Research
the questions behind the tools
My research sits where archaeology, the agro-environmental sciences and software meet. The constant question is how people and their landscapes shape each other — what land and water could support, how that shifts with climate, and how to model it rigorously enough to be reused.
Doctoral research
PhD, University of Liverpool (2010) — The Impact of South Levantine Early Bronze Age Communities On Their Landscapes. A combination of computer modelling and GIS analysis of how early farmers affected their environment, centred on the agricultural catchment of Tell esh-Shuna North on the Jordan Rift. The examination committee recognised the accompanying open-source software as one of three distinct contributions to the discipline. That software is the direct ancestor of Landuse Analyst. Before that, a BSc in Geography and Archaeology from the University of Lethbridge (2005).
Interests
- Human–landscape interaction and resource procurement in the prehistoric southern Levant and the wider Fertile Crescent.
- Palaeo-hydrology, catchment and cost-surface modelling.
- Agro-ecosystem modelling, climate change, food security and the data that calibrate them.
- Sustainable and localised food production — cold-climate aquaponics and bio-energy for year-round indoor growing.
- Durable, reproducible research software as a first-class research output.
Selected publications
- Kersebaum, K.C., Boote, K.J., Jorgenson, J.S., et al. (2015). Analysis and classification of data sets for calibration and validation of agro-ecosystem models. Environmental Modelling & Software 72, 402–417. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.05.009. The framework behind DataRanking.
- Jorgenson, J.S. (2010). Modelling Site Catchments — an Open-Sourced GIS approach. In A.T. Wilson (ed.), Proceedings of the CAA UK Chapter Meeting, University of Liverpool, 6–7 Feb 2009, BAR S2182, 25–43.
- Jorgenson, J.S. (forthcoming). Quantifying Land-Use Strategies in the Early Bronze Age Settlement of Tell esh-Shuna. In The Development of Social Complexity in the Southern Levant: Excavations at Tell esh-Shuna North, Jordan, Levant Supplementary Monograph Series, CBRL.
A portfolio of further papers — on the Landuse Analyst software, the catalogue and dataset-ranking methodology, and applied case studies — is in preparation.
Research experience
- MACSUR (University of Reading, 2012–2015) — postdoctoral fellow and one of two full-time hub staff on a pan-European knowledge hub (>70 institutions, 18 countries) on climate change, agriculture and food security; led cloud-based integration of members' models and data.
- Cloud e-health (Edge Hill University, 2016–2017) — built a prototype cloud platform with NHS clinicians, approved for use at Aintree University Hospital.
- CBRL, Amman (2006) — a research stay at the Council for British Research in the Levant (see the field notes).