Browsing by Author "Piemonti, Adriana Debora"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Effect of Stakeholder Attitudes on the Optimization of Watershed Conservation Practices
    (2013-01-30) Piemonti, Adriana Debora; Babbar-Sebens, Meghna; Jacinthe, Pierre-Andre; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Luzar, E. Jane, 1951-
    Land use alterations have been major drivers for modifying hydrologic cycles in many watersheds nationwide. Imbalances in this cycle have led to unexpected or extreme changes in flood and drought patterns and intensities, severe impairment of rivers and streams due to pollutants, and extensive economic losses to affected communities. Eagle Creek Watershed (ECW) is a typical Midwestern agricultural watershed with a growing urban land-use that has been affected by these problems. Structural solutions, such as ditches and tiles, have helped in the past to reduce the flooding problem in the upland agricultural area. But these structures have led to extensive flooding and water quality problems downstream and loss of moisture storage in the soil upstream. It has been suggested that re-naturalization of watershed hydrology via a spatially-distributed implementation of non-structural and structural conservation practices, such as cover crops, wetlands, riparian buffers, grassed waterways, etc. will help to reduce these problems by improving the upland runoff (storing water temporally as moisture in the soil or in depression storages). However, spatial implementation of these upland storage practices poses hurdles not only due to the large number of possible alternatives offered by physical models, but also by the effect of tenure, social attitudes, and behaviors of landowners that could further add complexities on whether and how these practices are adopted and effectively implemented for benefits. This study investigates (a) how landowner tenure and attitudes can be used to identify promising conservation practices in an agricultural watershed, (b) how the different attitudes and preferences of stakeholders can modify the effectiveness of solutions obtained via classic optimization approaches that do not include the influence of social attitudes in a watershed, and (c) how spatial distribution of landowner tenure affects the spatial optimization of conservation practices on a watershed scale. Results showed two main preferred practices, one for an economic evaluation (filter strips) and one for an environmental perspective (wetlands). A land tenure comparison showed differences in spatial distribution of systems considering all the conservation practices. It also was observed that cash renters selected practices will provide a better cost-revenue relation than the selected optimal solution.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Exploration and Visualization of Patterns Underlying Multistakeholder Preferences in Watershed Conservation Decisions Generated by an Interactive Genetic Algorithm
    (Wiley, 2021-05) Piemonti, Adriana Debora; Guizani, Mariam; Babbar-Sebens, Meghna; Zhang, Eugene; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Computer and Information Science, School of Science
    In multiple watershed planning and design problems, such as conservation planning, quantitative estimates of costs, and environmental benefits of proposed conservation decisions may not be the only criteria that influence stakeholders' preferences for those decisions. Their preferences may also be influenced by the conservation decision itself—specifically, the type of practice, where it is being proposed, existing biases, and previous experiences with the practice. While human-in-the-loop type search techniques, such as Interactive Genetic Algorithms (IGA), provide opportunities for stakeholders to incorporate their preferences in the design of alternatives, examination of user-preferred conservation design alternatives for patterns in Decision Space can provide insights into which local decisions have higher or lower agreement among stakeholders. In this paper, we explore and compare spatial patterns in conservation decisions (specifically involving cover crops and filter strips) within design alternatives generated by IGA and noninteractive GA. Methods for comparing patterns include nonvisual as well as visualization approaches, including a novel visual analytics technique. Results for the study site show that user-preferred designs generated by all participants had strong bias for cover crops in a majority (50%–83%) of the subbasins. Further, exploration with heat maps visualization indicate that IGA-based search yielded very different spatial patterns of user-preferred decisions in subbasins in comparison to decisions within design alternatives that were generated without the human-in-the-loop. Finally, the proposed coincident-nodes, multiedge graph visualization was helpful in visualizing disagreement among participants in local subbasin scale decisions, and for visualizing spatial patterns in local subbasin scale costs and benefits.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Interactive genetic algorithm for user-centered design of distributed conservation practices in a watershed: An examination of user preferences in objective space and user behavior
    (Wiley, 2017-05) Piemonti, Adriana Debora; Babbar-Sebens, Meghna; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Kleinberg, Austin; Computer and Information Science, School of Science
    Interactive Genetic Algorithms (IGA) are advanced human-in-the-loop optimization methods that enable humans to give feedback, based on their subjective and unquantified preferences and knowledge, during the algorithm's search process. While these methods are gaining popularity in multiple fields, there is a critical lack of data and analyses on (a) the nature of interactions of different humans with interfaces of decision support systems (DSS) that employ IGA in water resources planning problems and on (b) the effect of human feedback on the algorithm's ability to search for design alternatives desirable to end-users. In this paper, we present results and analyses of observational experiments in which different human participants (surrogates and stakeholders) interacted with an IGA-based, watershed DSS called WRESTORE to identify plans of conservation practices in a watershed. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate how the IGA adapts its search process in the objective space to a user's feedback, and identify whether any similarities exist in the objective space of plans found by different participants. Some participants focused on the entire watershed, while others focused only on specific local subbasins. Additionally, two different hydrology models were used to identify any potential differences in interactive search outcomes that could arise from differences in the numerical values of benefits displayed to participants. Results indicate that stakeholders, in comparison to their surrogates, were more likely to use multiple features of the DSS interface to collect information before giving feedback, and dissimilarities existed among participants in the objective space of design alternatives.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A web-based software tool for participatory optimization of conservation practices in watersheds
    (Elsevier, 2015-07) Babbar-Sebens, Meghna; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis; Singh, Vidya Bhushan; Piemonti, Adriana Debora; Department of Computer & Information Science, School of Science
    WRESTORE (Watershed Restoration Using Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Resources) is a web-based, participatory planning tool that can be used to engage with watershed stakeholder communities, and involve them in using science-based, human-guided, interactive simulation–optimization methods for designing potential conservation practices on their landscape. The underlying optimization algorithms, process simulation models, and interfaces allow users to not only spatially optimize the locations and types of new conservation practices based on quantifiable goals estimated by the dynamic simulation models, but also to include their personal subjective and/or unquantifiable criteria in the location and design of these practices. In this paper, we describe the software, interfaces, and architecture of WRESTORE, provide scenarios for implementing the WRESTORE tool in a watershed community's planning process, and discuss considerations for future developments.