Contact Dr Joanna Zawadzka
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 750111 x2708
- Email: joanna.zawadzka@Cranfield.ac.uk
- ORCID
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 as a Research Fellow she 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 Gegraphical 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, El Alami R, Rafiqi M, Hassall KL, Waine TW, Zawadzka J, Diarra A & Corstanje R (2023) Evidence of collaborative opportunities to ensure long-term sustainability in African farming, Journal of Cleaner Production, 392 (March) Article No. 136170.
- 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) 795-806.
- 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) Article No. 104163.
- 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) Article No. 3913.
- 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) 3117-3136.
- Zawadzka JE, Harris JA & Corstanje R (2021) A simple method for determination of fine resolution urban form patterns with distinct thermal properties using class-level landscape metrics, Landscape Ecology, 36 (7) 1863-1876.
- Zawadzka J, Corstanje R, Harris J & 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) 899-914.
- Hassall KL, Dailey G, Zawadzka J, Milne AE, Harris JA, Corstanje R & Whitmore AP (2019) Facilitating the elicitation of beliefs for use in Bayesian Belief modelling, Environmental Modelling & Software, 122 (December) Article No. 104539.
- Zawadzka J, Gallagher E, Smith H & Corstanje R (2019) Ecosystem services from combined natural and engineered water and wastewater treatment systems: going beyond water quality enhancement, Ecological Engineering: X, 2 (August) Article No. 100006. Dataset/s: 10.17862/cranfield.rd.7994120.v1
- Grafius D, Corstanje R, Warren PH, Evans KL, Norton BA, Siriwardena GM, Pescott OL, Plummer KE, Mears M, Zawadzka J, Richards JP & Harris JA (2019) Using GIS-linked Bayesian belief networks as a tool for modelling urban biodiversity, Landscape and Urban Planning, 189 (September) 382-395. Dataset/s: 10.5285/c4806e25-5325-4b01-8066-91a8fb55eb41
- Zawadzka JE, Corstanje R, Fookes J, Nichols J & Harris J (2017) Operationalizing the ecosystems approach: assessing the environmental impact of major infrastructure development, Ecological Indicators, 78 (July) 75-84.
- Albanito F, Beringer T, Corstanje R, Poulter B, Stephenson A, Zawadzka J & Smith P (2016) Carbon implications of converting cropland to bioenergy crops or forest for climate mitigation: a global assessment, GCB Bioenergy, 8 (1) 81-95.
- Corstanje R, Grafius DR, Zawadzka J, Moreira Barradas J, Vince G, Ivanoff D & Pietro K (2016) A datamining approach to identifying spatial patterns of phosphorus forms in the Stormwater Treatment Areas in the Everglades, US, Ecological Engineering, 97 567-576.
- Taalab K, Corstanje R, Zawadzka J, Mayr T, Whelan MJ, Hannam JA & Creamer R (2015) On the application of Bayesian Networks in Digital Soil Mapping, Geoderma, 259-260 (December) 134-148.
- Zawadzka J, Mayr T, Bellamy P & Corstanje R (2015) Comparing physiographic maps with different categorisations, Geomorphology, 231 94-100.
- Busby JP, Entwisle D, Hobbs P, Jackson P, Johnson N, Lawley R, Linley K, Mayr T, Palmer R, Raines M, Reeves H, Tucker S & Zawadzka J (2012) A GIS for the planning of electrical earthing, Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology, 45 (3) 379-390.
Books
- Simo I, Constanje R, Fealy R, Hallett SH, Hannam J, Holden N, Jahns G, Jones B, Massey P, Mayr T, McDonald E, Reidy B, Schulte R, Sills P, Spaargaren O, Zawadka J & Creamer RE (2014) Mapping Soils in Ireland. In: GlobalSoilMap: Basis of the global spatial soil information system, CRC Press.
- Mayr T, Rivas Casado M, Bellamy P, Palmer R, Zawadzka J & Corstanje R (2010) Two methods for using legacy data in digital soil mapping. In: Digital soil mapping: bridging research, environmental application, and operation. Boettinger JL, Howell DW, Moore AC, Hartemink AE, Kienast-Brown S (ed.), Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, p. 191-202.
