Organizational Context
The overall objective of the research proposed is to assess the demand for phosphate (P) fertilizer in alternative global food production scenarios and possible consequences of P shortage for different regions of the world. The proposal has three main components. The first involves a meta-modelling approach that can be used to assess the impact of P shortage on food production for various locations at the global scale, with a regional focus. The second component looks into what possible management options will be available to improve the P use efficiency, minimize losses through erosion, and how P in manure can be integrated in agricultural production systems. Also, the recycling of P in human excreta and other waste products will be considered. Finally, the third component is a global scenario analysis, in which P reserve depletion will be estimated using different scenarios for the coming 5 decades. In this component all the management and recycling options will be considered within the scenario context and using the meta-modelling approach.
Roles
Daily supervision will be done by the supervisors Dr. Van Ittersum and Dr. Bouwman. Prof. Giller is the overall supervisor and promotor of the PhD student. The full supervisory team will meet with the PhD student every month. Thematically the role of Dr. Smit is in the area of soil-plant P interactions, fertilisation strategies and system analysis (at farm, regional or national scale) and will be the contact person for cooperation with researchers at PRI. Moreover, at PRI, in cooperation with the Animal Science Group and PPO, a KB4 project is currently in progress dealing with comparable issues. Results of this project so far (e.g. quantifying P-flows in the Netherlands) can be used as a starting point by the PhD student. The work in both projects will be carried out in a coordinated way.
Dr. Van Ittersum has expertise on methods for integrated assessment of plant production systems at multiple scales, including methods to assess input-output relationships of alternative production systems. Dr. Bouwman is an expert in modelling of global agricultural production systems and nutrient flows, and will provide assistance in the collection of spatial information and statistics. If for some reason the composition of the supervisory team will change, appropriate substitution will be sought withing WUR or PBL.
Data is available either at WUR, PBL or will be obtained from FAO.
Dr. Bouwman will provide assistance in the collection of spatial information and statistics. All other analysis will be done by me.
Short and long term storage
All data will be stored on my local harddisk in a folder called Thesis.
Within this Thesis folder, I'll create per chapter the folders: Data, Model, Paper and Scripts. The Data folder has two sub-folders called: Raw and Processed.
Folder contents:
- Data - Raw sub-folder: Contains all raw data and meta-data (a description of your data).
- Data - Processed sub-folder: Contains all processed data.
- Model folder: Complete listing of the model and the model results & analysis.
- Paper folder: Text of a chapter / paper.
- Scripts folder: Contains all scripts used.
The complete content of my local Thesis folder will be stored on the backup server of PPS.
During periods I'm abroad, I'll backup the complete content of my local Thesis folder to a Dropbox Thesis folder and share the contents with my supervisor(s).
All datasets used for my project, analysis reports, publications, posters.
None.
Sharing and Ownership
As far as possible all data will be publically available.
The PhD Library site of PPS, on this location all data for each chapter of my thesis will be stored in a seperate zip file.
The Models Library Site of PPS for storing the model data.
I consider perhaps using DANS.
No.
The IMAGE model agreements are being made for its use and responsibilities.
Dr. Smit will be the contact person for cooperation with researchers at PRI.
The IMAGE model is available at WUR (agreements are being made for its use and responsibilities).
Many model components, including the crop growth model, are currently being developed at WUR-PPS. The QUEFTS model was developed at WUR, and is available, as well as other models at PRI.
I'm responsible for collecting and managing the data used in my research, in consultation with my supervisor. At the end of my PhD project my data will be made publically available online if possible, at least my supervisors will receive a full copy of my data.
All privacy sensitive dat will be excluded from my datasets.