between spatial configuration of urban parks and neighbourhood cooling in a humid subtropical city. Landscape Ecology, 39(2)
- Kirby MG, Zawadzka J & Scott AJ. (2024). Ecosystem service multifunctionality and trade-offs in English Green Belt peri-urban planning. Ecosystem Services, 67
- Palanisamy PA, Zawadzka J, Jain K, Bonafoni S & Tiwari A. (2024). Assessing diurnal land surface temperature variations across landcover and local climate zones: implications for urban planning and mitigation strategies on socio-economic factors. Sustainable Cities and Society, 116
- El Fartassi I, Milne AE, El Alami R, Rafiqi M, Hassall KL, .... (2023). Evidence of collaborative opportunities to ensure long-term sustainability in African farming. Journal of Cleaner Production, 392(March)
- Milne A, Oulaid B, el fartassi I, Zawadzka J, el Alami R, .... (2023). Communicating the Uncertainty in Predictions from a GIS-Modelling Framework.
- Khouakhi A, Zawadzka J & Truckell I. (2022). The need for training and benchmark datasets for convolutional neural networks in flood applications. Hydrology Research, 53(6)
- Zawadzka JE, Harris JA & Corstanje R. (2021). Assessment of heat mitigation capacity of urban greenspaces with the use of InVEST urban cooling model, verified with day-time land surface temperature data. Landscape and Urban Planning, 214(October)
- Zawadzka JE, Harris JA & Corstanje R. (2021). The importance of spatial configuration of neighbouring land cover for explanation of surface temperature of individual patches in urban landscapes. Landscape Ecology, 36(11)
- Zawadzka J, Truckell I, Khouakhi A & Rivas Casado M. (2021). Detection of flood damage in urban residential areas using object-oriented UAV image analysis coupled with tree-based classifiers. Remote Sensing, 13(19)
- Zawadzka J, Harris JA & Corstanje R. (2020). A simple method for determination of fine resolution urban form patterns with distinct thermal properties using class-level landscape metrics. Landscape Ecology, 36(7)
- Hassall K, Zawadzka J, Milne A, Dailey G, Harris J, .... (2020). Soil Quality and Health – can it be quantified?.
- Zawadzka J, Corstanje R, Harris JA & Truckell I. (2019). Downscaling Landsat-8 land surface temperature maps in diverse urban landscapes using multivariate adaptive regression splines and very high resolution auxiliary data. International Journal of Digital Earth, 13(8)
- Zawadzka J, Gallagher E, Smith HM & Corstanje R. (2019). Ecosystem services from combined natural and engineered water and wastewater treatment systems: Going beyond water quality enhancement. Ecological Engineering, 142
- Hassall KL, Dailey G, Zawadzka J, Milne AE, Harris JA, .... (2019). Facilitating the elicitation of beliefs for use in Bayesian Belief modelling. Environmental Modelling & Software, 122
- Grafius DR, Corstanje R, Warren PH, Evans KL, Norton BA, .... (2019). Using GIS-linked Bayesian Belief Networks as a tool for modelling urban biodiversity. Landscape and Urban Planning, 189
- Zawadzka J, Corstanje R, Fookes J, Nichols J & Harris JA. (2017). Operationalizing the ecosystems approach: assessing the environmental impact of major infrastructure development. Ecological Indicators, 78
- Corstanje R, Grafius DR, Zawadzka J, Moreira Barradas J, Vince G, .... (2016). A datamining approach to identifying spatial patterns of phosphorus forms in the Stormwater Treatment Areas in the Everglades. Ecological Engineering, 97
- Taalab K, Corstanje R, Zawadzka J, Mayr T, Whelan MJ, .... (2015). On the application of Bayesian Networks in Digital Soil Mapping. Geoderma, 259-260
- Albanito F, Beringer T, Corstanje R, Poulter B, Stephenson A, .... (2015). Carbon implications of converting cropland to bioenergy crops or forest for climate mitigation: a global assessment. GCB Bioenergy, 8(1)
- Zawadzka J, Mayr T, Bellamy P & Corstanje R. (2015). Comparing physiographic maps with different categorisations. Geomorphology, 231
- Busby JP, Entwisle D, Hobbs P, Jackson P, Johnson N, .... (2012). A GIS for the planning of electrical earthing. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 45(3)
Conference Papers
- Palanisamy PA, Jain K, Tiwari A, Zawadzka J & Bonafoni S. (2024). Evaluating The Persistence Urban Heat Island and Its Impact on Vulnerable Populations
- Verma R, Zawadzka J & Garg PK. (2023). ZONAL PERSPECTIVE ON SPATIO-TEMPORAL LAND USE CHANGE IN INDIA THROUGH METRICS
- Palanisamy PA, Zawadzka J, Jain K & Bonafoni S. (2023). MONITORING SUMMER DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME DECADAL TRENDS OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE OVER THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION DELHI
- Fraser F, Corstanje R, Todman L, Bello-Curás D, Bending G, .... (2022). Evidence of ecological critical slowing-down in temperate soils
- Verma R, Zawadzka J & Garg PK. (2022). INSIGHTS TO 11 SMART CITIES OF UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA THROUGH SPATIAL PATTERN ANALYSIS OF LAND USE/ LAND COVER
Books
- Khouakhi A, Zawadzka J & Truckell I. (2024). The need for training and benchmark datasets for convolutional neural networks in flood applications In Artificial Intelligence in Hydrology. IWA Publishing.
- Simó I, Corstanje R, Fealy R, Hallett S, Hannam J, .... (2014). Mapping soils in Ireland In Arrouays , D , McKenzie , N , Hempel , ... (eds), GlobalSoilMap. CRC Press.
- Mayr T, Rivas-Casado M, Bellamy P, Palmer R, Zawadzka J, .... (2010). Two Methods for Using Legacy Data in Digital Soil Mapping In Boettinger JL, Howell DW, Moore AC, Hartemink AE & Kienast-Brown S (eds), Digital Soil Mapping (2). Springer Netherlands.
