Background

D. G. (David) Rossiter is a native of Ithaca, New York State, USA. He received a BSc in agronomy and soil science from Cornell University (1973), an MSc in agronomy and plant breeding from the Pennsylvania State University (1977) and also in computer science from Cornell University (1986), and a PhD in agronomy and international agriculture from Cornell University (1988).

He worked as a soil mapper for North Carolina State University (NCSU), attached to a field party in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, USA, and in the tropical soils programme of NCSU. In the late 1970's and early 1980's he worked as a systems analyst, computer programmer, and system manager at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, with a break in 1981-2 to write the monograph "Guidelines for Evaluating the Adequacy of Soil Resource Inventories" with Prof. Armand van Wambeke at Cornell.

Beginning in 1986 he developed the Automated Land Evaluation System (ALES) as part of a thesis project with Prof. Van Wambeke; he refined this program off and on for the next ten years. He worked as a land evaluator for the Venezuelan Ministry of Environment in 1990-2, and as the leader of a FAO project to develop a land evaluation system for Ecuador during this same period. In 1994 he returned to Cornell, where he was a principal author of the GAPS climate-soil-plant environmental simulation model, working with Prof. Susan J. Riha. During this period he worked as a consultant on automated land evaluation and GIS applications in (among others) Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic.

Since 1997 he has worked for ITC as a Senior University Lecturer, serving from 1999 to mid-2002 as Head of the former Soil Science Division. His travels at ITC have taken him into the field in Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Portugal, South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Cameroon, India, Croatia and Thailand. He is a member of the International Union of Soil Science and the Dutch Soil Science Society. He speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, and French, and can get along in German, Portuguese and basic Chinese.

His main research interest is in modern methods of soil resource inventory and the multi-purpose interpretation of soil geographic databases for both rural and urban applications. Both of these require increasingly quantitative methods, including geostatistics, statistical computing and modelling. He teaches at MSc and PhD level on these topics. He is in charge of the ITC Research Skills MSc training, and has developed most of the teaching material for this. Since 1997 he has maintained a popular compendium of soil survey information on the world-wide web.

David Rossiter works at ITC under an 80% contract.

Activities in education

His current educational responsibilities are:

• Distance education course on geostatistics and open-source statistical computing
• Geostatistics for earth sciences (AES course, module 5)
• MSc research concepts and skills (ITC-wide, module 11 and follow-up)
• Statistical data analysis for research (Advanced topic, Module 13)
• Supervision of MSc research projects
• Joint Education Programmes India and Indonesia.

Activities in research

He is ITC supervisor of the following PhD research projects:

• Tomislav Hengl (1999-2003) [Croatia], Pedometric Soil Survey [promoter: Prof. Alfred Stein, WAU]
• Ivan Bacic (1999-2003) [Brazil], Demand-driven land evaluation [promoter: Prof. Arnold Bregt, WAU]
• Martin Yemefack (2001-2005) [Cameroon], Soil and landscape dynamics in agricultural landscape mosaics of southern Cameroon [promoter: Prof. Stephan de Jong, UU]
• Armindo Cambule (2007-) [Mozambique] Soil carbon distribution and change as an indicator of land quality, sustainability and viability of land use in southern Africa [promoter: Prof. Eric Smaling]
• Moonjun Raumporn (2009-) [Thailand] Fine-scale predictive soil mapping [promoter: Prof. Victor Jetten]
• Adrie Mukashema (2010-) [Rwanda] Improving coffee production and marketing in central Africa [promoter: Prof. Eric Smaling]
• Paresh Rathood (2010 -) [India] "Monitoring heavy metals contamination in phytoremediation sites using spectroscopy" [promoter: Prof. Freek van der Meer]

In addition, he works with any MSc and PhD students on the soils aspects of their research projects.

Publications

ISI Journal Articles

Choe, E., van der Meer, F.D., Rossiter, D.G., van der Salm, C. and Kim, K.W. (2010) An alternate method for fourier transform infrared, FTIR, spectroscopic determination of soil nitrate using derivative analysis and sample treatments. In: Water, air and soil pollution, 206(201)1-4, pp. 129-137. Full text | Full text

Sekhar, L.K., Devkota, S., Rossiter, D.G. and Jetten, V.G. (2009) Prediction of soil depth using environmental variables in an anthropogenic landscape : a case study in the Western Ghats of Kerala, India. In: Catena : an interdisciplinary journal of soil science, hydrology, geomorphology focusing on geoecology and landscape evolution, 79 (2009)1, pp. 27-38. Full text | Full text

Bacic, I.L.Z., Rossiter, D.G. and Mannaerts, C.M. (2008) Applicability of a distributed watershed pollution model in a data - poor environment in Santa Catarina state, Brazil. In: Revista Brasileira de Ciência do Solo, 32(2008)4, pp. 1699-1712. Full text

van Gils, H.A.M.J., Batsukh Orgil, Rossiter, D.G. and ... [et al.] (2008) Forecasting the pattern and pace of Fagus forest expansion in Majella national park, Italy. In: Applied vegetation science, 11(2008)4, pp. 539-546. Full text

Hengl, T., Heuvelink, G.B.M. and Rossiter, D.G. (2007) About regression - kriging : from equations to case studies. In: Computers and geosciences, 33 (2007)10, pp. 1301-1315. Full text | Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (2007) Classification of urban and industrial soils in the world reference base for soil resouces. In: Journal of soils and sediments, 7(2007)2, pp. 96-100. Full text

Yemefack, M., Jetten, V.G. and Rossiter, D.G. (2006) Developing a minimum data set for characterizing soil dynamics in shifting cultivation systems. In: Soil & tillage research, 86 (2006)1, pp. 84-98. Full text | Full text

Yemefack, M., Rossiter, D.G. and Jetten, V.G. (2006) Empirical modelling of soil dynamics along a chronosequence of shifting cultivation systems in Southern Cameroon. In: Geoderma : an international journal of soil science, 133 (2006)3-4, pp. 380-397. Full text | Full text

Bacic, I.L.Z., Bregt, A.K. and Rossiter, D.G. (2006) A participatory approach for integrating risk assessment into rural decision - making : a case study in Santa Catarina, Brazil. In: Agricultural systems, 87 (2006)2, pp. 229-244. Full text | Full text

Bacic, I.L.Z., Rossiter, D.G. and Bregt, A.K. (2006) Using spatial information to improve collective understanding of shared environmental problems at watershed level. In: Landscape and urban planning, 77(2006)1-2, pp. 54-66. Full text | Full text

Yemefack, M., Rossiter, D.G. and Njomgang, R. (2005) Multi - scale characterization of soil variability within an agricultural landscape mosaic system in southern Cameroon. In: Geoderma : an international journal of soil science, 125 (2005)1-2, pp. 117-143. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (2004) Digital soil resource inventories : status and prospects. In: Soil use and management, 20(2004)3, pp. 296-301. Full text | Full text

Hengl, T., Walvoort, D.J.J., Brown, A. and Rossiter, D.G. (2004) A double continuous approach to visualization and analysis of categorical maps. In: International journal of geographical information science = IJGIS, 18 (2004)2, pp. 183-202. Full text

Hengl, T., Rossiter, D.G. and Stein, A. (2003) Soil sampling strategies for spatial prediction by correlation with auxiliary maps. In: Australian Journal of Soil Research, 41(2003)8 , pp. 1403-1422. Full text

Hengl, T. and Rossiter, D.G. (2003) Supervised landform classification to enhance and replace photo - interpretation in semi - detailed soil survey. In: Soil science society of America journal : SSSAJ, 67 (2003)6, pp. 1810-1822.

Bacic, I.L.Z., Rossiter, D.G. and Bregt, A.K. (2003) The use of land evaluation information by land use planners and decision - makers : a case study in Santa Catarina, Brazil. In: Soil use and Management, 19(2003)1, pp. 12-18. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. and Riha, S.J. (1999) Modeling plant competition with the GAPS object - oriented dynamic simulation model. In: Agronomy Journal, 91(1999)5, pp. 773-783.

Rossiter, D.G. (1996) A theoretical framework for land evaluation : discussion paper. In: Geoderma : an international journal of soil science, 72 (1996)1-2, pp. 165-190.

Rossiter, D.G. (1995) Economic land evaluation : why and how. In: Soil use and management : an international journal for the British Society of Soil Science, 11 (1995)3, pp. 132-140. Full text

Kaiser, H.M., Riha, S.J., Wilks, D.S., Rossiter, D.G. and Sampath, R. (1993) A farm - level analysis of economic and agronomic impacts of gradual climate warning. In: American journal of agricultural economics, 75 (1993)2, pp. 387-398. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (1990) ALES : a framework for land evaluation using a microcomputer. In: Soil Use and Management, 6(1990)1, pp. 7-20.

Other Refereed Journal Articles

Qian Liu and Rossiter, D.G. (2008) Estimation on suspended sedimentation concentration of Poyang Lake using MODIS and hyperspectral data. In: Remote sensing technology and application, 23(2008)1, pp. 7-11. Full text

Book Chapters

Rossiter, D.G. (2008) Digital soil mapping as a component of data renewal for areas with sparse soil data infrastructures. In: Digital soil mapping with limited data / ed. by A.E. Hartemink, A. McBratney and M. de Lourdes Mendonca-Santos. Berlin : Springer, 2008. ISBN 978-1-4020-8591-8. pp. 69-80. Full text

Krol, B.G.C.M., Rossiter, D.G. and Siderius, W. (2007) Ontology - based multi - source data integration for digital soil mapping. In: Digital soil mapping : an introductory perspective / ed. by P. Lagacherie, A.B. MacBratney and M. Voltz. Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2007. ISBN 978-0-444-52958-9. (Developments in Soil Science ; 31). pp 119-133.

Hoogenboom, G., León Pérez, C., Rossiter, D.G. and van Laake, P.E. (2000) Biophysical agricultural assessment and management models for developing countries. In: Quantifying sustainable development : the future of tropical economies /ed. by C.A.S. Hall. San Diego : Academic Press, 2000. ISBN 0-12-318860-1 pp. 403-421.

PhD Theses

Yemefack, M., de Jong, S.M. (promotor) , Rossiter, D.G. (promotor) and Jetten, V.G. (promotor)  (2005) Modelling and monitoring soil and land use dynamics within shifting agricultural landscape mosaic systems. Enschede, ITC, 2005. ITC Dissertation  121, 194 p. ISBN: 90-6164-233-7. Full text

Bacic, I.L.Z., Bregt, A.K. (promotor) and Rossiter, D.G. (promotor)  (2003) Demand driven land evaluation : with case studies in Santa Catarina, Brazil. Wageningen ; Enschede, Wageningen University ; ITC, 2003. ITC Dissertation  105, 155 p. ISBN: 90-5808-902-9. Full text

Hengl, T., Stein, A. (Promotor) , Rossiter, D.G. (Promotor) and Husnjak, S. (Promotor)  (2003) Pedometric mapping : bridging the gaps between conventional and pedometric approaches. Enschede, Wageningen, ITC, Wageningen University, 2003. ITC Dissertation  101, 252 p. ISBN: 90-5808-896-0. Full text | Full text

Conference Proceedings (full papers)

Yemefack, M. and Rossiter, D.G. (2006) Monitoring soil dynamics within shifting agriculture in southern Cameroon. In: ISCO 2006 : 14th international soil conservation organization conference : water management and soil conservation in semi-arid environments : proceedings, Marrakech, Morocco, May 14-19, 2006, 5 p. Full text

Bacic, I.L.Z., Rossiter, D.G. and Bregt, A.K. (2002) Demand - driven land evaluation : a case study in Santa Catarina, Brazil. In: 17th World congress of soil science CD-ROM proceedings : Confronting new realities in the 21st century : 14-21 August, 2002, Bangkok, Thailand. - Bangkok : Kasetsart University, 2002. pp. 1143-1 - 1143-7.

Rossiter, D.G. (2002) On - line soil resource inventories : status and prospects. In: 17th World congress of soil science CD-ROM proceedings : Confronting new realities in the 21st century : 14-21 August, 2002, Bangkok, Thailand. - Bangkok : Kasetsart University, 2002. pp. 1139-1 - 1139-11.

Hengl, T., Walvoort, D.J.J. and Rossiter, D.G. (2002) Pixel and colour mixture : GIS techniques for visualization of fuzziness and uncertainty of natural resource inventories. In: Accuracy 2002 : proceedings of the 5th international symposium on spatial accuracy assessment in natural resources and environmental sciences, Melbourne, Australia, July 10-12 / ed. by G. Hunter and K. Lowell. - Delft : Delft University Press, 2002. - 546 p. ; 25 cm. - ISBN 0-7340-2212-3. pp. 300-308. Full text

Scientific and Professional Publications

Rossiter, D.G. (2010) Geostatistics : introduction to applied geostatistics and open source statistical computing : distance education. Enschede, ITC, 2010.

Rossiter, D.G. (editor)  (2009) MSc research concepts and skills, May 2009 : Vol. 1. Concepts : text with self test questions : lecture note. Enschede, ITC, 2009. 159 p. Full text | Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (editor)  (2009) MSc research concepts and skills, May 2009 : Vol. 2. Skills : text with self test questions : lecture note. Enschede, ITC, 2009. 133 p. Full text | Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (editor)  (2009) MSc research concepts and skills, May 2009 : Vol. 3. The ITC thesis process : text with self test questions : lecture note. Enschede, ITC, 2009. 38 p. Full text | Full text

Brussel, M.J.G., Chambi Echegaray, G., Feringa, W.F., Morales, J.M., Sijmons, K., Knippers, R.A., Turkstra, J., de Meijere, J.C., Krol, B.G.C.M., van Westen, C.J., Rossiter, D.G. and Strobl, R.O. (2008) Atlas ambiental de Lima : Peru. Lima, Gráfica Biblos, 2008. 160 p.

Rossiter, D.G. (editor)  (2008) MSc research skills, June 2008 : part 1 and 2 : lecture note. Enschede, ITC, 2008. 104 p., 115 p.

Rossiter, D.G. (2003) Biophysical models in land evaluation. In: Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Theme 1.5 Land Use and Land Cover / ed. by W.H. Verheye. Oxford: EOLSS publishers developed under the auspices of the UNESCO. 2003 Article 1.5.27. 16 p.

Rossiter, D.G. and Hengl, T. (2002) Creating geometrically - correct photo - interpretations, phtomosaics, and base maps for a project GIS : technical note. 29 p.

Girma, A. and Rossiter, D.G. (2001) Soil investigations on the Sulmac farm, Naivasha, Kenya. Enschede, ITC, Soil Science Division, 2001. 30 p.

Girma, A., Rossiter, D.G., Siderius, W. and Hennemann, G.R. (2001) Soils of the lake Naivasha area, Kenya : summary of the investigations 1997 - 2000 by the Soil Science Division of ITC. Enschede, ITC, Soil Science Division, 2001. 32 p.

Rossiter, D.G. (1998) Creating seamless digital maps from survey of India topographic sheets. In: GIS India, 7(1998)3, 10 p.

Rossiter, D.G. (1997) Automated Land Evaluation System : ALES version 4.65 user's manual. Ithaca, Cornell University, Department of Soil, Crop & Atmospheric Sciences, 1997. SCAS teaching series  T93-2 revision 6, 279 p. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. and van Wambeke, A.R. (1995) Automated Land Evaluation System : ALES version 4.5 user's manual. Ithaca, Cornell University, Department of Soil, Crop & Atmospheric Sciences, 1995. 260 p.

Rossiter, D.G. and van Wambeke, A.R. (1993) Automated Land Evaluation System : ALES version 4 user's manual. Ithaca, Cornell University, Department of Soil, Crop & Atmospheric Sciences, 1993. 75 p.

Forbes, T., Rossiter, D.G. and van Wambeke, A. (1987) Guidelines for evaluating the adequacy of soil resource inventories. Ithaca ; Washington, D.C., Cornell University, Department of Agronomy, New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences ; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Soil Management Support Service (SMSS), 1987. SMSS : Technical Monograph : Soil management support services  4, 51 p. ISBN: 0-932865-07-0.

Presentations

Farshad, A. and Rossiter, D.G. (2008) Computer assisted geopedology for predictive soil mapping : powerpoint. Presented at the 3rd global workshop on digital soil mapping, 30 September - 3 October, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. 12 slides. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (2004) Classification of urban and industrial soils in the world : reference base for soil resources : abstract. Presented at EUROSOIL 2004 : 2nd European soil science conference, Freiburg im Breisgau, 4-12 September 2004. 1 p. Full text

Krol, B.G.C.M., Rossiter, D.G. and Siderius, W. (2004) Ontologies for multi - source data integration in predictive soil mapping. Presented at the International workshop digital soil mapping, 14-17 October 2004, Montpellier. 16 p. .

Hennemann, G.R. and Rossiter, D.G. (2004) Training needs for the next generation of soil surveyors. Presented at the conference on innovative technology in soil survey, Cha-Am, Thailand, March 22-26, 2004. 9 p. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. and Burghardt, W. (2003) Classification of urban and industrial soils in the world reference base for soil resources : working document. Presented at the 2nd international conference of the working group SUITMA 2003 : Soils of Urban, Industrial, Traffic and Mining areas of the international Union of Soil Science IUSS, 9-11 July, 2003. Nancy, France. 21 p. Full text

Rossiter, D.G. (2001) D-Day : gesprek over de aanvallen van USA op Afghanistan als reactie op de terroristische aanslagen in New York en Washington,D.C. : D. Rossiter en J. Schaker. Hengelo, RTV Oost, 2001. Taped from RTV Oost (9/10/2001).VHS-PAL Video. - 30 min.