11.07.2024
On 08.07.24, Joseph MacPherson successfully defended his doctoral thesis on "Addressing uncertainty and normativity in agricultural sustainability assessment: the example of agricultural digitalisation" at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Joseph demonstrated that the potential of digitalisation to improve ecosystem services and biodiversity in agriculture can only be realized if a proper legal framework and incentive mechanisms are in place. Additionally, Joseph methodologically advanced agricultural sustainability assessment to better account for causal uncertainties and the value perspectives of affected stakeholders, thereby making the results more robust.
Joseph MacPherson carried out his work in the Impact Assessment working group under the supervision of Katharina Helming (ZALF) and Benjamin Burkhard (Leibniz Universität Hannover). The work was embedded in the DAKIS (Digital Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems) research project. DAKIS uses advancing digitalisation to integrate ecosystem services (ESS) and biodiversity into modern planning processes, production and marketing. The contribution of Joseph Macpherson's dissertation lies in assessing the proposed measures of digital agriculture in terms of their sustainability effects under future conditions. The specific, spatio-temporal context factors play just as important a role as the perspectives of the stakeholders concerned. To this end, Joseph has developed a web-based tool for engaging stakeholders that will be used in DAKIS in the future. In his research, Joseph also addressed a weak point in existing sustainability assessment procedures: dealing with uncertainties in the assessment caused by insufficient process knowledge, spatiotemporal variability and differences in evaluation. The methodological development within the scope of the dissertation cannot reduce the uncertainties, but it can make them explicit and thus transparent and manageable.
Joseph MacPherson will continue to work as a PostDoc in the Impact Assessment working group. He will develop methods for assessing the contribution of research to societal transformation and sustainable development processes. We would like to congratulate Joseph on his excellent doctorate (magna cum laude) and look forward to continuing our scientific collaboration.
