About
Lola RICHELLE is a researcher at Université catholique de Louvain's Earth and Life Institute, Department of Geography, specializing in soil science and agrarian systems with fieldwork focused on the Philippines. Her work bridges scientific soil knowledge with traditional farming practices.
Her research interests center on soil health assessment, farmer-scientist knowledge exchange, and rural migration dynamics. She employs ethnogeomorphopedological approaches to study soil fertility concepts in Philippine upland communities, examining how traditional knowledge interacts with scientific frameworks. Her work also investigates spatiotemporal migration patterns in Mindanao, analyzing population movements in relation to agricultural practices and environmental factors.
Her publications reveal consistent focus on sustainable land management and community-based environmental monitoring, with strong emphasis on Southeast Asian contexts. Both articles demonstrate interdisciplinary methodology combining qualitative fieldwork with spatial analysis.
RICHELLE contributed to two major research projects: the PHD project 'De la Fertilité des sols à la Santé de la terre' (2013-2018) examining soil fertility concepts through peasant trajectories, and the MAPDIP project (2011-2015) modeling agrarian and population dynamics in the Philippines. Her doctoral thesis 'De la fertilité des sols à la santé de la terre' (2019) documented collective learning processes for evaluating soil health in peasant agriculture.
Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to zero hunger (SDG 2) and life on land (SDG 15), with research referenced in policy sources and widely read on academic platforms like Mendeley.
