Extrapolation domain analysis
Encyclopedia
Extrapolation domain analysis (EDA) is a methodology
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...

 for identifying geographical areas that seem suitable for adoption of innovative ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....

 management practices on the basis of sites exhibiting similarity in conditions such as climatic, land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...

 and socio-economic indicators. Whilst it has been applied to water research projects in nine pilot basins, the concept is generic and can be applied to any project where accelerating change being considered as a central development objective. Many research for development programmes, need to ensure their research impact local areas, and that collectively contribute to spreading success to other areas, through the processes of ‘up or out scaling’.

The outputs of the method thus far have been used to quantify the global economic impact
Impact evaluation
Impact evaluation assesses the changes that can be attributed to a particular intervention, such as a project, program or policy, both the intended ones, as well as ideally the unintended ones...

 of implementing particular innovations together with its effect on water resources
Water resources
Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful. Uses of water include agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environmental activities. Virtually all of these human uses require fresh water....

 (Bouman et al., 2007). The research has stimulated members of several of the Challenge Program for Water and Food projects to explore potential areas for scaling out. Such is the case of the Quesungual agroforestry
Agroforestry
Agroforestry is an integrated approach of using the interactive benefits from combining trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock.It combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.-Definitions:According to...

 system, which is moving towards new areas in parallel with areas identified by the EDA method.

Extrapolation domain analysis (EDA) is a combined approach that incorporates a number of spatial analysis
Spatial analysis
Spatial analysis or spatial statistics includes any of the formal techniques which study entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties...

 techniques. It was first investigated in 2006, when it was applied to assess how similarity analysis can be used to scale out research findings within seven Andes pilot systems of basins. The method developed further the research around the Homologue analysis by incorporating socio-economic variables in the search for similar sites around the Tropics. It has since been used to evaluate ‘Impact pathways
Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis
Participatory impact pathways analysis is a project management approach in which the participants in a project , including project staff, key stakeholders and the ultimate beneficiaries, together co-construct their program theory.- Overview :The PIPA theory describes plausible impact pathways by...

’ and Global Impact Analysis.

To derive the extrapolation domains, Bayesian and frequentist statistical modelling techniques are used. The weights-of-evidence (WofE) methodology is applied; this is based largely on the concepts of Bayesian probabilistic reasoning
Bayesian probability
Bayesian probability is one of the different interpretations of the concept of probability and belongs to the category of evidential probabilities. The Bayesian interpretation of probability can be seen as an extension of logic that enables reasoning with propositions, whose truth or falsity is...

. In essence, statistical inference is based on determining the probability of target sites adopting the change demonstrated in pilot areas. The assumption is that a collection of training points will, in aggregate, have common characteristics that will allow their presence in other similar sites to be predicted. It is based on the collection of factors (used to create evidential theme data layers) that prove to be consistent with successful implementation at pilot sites and assumes that if target sites exhibit similar socio-economic, together with climatic and landscapes attributes to pilot sites, then there is strong evidence to suggest that out-scaling to these sites will succeed.

To determine the similarity of climatic conditions across a geographical area to those exhibited by the pilot site, a technique developed by Jones et al. (2005) called ‘Homologue’ is used for identifying similar environments throughout the Tropics. The pixel resolution at which this is processed is 2.43 arc minutes, or 4.5 km at the equator.
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