Name: Dr. Lieven Claessens
Position: Environmental Scientist
Based in CIP-SSA regional office
Nairobi, Kenya
Research Interests
Lieven Claessens has extensive experience with the spatial analysis and modelling of soil-landscape-land use systems. At Wageningen University he developed the LAPSUS-LS landscape process model, a spatially explicit methodology for predicting landslide hazard and quantifying associated soil redistribution (erosion-sedimentation). LAPSUS-LS forms part of the LAPSUS framework, a landscape evolution model simulating multiple processes (water erosion by runoff, tillage erosion and landslide erosion) in the context of current and future environmental change. The model has been explicitly linked to methodologies addressing ecological processes and land use changes to assess interactions and feedback mechanisms between landscape, land use and landcover and has been applied in study areas all over the world. In addition he has experience with digital soil mapping, integrated assessments of agricultural systems and land use change modeling. His current research at CIP is focusing on interactions between bio-physical and socio-economic processes from household to regional scale levels. Within the Tradeoff Analysis (TOA) framework, case studies are conducted in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Peru and Ecuador. Integrated assessments of the sustainability of the agricultural systems are performed with an emphasis on testing adaptation strategies, specifically alternative technologies and policies in potato and sweet potato based systems, in the context of climate change.
not to exceed 200 words
Projects
1) Participatory development and testing of strategies to reduce climate vulnerability of poor farm households in East Africa through innovations in potato and sweet potato technologies and enabling policies.
2) Tradeoff Analysis: the analysis of complex agricultural systems
Weblinks
1) www.tradeoffs.nl
2) www.tradeoffs.montana.edu
3) www.lapsusmodel.nl
Contact Information
c/o International Potato Center
Box 25171 Nairobi, KENYA
Phone: 254-20-422-3612 Fax: 254-20-422-3600 Mobile: 254-725-284943
Email: l.claessens@ cgiar.org
Publications
1) Claessens, L., Knapen, A., Kitutu, M.G., Poesen, J. and Deckers, J.A., 2007. Modelling landslide hazard, soil redistribution and sediment yield of landslides on the Ugandan footslopes of Mount Elgon. Geomorphology 90, 23-35.
2) Claessens, L., Heuvelink, G.B.M., Schoorl, J.M. and Veldkamp, A., 2005. DEM resolution effects on shallow landslide hazard and soil redistribution modelling. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 30, 461-477.
3) Claessens, L., Stoorvogel, J.J. and Antle, J. (Submitted). Impacts of Hydrological Field Interactions in an Integrated Assessment Model for Terraced Crop Systems in the Peruvian Andes. Land Degradation and Development.
4) Mora-Vallejo, A., Claessens, L., Stoorvogel, J.J. and Heuvelink, G.B.M. (In press). Small scale digital soil mapping in Southeastern Kenya. Catena.
5) Claessens, L., Stoorvogel, J.J., and Antle, J. (Submitted). Ex ante assessment of dual-purpose sweet potato in the crop-livestock system of western Kenya: a minimum-data approach. Agricultural Systems.
6) Claessens, L., Lowe, D.J., Hayward, B.W., Schaap, J.M., Schoorl, J.M. and Veldkamp, A., 2006. Reconstructing high-magnitude/low-frequency landslide events based on soil redistribution modelling and a Late-Holocene sediment record from New Zealand. Geomorphology 74, 29-49.
7) Claessens, L., Verburg, P.H., Schoorl, J.M. and Veldkamp, A., 2006. Contribution of topographically based landslide hazard modelling to the analysis of the spatial distribution and ecology of kauri (Agathis australis). Landscape Ecology 21, 63-76.
8) Schoorl, J.M., Claessens, L., Lopez Ulloa, M., de Koning, F.G.H. and Veldkamp, A., 2006. Geomorphological Analysis and Scenario Modelling in the Noboa – Pajan Area, Manabi Province, Ecuador. Zeitschrift Fur Geomorfologie, Suppl.-Vol. 145, 105-118.