Clark University, School of Geography
950
Main Street, Worcester MA 01610-1477, United States of America
OFFICE
PHONE 001 508 793 7761 EMAIL rpontius@clarku.edu
Updated
31 August 2023
Welcome to Professor Pontius’ home page
from which you can obtain copies of the publications below. If you would like
my other publications, please see my CV and then send your
request to me (rpontius@clarku.edu).
CLICK HERE FOR
VIDEOS.
See my 2022 book Metrics That
Make a Difference and get the accompanying PontiusMatrix42.xlsx file.
Read the National Research Council’s 2013
book Advancing Land Change Modeling:
Opportunities and Research Requirements.
See my Doctor Stardust juggling
video.
PUBLICATIONS AS JOURNAL
ARTICLES:
1.
C
M Viana, R G Pontius Jr, J Rocha 2023. Four Fundamental Questions to Evaluate
Land Change Models with an Illustration of a Cellular Automata–Markov Model.
American Association of Geographers Left click to request a copy.
2.
J
Strzempko, R G Pontius Jr. 2023. The Flow matrix offers a straightforward
alternative to the problematic Markov matrix. Land 12(7), 1471 Left click
to request a copy.
3.
M
Ahmadlou, M Karimi, and R G Pontius Jr. 2021. A New Framework to Deal with the Class Imbalance
Problem in Urban Gain Modeling Based on Clustering and Ensemble Models. Geocarto International. Left click to request a copy.
4.
E
Evenden, R G Pontius Jr. 2021. Encoding
a Categorical Variable for Input to TerrSet’s Multi-Layer Perceptron.
ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 10(10): 686. Click to get a copy.
5.
S
Harati, L Perez, R Molowny-Horas,
R G Pontius Jr. 2021. Validating models of
one-way land change: an example case of forest insect disturbance.
Landscape Ecology 36(10), 2919-2935. Left click to request a copy.
6.
S Khallaghi, R G Pontius Jr. 2021. Area method compared with Transect method to
measure shoreline movement. Geocarto
International.
Left click to request a copy.
7.
Z
Liu, R G Pontius Jr. 2021. The Total
Operating Characteristic from Stratified Random Sampling with an Application to
Flood Mapping. Remote Sensing 13(9): 3922. Click to get a copy. Get the TOC Curve Generator at https://lazygis.github.io/projects/TOCCurveGenerator.
8.
F
Sangermano, R G Pontius Jr, J Chaitman, and A Meneghini. 2021. Linking land change model evaluation to model objective for the
assessment of land cover change impacts on biodiversity. Landscape
Ecology 36(9): 2707-2723. Left click to request a copy.
9.
H
Shafizadeh-Moghadam, M Minaei, R G Pontius Jr, Ali Asghari,
H Dadashpoor. 2021. Integrating a Forward Feature
Selection algorithm, Random Forest, and Cellular Automata to extrapolate urban
growth in the Tehran-Karaj Region of Iran. Computers, Environment and Urban
Systems 87: 101595. Left click to request a copy.
- A Elmes, H Alemohammad, R Avery,
K Caylor, J R Eastman, L Fishgold, M A Friedl, M Jain, D Kohli, J C Laso
Bayas, D Lunga, J L McCarty, R G Pontius Jr, A B Reinmann, J Rogan, L
Song, H Stoynova, S Ye, Z-F Yi, L Estes. 2020. Accounting for training
data error in machine learning applied to Earth observations. Remote
Sensing 12(6): 1034. Click to get a copy.
- B
Quan, R G Pontius Jr, H Song. 2020. Intensity Analysis to communicate land
change during three time intervals in two regions of Quanzhou City, China.
GIScience & Remote Sensing 57(1): 21-36.
Left click to request a copy.
- O
G Varga, R G Pontius Jr, Z Szabó, S Szabó. 2020. Effects of aggregation on
land change simulation based on Corine data. Remote Sensing 12(8): 1314.
Left click to request a copy.
- Z Xie, R G Pontius Jr, J
Huang, V Nitivattananon. 2020. Enhanced
Intensity Analysis to Quantify Categorical Change and to Identify
Suspicious Land Transitions: A Case Study of Nanchang, China. Remote
Sensing 12(20): 3323. Click to get a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr. 2019. Component Intensities to relate difference by category
with difference overall 77: 94-99. Left click to request a copy.
- H
Shafizadeh-Moghadam, M Minaei, Y Feng, R G Pontius Jr. 2019. GlobeLand30
maps show four times larger gross than net land change from 2000 to 2010
in Asia. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and
Geoinformation 78: 240-248. Left click to request a copy.
- O
G Varga, R G Pontius Jr, S K Singh, S Szabó. 2019. Intensity Analysis and
the Figure of Merit’s Components for assessment of a Cellular Automata -
Markov simulation model. Ecological Indicators 101: 933-942. Left
click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr. 2018. Criteria to Confirm Models that Simulate Deforestation
and Carbon Disturbance. Land 7(3): 1-14. Click on the title to
download the PDF.
- R
Estoque, R G Pontius Jr, Y Murayama, H Hou, R B Thapa, R D Lasco, M A Villar. 2018. Simultaneous Comparison and
Assessment of Eight Remotely Sensed Maps of Philippine Forests. International
Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 67: 123-134.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2017.10.008. Left click to request a copy.
- B
Huang, J Huang, R G Pontius Jr, Z Tu. 2018. Comparison of Intensity
Analysis and the land use dynamic degrees to measure land changes outside
versus inside the coastal zone of Longhai, China. Ecological Indicators
89: 336-347. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.12.057. Left click to request
a copy.
- B
Quan, R Hongge, R G Pontius Jr, P Liu. 2018.
Quantifying Spatiotemporal Patterns Concerning Land Change in Changsha,
China. Landscape and Ecological Engineering. Left click to request a
copy.
- F
O Akinyemi, R G Pontius Jr, A K Braimoh. 2017.
Land change dynamics: insights from Intensity Analysis applied to an
African emerging city. Spatial Science 62(1): 69-83. DOI:
10.1080/14498596.2016.1196624. Left click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr, J Huang, W Jiang, S Khallaghi, Y Lin, J Liu, B Quan, S Ye.
2017. Rules to write mathematics to clarify metrics such as the land use
dynamic degrees. Landscape Ecology 32(12): 2249-2260. DOI: 10.1007/s10980-017-0584-x.
- R
G Pontius Jr, R Krithivasan, L Sauls, Y Yan, Y Zhang. 2017. Methods to
summarize change among land categories across time intervals. Journal of
Land Use Science 12(4): 218-230. DOI: 10.1080/1747423X.2017.1338768.
Left click to request a copy. You can download a free computer program to
compute States when maps are in TerrSet by clicking here.
You can download a free computer program to compute Incidents when maps
are in TerrSet by clicking here.
- A
V Bradley, I M D Rosa, R G Pontius Jr, S E Ahmed, M B Araujo, D G Brown, A
Brandão Jr, G Câmara,
T G S Carnerio, A J Hartley, M J Smith, R M
Ewers. 2016. SimiVal, a multi-criteria map comparison
tool for land-change model projections. Environmental Modelling &
Software 82: 229-240. Left click to request a copy.
- Z
Teixeira, J C Marques, R G Pontius Jr. 2016. Evidence for deviations from
uniform changes in a Portuguese watershed illustrated by CORINE maps: An
Intensity Analysis approach. Ecological Indicators 66: 382-390. Left
click to request a copy.
- P
Zhou, J Huang, R G Pontius Jr, and H Hong. 2016. New insight into the
correlations between land use and water quality in a coastal watershed of
China: Does point source pollution weaken it? Science of the Total
Environment 543: 591-600. Left click to request a copy.
- S Aldwaik, J Onsted and RG Pontius Jr. 2015.
Behavior-based aggregation of land categories for temporal change
analysis. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and
Geoinformation 35: 229-238. Left
click to request a copy. You can download a free computer program to
perform the analysis by clicking here.
- S
Blanchard, R G Pontius Jr, and K M Urban. 2015. Implications of using 2m
versus 30 m spatial resolution data for suburban residential land change
modeling. Journal of Environmental Informatics 25(1): 1-13. Left click
to request a copy.
- M
T Camacho Olmedo, R G Pontius Jr, M Paegelow and J-F Mas. 2015. Comparison
of simulation models in terms of quantity and allocation of land change.
Environmental Modelling & Software 69: 214-221. Left click to
request a copy.
- G Enaruvbe and R G Pontius Jr. 2015. Influence of
classification errors on Intensity Analysis of land changes in southern
Nigeria. International Journal of Remote Sensing 31(1): 244-261. Left click to request a copy.
- J
Huang, Y Huang, R G Pontius Jr, and L Huang. 2015. Geographically Weighted
Regression to measure spatial variations in correlations between water
pollution versus land use in a watershed. Ocean & Coastal Management
103: 13-24. Left click to request a copy.
- RG Pontius Jr and A Santacruz. 2014. Quantity, Exchange,
and Shift Components of Difference in a Square Contingency Table.
International Journal of Remote Sensing 35(21): 7543-7554. Left click to request a copy. You can also
download the Excel file to perform the calculations with your own data by
clicking here. See the video in English or
Spanish by clicking here.
- RG Pontius Jr and B Parmentier. 2014. Recommendations for
using the Relative Operating Characteristic (ROC). Landscape Ecology
29(3): 367-382. Left click to request
a copy. You can also download the supplement to the manuscript by clicking
here.
- RG Pontius Jr and K Si. 2014. The total operating
characteristic to measure diagnostic ability for multiple thresholds.
International Journal of Geographical Information Science 28(3): 570-583. Left click to request a copy. You can also
download the data that the manuscript uses by clicking here.
Create your TOC curve with a spreadsheet by clicking here,
or use R code available for free. See videos concerning the TOC by
clicking here. Get an
Excel file that shows generalized examples of TOC curves by clicking here.
- N
M Giner, C Polsky, RG Pontius Jr, DM Runfola and
SJ Ratick. 2014. Creating Spatially-Explicit Lawn Maps Without Classifying
Remotely-Sensed Imagery: The case of suburban Massachusetts, USA. Cities
and the Environment 7(1) article 10: 28 pages. Left click to request a copy.
- Y Liu, Y Feng and RG Pontius
Jr. 2014. Spatially-Explicit Simulation of Urban Growth through
Self-Adaptive Genetic Algorithm and Cellular Automata Modelling. Land
3(3): 719-738. Left click to obtain the manuscript from the journal’s
open access web site.
- DSM Runfola, T Hamill, RG Pontius Jr, J Rogan, N Giner, and A Decatur and S Ratick. 2014. Using Fine
Resolution Orthoimagery and Spatial
Interpolation to Rapidly Map Turf Grass in Suburban Massachusetts.
International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research 1(1):
article 4, 17 pages. Left click to
request a copy.
- G
Villamor, R G Pontius Jr, and M van Noordwijk.
2014. Agroforest’s growing role in reducing carbon losses from Jambi
(Sumatra), Indonesia. Regional Environmental Change. 14(2): 825-834. Left
click to request a copy.
- P Zhou, J Huang, R G
Pontius Jr, H Hong. 2014. Land Classification and Change Intensity
Analysis in a Coastal Watershed of Southeast China. Sensors 14(7):
11640-11658. Left click to obtain the manuscript from the journal’s
open access web site.
- S Aldwaik and RG Pontius Jr. 2013. Map errors that could
account for deviations from a uniform intensity of land change.
International Journal of Geographical Information Science 27(9):
1717-1739. Left click to request a
copy. You can download a free 8MB computer program to perform the analysis
by right clicking here.
- D
G Brown, Peter H Verburg, R G Pontius Jr and Mark D Lange. 2013.
Opportunities to improve impact, integration, and evaluation of land
change models. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5: 452-457. Left
click to request a copy.
- N
M Giner, C Polsky, R G Pontius Jr, and D M
Runfola. 2013. Understanding the social determinants of lawn landscapes: A
fine-resolution spatial statistical analysis in suburban Boston,
Massachusetts, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 111: 25-33. Left
click to request a copy.
- J
Huang, Q Li, R G Pontius Jr, V K, and H Hong. 2013. Detecting the dynamic
linkage between landscape characteristics and water quality in a
subtropical coastal watershed, southeast China. Environmental Management
51(1): 32-44. Left click to request a copy.
- J-F Mas, B Soares Filho, R G
Pontius Jr, M Farfan Gutierrez and H Rodrigues. 2013. A suite of tools for
ROC analysis of spatial models. ISPRS International Journal of
Geo-Information 2(3): 869-887. Left click to obtain the manuscript
from the journal’s open access web site.
- M Paegelow, M T Camacho Olmedo, T. Houet,
J-F Mas and RG Pontius Jr. 2013. Land Change Modelling: Moving Beyond
Projections. International Journal of Geographical Information Science
27(9): 1691-1695. Left click to
request a copy.
- R G Pontius Jr, Y Gao, NM Giner, T Kohyama, M Osaki
and K Hirose. 2013. Design and interpretation of Intensity Analysis
illustrated by land change in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Land 2(3):
351-369. Left click to obtain the manuscript from the journal’s open access
web site.
- D M Runfola, C Polsky, C Nicolson, N Giner,
RG Pontius Jr, J Krahe, A Decatur. 2013. A
Growing Concern? Examining the Influence of Lawn Size on Residential Water
Use in Suburban Boston, MA, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 119:
113-123. Left click to request a
copy.
- D M Runfola and RG Pontius Jr. 2013. Measuring the
Temporal Instability of Land Change using the Flow Matrix. International
Journal of Geographical Information Science 27(9): 1696-1716. Left click to request a copy.
- S Aldwaik and R Pontius Jr. 2012. Intensity Analysis to
unify measurements of size and stationarity of land changes by interval,
category, and transition. Landscape and Urban Planning 106: 103-114. Left click to request a copy. You can download
a free 8MB computer program to perform the analysis by right clicking here.
- V
Gutierrez-Velez and R G Pontius Jr. 2012. Influence of carbon mapping and
land change modelling on the prediction of carbon emissions from
deforestation. Environmental Conservation 39(4): 325-336. Left click
to request a copy.
- J
Huang, R G Pontius Jr, Q Li, and Y Zhang. 2012. Use of Intensity Analysis
to Link Patterns with Processes of Land Change from 1987 to 2007 in a
Coastal Watershed of Southeast China. Applied Geography 34: 371-384.
Left click to request a copy.
- H
Chen and R G Pontius Jr. 2011. Sensitivity of a land change model to pixel
resolution and precision of the independent variable. Environmental
Modeling & Assessment 16: 37-52. Left click to request a copy.
- Y
Gao, P Marpu, I Niemeyer, D M Runfola, N M Giner, T Hamill, and R G Pontius Jr. 2011.
Object-based classification with features extracted by a semi-automatic
feature extraction algorithm - SEaTH. Geocarto International 26(3): 211-226. Left click
to request a copy. Table 4 has an error in the total column but the
corresponding figure 5 is correct.
- R
G Pontius Jr, S Peethambaram and J-C Castella. 2011. Comparison of three
maps at multiple resolutions: a case study of land change simulation in
Cho Don District, Vietnam. Annals of the Association of American
Geographers 101(1): 45-62. Left click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr and M Millones. 2011. Death to Kappa: birth of quantity
disagreement and allocation disagreement for accuracy assessment.
International Journal of Remote Sensing 32(15): 4407-4429. Left click
to request a copy. Download an Excel file to perform the calculations by
clicking the link highlighted
in green below.
- H
Chen and R G Pontius Jr. 2010. Diagnostic tools to evaluate a spatial land
change projection along a gradient of an explanatory variable. Landscape
Ecology 25: 1319-1331. Left click to request a copy.
- R
Manandhar, Inakwu O A Odeh and R G Pontius Jr.
2010. Analysis of twenty years of categorical land transitions in the
Lower Hunter of New South Wales, Australia. Agriculture Ecosystems and
Environment, 135: 336-346. Left click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr and X Li. 2010. Land transition estimates from erroneous
maps. Journal of Land Use Science 5(1): 31-44. Left click to request a
copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr and N Neeti. 2010. Uncertainty in the difference between maps
of future land change scenarios. Sustainability Science. Left click to
request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr and S Petrova. 2010. Assessing a predictive
model of land change using uncertain data. Environmental Modeling &
Software 25(3): 299-309. Left click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr and J Connors. 2009. Range of categorical associations for
comparison of maps with mixed pixels. Photogrammetric Engineering &
Remote Sensing, 75(8): 963-969. Left click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius Jr, W Boersma, J-C Castella, K Clarke, T de Nijs, C Dietzel, Z
Duan, E Fotsing, N Goldstein, K Kok, E Koomen, C D Lippitt, W McConnell, A
Mohd Sood, B Pijanowski, S Pithadia, S Sweeney, T N Trung, A T Veldkamp,
and P H Verburg. 2008. Comparing input, output, and validation maps for
several models of land change. Annals of Regional Science, 42(1): 11-47.
Left click to request a copy. The same document is available at http://www.springerlink.com. Click here to download a 5MB copy of the data.
Click here to download a 36MB PowerPoint file
of color slides.
- R
G Pontius Jr, O Thontteh and H Chen. 2008. Components of information for
multiple resolution comparison between maps that share a real variable.
Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 15(2): 111-142. Left click to
request a copy. The same document is available at http://www.springerlink.com.
- C
Alo and R G Pontius Jr. 2008. Identifying
systematic land cover transitions using remote sensing and GIS: The fate
of forests inside and outside protected areas of Southwestern Ghana.
Environment and Planning B, 35(2): 280-295. Left click to request a
copy.
- K
Kuzera and R G Pontius Jr. 2008. Importance of
matrix construction for multiple-resolution categorical map comparison.
GIS and Remote Sensing, 45(3): 249-274. Left click to request a copy.
Equation 11 has an error; the numerator of equation 11 should be [Prgij – (Prgi+ × Prg+j)]^2.
- R
G Pontius Jr, R Walker, R Yao-Kumah, E Arima, S Aldrich, M Caldas and D
Vergara. 2007. Accuracy assessment for a simulation model of Amazonian
deforestation. Annals of Association of American Geographers, 97(4):
677-695. Left click to request a copy. The same document is available
at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
- R
G Pontius Jr, A J Versluis and N R Malizia.
2006. Visualizing certainty of extrapolations from models of land change.
Landscape Ecology 21(7) p.1151-1166. Left click to request a copy.
- R G Pontius Jr and C D
Lippitt. 2006. Can error explain map differences over time? Cartography
and Geographic Information Science 33(2) p.159-171. Right click to
download.
- R
G Pontius Jr and M L Cheuk. 2006. A generalized cross-tabulation matrix to
compare soft-classified maps at multiple resolutions. International
Journal of Geographical Information Science 20(1) p.1-30. Left click
to request a copy.
- E Fedorko, R G
Pontius Jr, S Aldrich, L Claessens, C Hopkinson
Jr, and W Wolheim. 2005. Spatial distribution of
land type in regression models of pollutant loading. Journal of Spatial
Hydrology 5(2) p.60-80. Right click to download.
- R
G Pontius Jr and J Malanson. 2005. Comparison of
the structure and accuracy of two land change models. International
Journal of Geographical Information Science 19(2) p.243-265. Left
click to request a copy.
- R G Pontius Jr and J Spencer. 2005.
Uncertainty in extrapolations of predictive land change models.
Environment and Planning B 32 p.211-230. Right click to download. This
paper won the Michael Breheny Prize for the Best
Paper in Environment and Planning B in 2005.
- R
G Pontius Jr, D Huffaker and K Denman. 2004. Useful techniques of
validation for spatially explicit land-change models. Ecological Modelling
179(4) p.445-461. Left click to request a copy.
- R G Pontius Jr and N R Malizia. 2004.
Effect of category aggregation on map comparison. Lecture Notes in
Computer Science 3234 p.251-268 in M J Egenhofer,
C Freska, and H J Miller (eds): GIScience2004.
Right click to download.
- R G Pontius Jr, E Shusas
and M McEachern. 2004. Detecting important categorical land changes while
accounting for persistence. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
101(2-3) p.251-268. Right click to download.
- R
G Pontius Jr and Pablo Pacheco. 2004. Calibration and validation of a
model of forest disturbance in the Western Ghats, India 1920-1990. GeoJournal 61(4) p.325-334. Left click to request
a copy.
- R G Pontius Jr and K Batchu. 2003.
Using the relative operating characteristic to quantify certainty in
prediction of location of land cover change in India. Transactions in GIS
7(4) p.467-484. Right click to download. The PDF of Pontius and Batchu (2003) is an electronic version of an article
published in Transactions in GIS: complete citation information for the
final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of
Transactions in GIS, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery
service, accessible via the journal’s website at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/tgis
or http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
- R G Pontius Jr, A
Agrawal and D Huffaker. 2003. Estimating the uncertainty of land-cover
extrapolations while constructing a raster map from tabular data. Journal
of Geographical Systems 5(3) p.253-273. Right click to download.
- R G Pontius Jr. 2002. Statistical methods to
partition effects of quantity and location during comparison of
categorical maps at multiple resolutions. Photogrammetric Engineering
& Remote Sensing 68(10) p.1041-1049. Right click to download.
- R G Pontius Jr, J Cornell and C Hall.
2001. Modeling the spatial pattern of land-use change with GEOMOD2:
application and validation for Costa Rica. Agriculture, Ecosystems &
Environment 85(1-3) p.191-203. Right click to download.
- L Schneider and R G Pontius Jr. 2001. Modeling land-use change
in the Ipswich watershed, Massachusetts, USA. Agriculture, Ecosystems
& Environment 85(1-3) p.83-94. Right click to download.
- R G Pontius Jr and L Schneider. 2001. Land-use change model
validation by a ROC method for the Ipswich watershed, Massachusetts, USA.
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 85(1-3) p.239-248. Right
click to download.
- R G Pontius Jr. 2000. Quantification error
versus location error in the comparison of categorical maps.
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 66(8) p.1011-1016.
Right click to download.
PUBLICATIONS AS CONFERENCE
PROCEEDINGS:
- L Paladino and R G Pontius Jr. 2004.
Accuracy assessment and uncertainty in baseline projections for
land-change forestry projects. Conference Proceedings of the joint meeting
of The Fifteenth Annual Conference of The International Environmetrics Society and The Sixth Annual Symposium
on Spatial Accuracy Assessment in Natural Resources and Environmental
Sciences. Portland ME. 11p. Right click to download.
- R G
Pontius Jr, L Claessens, C Hopkinson Jr, A
Marzouk, E Rastetter, L Schneider, J Vallino.
2000. Scenarios of land-use change and nitrogen release in the Ipswich
watershed, Massachusetts, USA. in B Parks, K Clarke, M Crane, editors.
2000. Conference proceedings of the 4th international
conference on integrating GIS and environmental modeling. Boulder:
University of Colorado, CIRES.
PUBLICATION AS BOOK
CHAPTERS:
- R
G Pontius Jr, J-C Castella, T de Nijs, Z Duan, E
Fotsing, N Goldstein, K Kok, E Koomen, C D
Lippitt, W McConnell, A Mohd Sood,
B Pijanowski, P Verburg and A T Veldkamp. 2018. Lessons and Challenges in Land Change
Modeling Derived from Synthesis of Cross-Case Comparisons. Chapter 8 in
Martin Behnisch and Gotthard Meine (eds.) Trends
in Spatial Analysis and Modelling. Geotechnologies
and the Environment 19: 143-164. Springer International Publishing: Cham,
Germany. Left click to request a copy.
- Y
Gao, R G Pontius Jr, N M Giner, T S Kohyama, M Osaki, K Hirose. Land Change Analysis from
2000 to 2004 in Peatland of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia Using GIS and an
Extended Transition Matrix. Pages 433-443. Chapter 29 in M Osaki and N
Tsuji (eds.) Tropical Peatland Ecosystems, Springer: Japan. ISBN
978-4-431-55680-0, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-55681-7_29. Left
click to request a copy.
- D
M Runfola, C Polsky, N Giner, R G Pontius Jr, C
Nicolson. 2013. Future Suburban Development and the Environmental
Implications of Lawns: A Case Study in New England, USA. Pages 119-141.
Chapter in D Czamanski, I Benenson,
and D Malkinson (eds.) Modeling of Land Use and
Ecological Dynamics, Springer Berlin: Heidelberg. Left click to request a copy.
- R
G Pontius, S Menon, J Duncan, S Gupta. 2009. “Fundamentals for using
Geographic Information Science to Measure the effectiveness of land conservation
projects”. p.539-557. Chapter 23 in P K Joshi, P Pani, S N Mohaparta et al. (eds.) Geoinformatics for Natural
Resource Management. Nova Science Publishers, New York NY. Left click
to request a copy.
- R G Pontius Jr and B Suedmeyer. 2004. “Components of agreement in
categorical maps at multiple resolutions”. p.233-251. Chapter 17 in R S Lunetta and J G Lyon (eds). Remote Sensing and GIS
Accuracy Assessment. CRC Press, Boca Raton FL. Right click to
download.
PUBLICATION AS SOFTWARE
MANUAL:
- R G Pontius Jr and H Chen. 2006.
GEOMOD Modeling. Chapter of help system in J Ronald Eastman. Idrisi 15:
The Andes Edition. Worcester MA: Clark Labs. Right click to download.
You may be interested in the links below.
- Scientific Curriculum Vitae
of Gil Pontius
- To download
files for Pontius’ April 2022 Workshop entitled Metrics that Make a
Difference, click here to download MetricsApril2022workshop1.zip.
- To download PDFs for
Pontius’ April 2022 Workshop entitled Metrics that Make a Difference, click
here to download PontiusPDFs1.zip.
- To
download files for Pontius’ Global Land Programme
July 2020 Workshop entitled Metrics that Make a Difference, click here to
download GLP2020workshop3.zip.
- To see videos
for Pontius’ Global Land Programme July 2020
Workshop entitled Metrics that Make a Difference, click here.
- To
click here to see video of Pontius’ April 2020 Workshop entitled Metrics
that Make a Difference.
- To compute your own
summary statistics from a matrix, right click here and use “Save Target
As” to download PontiusMatrix42.xlsx.
- To get Yujia Zhang’s
program to compute Incidents, right click here and use “Save Target As” to
download Incidents01.xlsm.
- To get Yujia Zhang’s program
to compute States, right click here and use “Save Target As” to download
States01.xlsm.
- To access Zhen
Liu’s TOC Curve Generator, click here. This is the best TOC software that
Pontius knows.
- To
create a figure for a TOC and ROC curves, right click here and use “Save
Target As” to download TOCfigure1.xlsx.
- To download the document that has ideas for
an effective presentation, right click here and use “Save Target As” to
download ClarityInOralForm07.doc.
- To download the document that has ideas
for an effective presentation, right click here and use “Save Target As”
to download ClarityInOralForm11.pptx.
- To download the document that has ideas
for an effective paper, right click here and use “Save Target As” to
download ClarityInWrittenForm03.doc.
- To
download a template for a scientific paper, right click here and use “Save
Target As” to download format07.docx.
- To
download slides for my 2019 GLP Bern presentation, right click here and
use “Save Target As” to download Criteria4.pptx.
- To download slides for my 2019 AAG
Presentation, right click here and use “Save Target As” to download
AAG2019pontius01.pptx.
- To download slides for my 2019 Merida GIS
Conference Presentation, right click here and use “Save Target As” to
download Pontius2019Merida01.pptx.
- To
download files for my AAG 2019 Workshop, click here to download the 142MB
PontiusWorkshop.zip.
- To download files for my GLP 2019
Workshop, click here to download the 158MB Pontius2019GLPWorkshop1.zip.
- To download files for my Merida 2019
Workshop, click here to download the 158MB Pontius2019MeridaWorkshop1.zip.
- To download slides for my Training
on Intensity Analysis, right click here and use “Save Target As” to
download IntensityAnalysisTraining04.pptx.
- Many of the methods that I have created
are available in the GIS software TerrSet,
which is created by Clark Labs
- See Clark Geography’s video album
- See my alter ego, Doctor Stardust, The
Award Winning Entertainer
SUMMARY
OF PONTIUS’ INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS:
Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr has developed quantitative methods that
have contributed greatly to Geographic Information Science (GIS) and Remote
Sensing. Pontius began his career as an applied statistician and environmental
scientist with expertise in geographic information science (GIS), ecological
modeling, and land change science. The applied nature of his diverse activities
has inspired him to derive mathematical proofs for generally applicable
concepts concerning spatial measurements that are essential in GIS and Remote
Sensing. Several of these methods have been incorporated into the GIS &
Image Processing software Idrisi,
which has over 100,000 users worldwide.
Pontius’ most
important intellectual creation is a conceptual philosophy to compare maps
mathematically in ways that match visual intuition. One can understand the
philosophy in the context of comparison of two maps that share the same set of
categories, such as the comparison of maps of land classes from two time points
or the comparison between ground information versus a classified map. The
philosophy focuses on the disagreement between the maps because it is more
important to understand the disagreement than the agreement for practical
purposes, such as characterizing land change or improving a classifier.
Pontius’ approach separates the overall disagreement between the maps into two
components: quantity disagreement and allocation disagreement. Quantity disagreement is the amount of difference between the
reference map and a comparison map that is due to the less than perfect match
in the proportions of the categories. Allocation disagreement is the amount of
difference between the reference map and a comparison map that is due to the
less than maximum match in the spatial allocation of the categories, given the
proportions of the categories in the reference and comparison maps. It
is important to separate overall disagreement into these two components,
because these two components have different interpretations and implications
for practical applications. For example, if the purpose is to estimate change
over time in overall forest area on a landscape, then quantity disagreement is
much more important than allocation disagreement. Pontius (2000 & 2002)
were the first publications in the sequence to establish this approach, while
Pontius and Millones (2011) is the most recent and clearest articulation of
this philosophy. Pontius, Shusas, and McEachern
(2004) used the philosophy to derive new measurements to characterize
transitions among categories in a manner that offers an alternative to
conventional approaches. His philosophy formed the basis of Pontius and Spencer
(2005), which won the Michael Brehney prize for best
paper of the year in Environment and Planning B. Pontius and Cheuk (2006) used
the philosophy to derive a cross-tabulation matrix that can analyze maps of
categories where the pixels have categorical memberships that are mixed, soft
or fuzzy. That paper was the most highly cited paper in its journal, IJGIS,
during its first years of publication. Pontius and Connors (2009) built on that
paper to show how associations among categories are sensitive to modifications
in the spatial resolution of the maps. Pontius, Peethambaram, and Castella
(2011) extended the philosophy to derive a method that compares simultaneously
three maps of mixed pixels, which is essential for the validation of land
change simulation models at multiple-resolutions. The approach has inspired
additional methods to estimate land change over time from remotely sensed maps
for the common case where map error is suspected but not measured due to lack
of ground reference information (Pontius and Li 2010, Pontius and Lippitt 2006,
Aldwaik and Pontius 2013). Pontius, Thontteh and Chen (2008) unified the
philosophy for a categorical variable with the philosophy for a real continuous
variable. Pontius and his doctoral students are now using his philosophy to
design novel methods to construct rigorous methods for accuracy assessment of
object-based classifications. His Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral advisees
have won awards from the Association of American Geographers more than 20
times. Pontius’ philosophy presents a new way of thinking, while his equations
are elegant in their clarity.
Pontius
spreads this philosophy in a variety of ways. He has presented it in workshops
that he has given more than 20 times since 2003 in Australia, China, Ecuador,
France, Germany, Greece, India, Japan, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, Russia,
Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, and the USA. The workshop teaches the
approach in the context of land change modeling using Pontius’ model Geomod (Pontius, Cornell, and Hall
2001), which has become a standard model to predict land change especially for
management of the global carbon cycle in the context of Reduced Emissions due
to Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) projects. Pontius’ method has become
popular in part because he has designed an easy-to-use spreadsheet, which is
freely available from his web site www.clarku.edu/~rpontius.
The electronic spread sheet is especially useful for accuracy assessment in
Remote Sensing because the outputs derive from a single confusion matrix that
users enter.
Pontius presents his philosophy strategically and
theatrically to inspire a shift in the scientific culture from where scientists
previously strived to report levels of accuracy that are better than random to
where scientists now strive to report clearly the sizes of various types of
disagreement that show how maps are less than perfect. This cultural shift in
the mentality of scientists is as important as any particular quantitative
method, because the shift in mentality is necessary for clear communication
among scientists, hence is necessary for advancement in all aspects of GIS and
Remote Sensing. Pontius has induced this shift in the profession by showing how
his own maps have various types of errors, and then by demonstrating that his
work is typical of the situation of many others (Pontius et al. 2008). Pontius
designs all of his professional presentations at conferences to show these
characteristics, with the direct purpose to serve as an example to others that
it is necessary and advantageous to expose openly the disagreements among maps
and to adopt more informative methodologies that are either compliments to or
alternatives to conventional schools of thought.
He serves on the editorial boards of more than 10 journals
and has been a reviewer for more than 116 different journals. He served on the
National Research Council Committee concerning the Needs and Research
Requirements for Land-Change Modeling.