• Visit the website of IBED

Research Group Computational Geo-Ecology

Within IBED,I am leading the research group of Computational Geo- Ecology.

CGE deals with the development and application of monitoring, analysis and modeling techniques that support the study of geo-ecological systems. The overall mission of CGE is to understand the interactions between biotic and abiotic components in landscape ecosystems.
The research programme is founded on a philosophy that models and measurements must be balanced in a mutually beneficial exchange: "what can we learn from measurements, from modeling, and from the combination of the two?"

The research is concentrated around three themes:
1. Soil - water - landscape - hazards: monitoring and modeling patterns and processes at different scales.
2. Modeling the impact of the abiotic environment on the spatial and temporal dynamics of flora and fauna.
3. Exploration and exploitation of new analysis and modeling techniques.

More information on the research and educational programme of our group can be found on our website: 

• CGE website

Current involvements

PhD in Environmental Science, University of Amsterdam, 1992: Monitoring and modelling forest hydrological processes in support of acidification research.

In the late eighties and early nineties, a huge research programme on acidification research was carried out by about 80 research institutes and university groups in the Netherlands. The research concentrated mainly on two Douglas fir forests with different vitality (Aciforn-project). Within this projectI co-operated with several others to assess the hydrological fluxes and states in these two forests. My main task was to monitor and model rainfall interception and throughfall dynamics, temporal and spatial patterns of soil water content and root water uptake, and transpiration dynamics. I very much enjoyed the development of a new technique to measure canopy water storage amounts. Two hoists, with a microwave transmitter and receiver, went up and down along two towers (everyfive minutes, 300 times a day and 100.000 times in a year), while measuring vertical profiles of microwave attenuation caused by intercepted water. Measurements and simulations showed that the canopy water storage was above the threshold value of 0.3 mm of water storage for 40% of the total time, thus enabling the co-deposition of ammonium sulphate (Bouten et al, 1991, Bouten & Bosveld, 1991, Bouten et al, 1996, Vrugt et al, 2003)

MSc in Soil Chemistry and Soil Physics, Wageningen University, 1981

My MSc thesis was about remote sensing of surface roughness and top soil moisture of bare tilled soil with x-band radar. A scatterometer was mounted in a mast on a lorry that was moved along test sites with different soil roughness and water content. This enabled me to measure from different incidence angles and various polarizations (Janse and Bouten, 1980; Koolen et al., 1979) During my masters I also did minors in mathematics and theoretical production ecology where I worked on the development of algorithms to improve the calculation speed of a numerical crop micrometeorological modelby Goudriaan (1977)

• * Leader of the research group "Computational Geo-Ecology"

• * The Bachelor of Earth Sciences (in Dutch)

• * Director of the BSc programme Future Planet Studies (in Dutch)

PhD in Environmental Science, University of Amsterdam, 1992: Monitoring and modelling forest hydrological processes in support of acidification research.

In the late eighties and early nineties, a huge research programme on acidification research was carried out by about 80 research institutes and university groups in the Netherlands. The research concentrated mainly on two Douglas fir forests with different vitality (Aciforn-project). Within this projectI co-operated with several others to assess the hydrological fluxes and states in these two forests. My main task was to monitor and model rainfall interception and throughfall dynamics, temporal and spatial patterns of soil water content and root water uptake, and transpiration dynamics. I very much enjoyed the development of a new technique to measure canopy water storage amounts. Two hoists, with a microwave transmitter and receiver, went up and down along two towers (everyfive minutes, 300 times a day and 100.000 times in a year), while measuring vertical profiles of microwave attenuation caused by intercepted water. Measurements and simulations showed that the canopy water storage was above the threshold value of 0.3 mm of water storage for 40% of the total time, thus enabling the co-deposition of ammonium sulphate (Bouten et al, 1991, Bouten & Bosveld, 1991, Bouten et al, 1996, Vrugt et al, 2003)

MSc in Soil Chemistry and Soil Physics, Wageningen University, 1981

My MSc thesis was about remote sensing of surface roughness and top soil moisture of bare tilled soil with x-band radar. A scatterometer was mounted in a mast on a lorry that was moved along test sites with different soil roughness and water content. This enabled me to measure from different incidence angles and various polarizations (Janse and Bouten, 1980; Koolen et al., 1979) During my masters I also did minors in mathematics and theoretical production ecology where I worked on the development of algorithms to improve the calculation speed of a numerical crop micrometeorological modelby Goudriaan (1977)

Research interests

Bird Tracking System
One of my main topics is currently the monitoring of bird behavior in the context of movement ecology.  Together with Edwin Baaij of the Technology Center of our faculty, w e have designed, tested, produced and deployed a bird tracking system for studying the behaviour of free-ranging birds without the need to recapture them. The GPS tracker weighs only 12 grams and includes a GPS receiver, tri-axial accelerometer, microprocessor, 4MB memory for data storage, solar panel and battery. To maximize flexibility, it is equipped with a radio transceiver for bi-directional communication with a ground-based antenna network permitting not only the downloading of data but also the uploading of new measurement schemes remotely. The GPS system also comprisesa spatial database and web services for post-processing, visualizing and querying the data. More information can be found on www.UvA-BiTS.nl

Bayesian Inverse Modelling
Another main topic of interest is the use of Bayesian inverse modelling for improving theories of geo-ecological processes. The development of knowledge in Natural Sciences is an iterative process in which scientists confront their theories with observations. "Concept formulation (modeling) - experimental design - experiments and observations - data analyses" form the Iterative Research Cycle (IRC) that furthers the knowledge and the perception of natural systems. Inverse modeling, based on Bayesian statistics, is used to confront our theoretical concepts (models) with reality (observations) to identify errors in the model structure, model inputs or model parameters while taking uncertainties into account. I an especially intere sted to find out how inverse modelling techniques can inspire us to improve our theories of spatially explicit dynamic models.

Virtual Laboratories
A third topic which has my specific interest is the development of virtual laboratories to promote scientific collaboration. VLs are advanced interactive problem solving environments for (multi-disciplinary) user groups that facilitate (i) data access, either by communication links to sensors or through portals to a data base, (ii) data integrity and quality control, (iii) data post-processing, (iv) data storage and backup, (v) data merging, (vi) data sharing, (vii) interactive data visualization and exploration, (viii) data mining and annotation, and (ix) data analyses, model building and model improvement. It is our mission to promote and facilitate data and computationally intensive ecological research, what we call "e-Ecology".

• Geen nevenwerkzaamheden