prompt_front: Now, answer the following question based on the text below, only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What did the decision to base the water rates on usage reflect?

Read the following text and answer briefly.

Context 1: Time to clean house in Paso Robles Home
Front Page » Time to clean house in Paso Robles
September 5, 2010 Opinion By JIM REED
I’d like to give you an update on the issue of our civil servants cramming hundreds of millions of dollars in spending down our throats after the people of Paso Robles voted down the water rate increase last November  The rate increase is being hung up in the courts by the City Attorney  What was supposed to be a quick issue to get in front of a judge, has been drug out as long as possible by the City Attorney 
Even if the courts throw out the current rate increase, I expect that our civil servants will just change a couple of words in the rate increase notice and force the same old plan on us again 
There is a real problem with the people we have hired to work for us in Paso Robles  It seems that decisions are made based on some agenda, even if it is contrary to citizens’ wishes 
City Councilmen Ed Steinbeck, Nick Gilman and Mayor Duane Picanco, on August 19th, voted unanimously to hire the same law firm employed by the City of Bell  You may have heard the recent news story about the City of Bell’s corrupt city representatives 
This law firm allowed the elected officials and City employees to pillage the General Fund for their own benefit, contrary to the rights and interests of the citizens  We are already paying several City employees $12,000 per month with equally ridiculous benefits and pensions  What does this say about our elected representatives?
I believe most residents are like me  We elect people we believe have our best interest in mind  Over the last few years I have seen that nothing is farther from the truth  The people we have elected have lost track of the fact that “the City” exists to protect and deliver services to the citizens  To them it is some all-important ideal they strive to cultivate and improve according to their agenda  They have forgotten that they are elected to represent the citizens 
We have an election coming up in November  We have the opportunity to elect some responsible, principled people to represent us  If we elect more people from within this system, we will get more of the same type of government  We need to look at where the new candidates stand  Will they lawfully represent the citizens of the city? Or, are they happy with the way things are being run?
We have stood together in the past and have made real significant changes in important matters that are going to affect our lives for years to come  There are several thousand citizens that made their voice heard on the water issue, more than enough votes to make a change in our city government 
Please come out and vote for a democratic representative governing body for Paso Robles instead of the tyrannical leadership that exists now 
Jim Reed is a longtime resident of Paso Robles 
Subjects: Opinion Paso Robles Paso Robles City Council Vote	Related:
<- Previous Next ->	Endless Summer Nights at Edna Valley, event photos Trial postponed for Paso Robles woman accused of forgery The comments below represent the opinion of the writer and do not represent the views or policies of CalCoastNews com  (moderator@calcoastnews com Comment Guidelines )
2 whatisup says:	09/13/2010 at 9:27 pm
pasoobserver – Here is something to observe and get you going in the right direction:
California Government Code Section 65584
(a) (1) For the fourth and subsequent revisions of the
housing element pursuant to Section 65588, the department shall
determine the existing and projected need for housing for each region
pursuant to this article  For purposes of subdivision (a) of Section
65583, the share of a city or county of the regional housing need
shall include that share of the housing need of persons at all income
levels within the area significantly affected by the general plan of
(2) While it is the intent of the Legislature that cities,
counties, and cities and counties should undertake all necessary
actions to encourage, promote, and facilitate the development of
housing to accommodate the entire regional housing need, it is
recognized, however, that future housing production may not equal the
regional housing need established for planning purposes 
(b) The department, in consultation with each council of
governments, shall determine each region’s existing and projected
housing need pursuant to Section 65584 01 at least two years prior to
the scheduled revision required pursuant to Section 65588  The
appropriate council of governments, or for cities and counties
without a council of governments, the department, shall adopt a final
regional housing need plan that allocates a share of the regional
housing need to each city, county, or city and county at least one
year prior to the scheduled revision for the region required by
Section 65588  The allocation plan prepared by a council of
governments shall be prepared pursuant to Sections 65584 04 and
65584 05 with the advice of the department 
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the due dates for
the determinations of the department or for the council of
governments, respectively, regarding the regional housing need may be
extended by the department by not more than 60 days if the extension
will enable access to more recent critical population or housing
data from a pending or recent release of the United States Census
Bureau or the Department of Finance  If the due date for the
determination of the department or the council of governments is
extended for this reason, the department shall extend the
corresponding housing element revision deadline pursuant to Section
65588 by not more than 60 days 
(d) The regional housing needs allocation plan shall be consistent
with all of the following objectives:
(1) Increasing the housing supply and the mix of housing types,
tenure, and affordability in all cities and counties within the
region in an equitable manner, which shall result in each
jurisdiction receiving an allocation of units for low- and very low
(2) Promoting infill development and socioeconomic equity, the
protection of environmental and agricultural resources, and the
encouragement of efficient development patterns 
(3) Promoting an improved intraregional relationship between jobs
(4) Allocating a lower proportion of housing need to an income
category when a jurisdiction already has a disproportionately high
share of households in that income category, as compared to the
countywide distribution of households in that category from the most
recent decennial United States census 
(e) For purposes of this section, “household income levels” are as
determined by the department as of the most recent decennial census
pursuant to the following code sections:
(1) Very low incomes as defined by Section 50105 of the Health and
(2) Lower incomes, as defined by Section 50079 5 of the Health and
(3) Moderate incomes, as defined by Section 50093 of the Health
and Safety Code 
(4) Above moderate incomes are those exceeding the moderate-income
level of Section 50093 of the Health and Safety Code 
(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, determinations
made by the department, a council of governments, or a city or county
pursuant to this section or Section 65584 01, 65584 02, 65584 03,
65584 04, 65584 05, 65584 06, 65584 07, or 65584 08 are exempt from
the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing
with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code) 
pasoobserver says:	09/13/2010 at 6:52 pm
To whatisup —- First of all, I reviewed AB 602 Assembly Bill  Thanks  I am sorry to inform you but AB 602 is not the LAW as you so stated in your blog  I contacted the Deputy Chief Council’s office in Sacramento handling AB 602 to confirm your misstatement of facts  You know,in the English language, It shouldn’t be so difficult to answer some simple questions with a “YES” or “NO” answer  Yet, you are reluctant to do so, but you go on and on with a thesis along with some rhetoric  I never talked about a court suit over the “water issue”, I asked YOU, not about waiting for a court decision  Maybe, you did with some other people  Also, I was not ranting about the wineries usage of water  My response to you on your vague question about “there are people not paying their fair share for their use of water”  I related, are you talking about the wineries? I am well aware that most of the wineries are outside the city limits using the same aquifer  You took my question out of context , nice try! You are just being a popinjay and rhetorical  Also, you didn’t answer another question about “what is the unit cost of water” in Templeton? as compared to Paso Robles 
whatisup says:	09/13/2010 at 8:54 pm
I am on a well  I am sure you are capable of doing your own homework  I also am quite sure if you really contacted the Deputy Chief Counsel’s Office you have been set straight  What I gave you is a proposed small adjustment in the wide range of laws that make up the California Housing element  I assumed you could stumble onto the facts based on what I gave you  By the way, I believe you can review the Paso Robles Housing element plan on the City’s website or at the Library  The California Housing Element Laws that all cities and counties have to follow have been in place for almost 25 years  I realize you don’t actually have a clue how to look the laws up  Either educate yourself or keep making a fool of yourself, your choice  A simple Google search of California Housing Element Laws will get you going  Good Luck!
TO WHATISUP — I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT LAW YOU ARE REFERRING TO THAT SAYS “WE” THE PEOPLE HAVE TO SUBSIDIZE NEW DEVELOPMENT? AGAIN, FOR THE THIRD TIME, YOU FAILED TO ANSWER MY QUESTIONS POSED TO YOU IN MY PRIOR RESPONSES TO YOU ON SEPT 10TH &11TH  IS THERE A REASON WHY YOU DON’T WANT TO ANSWER THEM? YOU DO WHAT OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS DO SO WELL, AND THAT IS “IN ONE EAR AND OUT OF THE OTHER EAR” IT SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU ARE EITHER EMPLOYED BY THE CITY OR YOU HAVE OTHER DEALING WITH THE CITY, SO BE IT  IT APPEARS TO ME THAT YOU THINK THE CITY DOES EVERYTHING RIGHT  APPARENTLY, YOU PRESENT YOURSELF AS BEING VERY BIAS ON CITY DECISIONS  IT LIKE THEY CAN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG ACCORDING TO YOUR LOGIC  THEY KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR THE CITIZENS OF PASO,THAT IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF ARROGANCE ALONG WITH NARCISSISM 
WHAT PEOPLE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THAT DOESN’T PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE OF WATER? ARE YOU REFERRING TO THE WINERIES USING THE SAME AQUIFER?
I BELIEVE YOU RELATED THAT YOU RESIDE IN TEMPLETON, BUT YOU OWN PROPERTY IN PASO  BY THE WAY, WHAT IS THE COST PER UNIT OF WATER USAGE IN TEMPLETON COMPARED TO PASO? OF COURSE, TEMPLETON IS IN AN UNINCORPORATED AREA (COUNTY JURISDICTION) 
WELL, I GAVE YOU SOME SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO PAY FOR THE NACIMIENTO WATER PIPELINE AND SEWER TREATMENT PLANT  ALSO, REMEMBER IT’S THE CITIZENS’ MONEY THAT IS BEING SPENT  WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, IS LET THE CITIZENS OF PASO DECIDE WITH THEIR VOTE ON HOW TO FINANCE THIS HUGE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT EXPENDITURE  JUST BE IN COMPLIANCE WITH STATE PROPOSITION 218 AND STOP CIRCUMVENTING THE LAW 
WOULD YOU OBJECT TO HAVING TO FINANCE SOME NEW BONDS ON YOUR PROPERTY TAX BILL AS A ” SPECIAL TAX” OR AN ASSESSMENT TAX” TO PAY FOR THE NACIMIENTO WATER PIPELINE AND SEWER TREATMENT PLANT? A PERCENTAGE OF PASO CITIZENS FINANCE LOCAL SCHOOL BONDS ON THEIR PROPERTY TAX BILL AND DON’T HAVE ANY KIDS GOING TO SCHOOL  HOW ABOUT THAT COMPARISON FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT? WHAT SAY YOU?
I say less CapsLock, please 
whatisup says:	09/12/2010 at 11:41 pm
I have answered your questions  I have been quite detailed in my answers and I am sorry if you can’t deal with the detail  I guess it is your inconvenient truth  You do seem to like to deflect and go around in circles  Another example, now you are ranting about the wineries using the same aquaifier as the City  Let me be clear for you, I don’t like the amount of water the wineries are using  However, the wineries are in the County, not in the City and the City can’t do anything about it  They wineries are allowed to take the water they are taking even if it drops the City’s water levels in their wells  You need to complain to Sacramento  It sounds like you just don’t want to pay anything for the infrastructure because you really just don’t want it built 
Several of your observations of my opinions are bizarre considering I have stated several times I believe the Courts need to decide if Paso Robles has, or has not followed the rules as to funding the infrastucture  Obviously, as I have stated before, if the City loses the lawsuit the infrastructure will have to be paid out of the City’s General Fund until a new method of payment is voted on by the Citizens of Paso Robles  Pretty clear 
Your idea of charging based on a special assesment rather than the amount of water a property uses means that people who use little water, but live on a more expensive property will pay more than their share, based on their water usage  In addition, how do you deal with a rental unit where the renter is supposed to pay the water bill? Your idea is inherantly unfair, but my guess is it will favor you, so you don’t care if it is unfair and other people would pay part of your share  You also have decided that since I have alternative ideas to yours I must work for, or have business with the City of Paso Robles, another attempt to deflect from the issue  However, once again, I have never worked for the City or have ever done business with the City and don’t expect to ever do business with the City  I do own property in the City which is why I pay attention  Finally, it turns out there needs to be a fix to the housing element laws, the existance of which you are questioning  As I understand it the fix to the housing elemnt laws is because of some lawsuit  This should give you all the information you need to educate yourself on the California Housing Element laws that every city and county in California has to follow:
BILL ANALYSIS ————————————————————
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 602|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
———————————————————— THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 602
Author: Feuer (D), et al
Amended: 8/20/10 in Senate
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMM : 6-3, 6/29/10
AYES: Lowenthal, DeSaulnier, Kehoe, Pavley, Simitian, Wolk
NOES: Huff, Ashburn, Harman
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Statute of limitations on housing element
SOURCE : California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Housing California DIGEST : This bill states the intent of the Legislature
in enacting this bill to modify the courts opinion in Urban
Habitat Program v  City of Pleasanton (2008) 164
Cal App 4th 1561, with respect to the interpretation of
Section 65009 of the Government Code, and revises and
clarifies statute of limitations and remedies for specified
housing related challenges 
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/20/10 revise the statute of
limitations and remedies for specified housing-related
ANALYSIS : The Planning and Zoning Law requires cities
and counties to prepare and adopt a general plan, including
a housing element, to guide the future growth of a
community  Following a staggered statutory schedule,
cities and counties located within the territory of a
metropolitan planning organization (MPO) must revise their
housing elements every eight years, and cities and counties
in rural non-MPO regions must revise their housing elements
every five years  These five- and eight-year periods are
known as the housing element planning period 
Before each revision, each community is assigned its fair
share of housing for each income category through the
regional housing needs assessment (RHNA) process  A
housing element must identify and analyze existing and
projected housing needs, identify adequate sites with
appropriate zoning to meet its share of the RHNA, and
ensure that regulatory systems provide opportunities for,
and do not unduly constrain, housing development  The
reviews both draft and adopted housing elements to
determine whether or not they are in substantial compliance
with the law  The Planning and Zoning Law and the Subdivision Map Act
also includes a number of sections governing zoning and
entitlements specifically related to housing, including:
? The Housing Accountability Act, which requires a city or
county to make one or more specified findings in order to
disapprove a particular housing development 
? A provision requiring cities and counties, when adopting
an ordinance which limits the number of housing units
which may be constructed on an annual basis, to make
findings as to the public health, safety, and welfare
benefits that justify reducing the housing opportunities
of the region  ? Density bonus law, which requires cities and counties to
grant a developer a density bonus, incentives, and
concessions when the developer proposes to include
specified percentages of affordable housing within a
development  ? The Least Cost Zoning Law, which requires cities and AB 602
counties to designate and zone sufficient vacant land for
residential use with appropriate standards to meet
housing needs for all income categories and to contribute
to producing housing at the lowest possible cost 
? A requirement that, when determining whether to approve a
tentative subdivision map, a city or county shall apply
only those ordinances, policies, and standards in effect
as of the date the developer’s application is deemed
Prior to a recent court decision, it was understood that
current law allowed a party to challenge the adequacy of a
city’s or county’s housing element at any time during a
planning period, provided that the challenger brought the
action “in support of or to encourage or facilitate the
development of housing that would increase the community’s
supply of [affordable] housing ” The challenging party was
required first to serve the city or county with a notice
identifying the deficiencies in the housing element  After
60 days or the date on which the city or county took final
action in response to the notice, whichever occurred first,
the challenging party had one year to file the action in
court  This process and statute of limitations also
applied to actions brought pursuant to the housing-related
statutes listed above  In 2006 Urban Habitat Program brought suit to challenge the
City of Pleasanton’s housing policies, including the city’s
annual cap on housing permits and the city’s cap on the
aggregate number of permissible housing units, both of
which Urban Habitat claimed were insufficient to allow the
city to meet its RHNA obligation  In 2008, the First
District California Court of Appeals issued an unpublished
decision in the case of Urban Habitat Program v  City of
Pleasanton allowing the case to proceed with respect to
some causes of action, but ruling that the challenge to the
housing element itself was time-barred  The court stated:
Although the statute does not specify the time within
which [a deficiency] notice must be given, it is our
conclusion that the statute must be interpreted as
containing a time limit within which this requirement
must be met? In sum, a party bringing a challenge AB 602
governed by section 65009, subdivision (d), has 90
days from the date a legislative action is taken or
approval is given to notify the local land use
authority of any claimed deficiencies in such an
action or approval  Its claim then accrues 60 days
after it gives this notice 
In other words, instead of being able to initiate a
challenge to a deficient housing element at any time during
the planning period, housing advocates and other interested
parties may now only initiate such a challenge by
submitting a deficiency notice within 90 days of the
housing element’s adoption 
1 Removes from the current list of city or county actions
which may be challenged pursuant to Government Code 65009
notice and accrual provisions those actions related to
the Housing Accountability Act, the Subdivision Map Act,
and the application of a Density Bonus ordinance to a
particular project, all of which are project-specific
actions  The bill maintains the ability to use these
notice and accrual provisions to challenge the adequacy
of a city’s or county’s density bonus ordinance
2 Extends lengthening the time in which a deficiency notice
may be served to cover all remaining city or county
actions described in this section of law, as opposed to
just housing element challenges  In other words, the
amendments apply the longer timeframe to serve the
deficiency notice to actions relating to the Least Cost
Zoning Law, annual limits on housing permits, and the
adequacy of a density bonus ordinance, in addition to
housing element law  3 Provides that an entity challenging such an action in
support of affordable housing may serve the deficiency
notice up to five years after the city’s or county’s
action  After 60 days or the date on which the city or
county takes final action in response to the notice,
whichever occurs first, the challenging party has one
year to file an action in court, except that the lawsuit AB 602
may not be filed more than five years after the city’s or
county’s action  In other words, the entity must file
the lawsuit within one year of the expiration of the
deficiency notice or within five years of the city’s or
county’s action, whichever occurs first 
4 Provides that a housing element from a prior planning
period may not be challenged if the city or county has
adopted a revised housing element for the new planning
Government Code 65755   Current law requires a court, if it
finds any portion of a general plan, including a housing
element, out of compliance with the law, to include within
its order or judgment one or more of the following remedies
for any or all types of developments or any or all
geographic segments of the city or county until the city or
county has complied with the law:
? Suspend the authority of the city or county to
issue building permits 
grant zoning changes and/or variances 
grant subdivision map approvals 
? Mandate the approval of building permits for
residential housing that meet specified criteria 
? Mandate the approval of final subdivision maps for
housing projects that meet specified criteria 
? Mandate the approval of tentative subdivision maps
for residential housing projects that meet specified
This bill clarifies that in any action or proceeding
brought pursuant to the notice and accrual provisions of
Government Code Section 65009 described above, neither the
court remedies described above nor any injunction against
the development of a housing project shall abrogate,
impair, or otherwise interfere with the full exercise of
the rights and protections granted to an applicant for a
tentative map or a vesting tentative map under specified
provisions of the Subdivision Map Act or to a developer
under a specified provision relating to development AB 602
Under current law, HCD operates a number of grant programs
to which cities and counties may apply  In many cases, the
law requires a city or county to have an HCD-approved
housing element in order to be eligible for funding  This bill provides that if a third-party challenges the
adequacy of a housing element in court and the court finds
that the housing element substantially complies with all of
the requirements of housing element law, the element shall
be deemed to be in compliance for purposes of state housing
The statutory language interpreted by the court and at
issue in this bill was added to statute by AB 998 (Waters),
Chapter 1138, Statutes of 1983, a bill sponsored by the
League of California Cities and the California Building
Industry Association  AB 998 created a short statute of
limitations period for land use decisions generally but
provided a specific exception to protect the ability to
challenge deficient housing elements  The Senate Housing
and Land Use Committee and the Senate Third Reading
analysis of the bill stated that the bill:
Specifies that for challenges in support of low- and
moderate-income housing requirements, the petitioner
shall notice local government 60 days prior to filing
action  The [one-year] statute of limitations then
begins on the first day the legislative body fails to
In the intervening 25 years prior to the Urban Habitat
ruling, housing advocates filed and successfully settled at
least ten cases in which the 60-day deficiency notice was
sent more than 90 days after adoption of the city’s or
county’s housing element  In none of these cases was the
timeliness on the advocates’ suit contested  Likewise, six
bills amended other portions of this statute during those
intervening years, and there was never any controversy
surrounding the lack of a deadline for housing advocates to
serve a deficiency notice nor any attempt to change the AB 602
statute in this regard  Current level of housing element compliance   According to
HCD’s website as of June 7, 2010, only 46 percent of cities
and counties have adopted an HCD-approved housing element
for the current planning period that began in 2005 for the
San Diego region, 2008 for the Southern California, Fresno,
Kern, and Sacramento regions, and the summer of 2009 for
the remaining areas of the state  Unlocking the private market   The purpose of housing
element law is to create opportunities for the private
housing market to function  Builders cannot build without
access to appropriately zoned land, and current land use
plans in many cities and counties in California fail to
provide sufficient opportunities to accommodate projected
population growth  The San Diego Association of
Governments’ Regional Comprehensive Plan describes this
typical California paradox in the following way:
Under current plans and policies, more than 90 percent
of [the San Diego region’s] remaining vacant land
designated for housing is planned for densities of
less than one home per acre, and most is in the rural
back country areas dependent upon scarce groundwater
supplies  And of the remaining vacant land planned for
housing in the 18 incorporated cities, only about
seven percent is planned for multifamily housing  When
taken together, the current land use plans of the 19
local jurisdictions do not accommodate the amount of
growth anticipated in our region  SANDAG’s population
forecast, which reflects the current adopted local
land use plans in the region, projects that while
population will increase by 37 percent by 2030,
housing will grow by just 30 percent  The forecast
shows that if local plans are not changed, demand for
housing will continue to outpace the supply, just as
Housing element law addresses this problem directly by
requiring cities and counties to zone land at appropriate
densities to accommodate the projected housing needs of all
income groups and to remove constraints that prevent such
sites from being developed at the allowed densities  AB 602
Cities and counties, however, are not required to build
housing because that is the role of private developers 
The law holds cities and counties accountable only for that
which they control: zoning and land use entitlements 
Without the ability to enforce housing element law, the
market’s ability to meet housing demand may well remain
locked up 
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com : No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/23/10)
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (co-source)
Housing California (co-source)
Advocates for Affordable Homes in Fremont
California Coalition for Rural Housing
Community Housing Improvement Program
Community Housing Works
Eden Housing
Fair Housing of Marin
Grassroots Leadership Network of Marin
Kennedy Commission
Public Advocates, Inc
San Diego Housing Federation
Self-Help Enterprises
Sierra Club of California
American Planning Association, California Chapter
JA:nl 8/23/10 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
pasoobserver says:	09/11/2010 at 11:17 pm
To whatisup — Thank you for your response to my comments  However, you failed to answer some of my questions that I mentioned to you  It’s almost like dealing with some City officials  They just let the public vent at their bimonthly council meetings  In my opinion, it’s difficult to deal with narcissism and arrogance  Over the years, there has been some very good input to our elected officials on how to proceed on the Nacimiento water pipeline,but it fell on deaf ears  You wanted me to answer some of your questions,but you did not answer some of my questions  Again, are you willing to subsidize new development?,Yes?or No?, are you willing to pay for a commodity that you are not receiving? Yes?or No? and another question for you  Are you willing to pay over 300% on your water bills within the five (5) year plan that the City has proposed? Also, the water rates will be subject to later increases too  By the way, I do concur with the city’s plan of “you pay for the amount of water units you use”  (748 gal=one unit)  However, the higher water rates are not good for our senior citizens on fixed incomes and other struggling families in our community  My first suggestion years ago was desalination  The response was it was too expensive  Of course, now it is more expensive  I would suggest that our elected officials recall the existing bonds (The bonds can be recalled early)  The City council can explain to the citizens in detail with financing of new bonds at a lower interest rate as of now for the sewer plant and Nacimiento water pipeline and present their new proposal in compliance with Proposition 218  Let the citizens of Paso VOTE on the financing bonds for their approval  Most of the citizens,that I had spoken to were not happy with the way our City Council handled the Nacimiento water pipeline project  The citizens of Paso didn’t give our City Council a “BLANK CHECK” for $176 million to spend without voter approval  I would suggest that it be a “special tax” or “an assessment” be levied on our property taxes  A percentage of those bonds can be deducted on Federal Income taxes  As it is now, a” fee” on a capital funding project is not deductible  Of course, there are homeowners would not go for this suggestion due to our poor economy  My analogy mentioned above would be, you would get something back on a “special tax” or an “assessment” verses nothing on a “fee”  What say you?
whatisup says:	09/12/2010 at 9:02 am
Unfortunately the law says we have to subsidize new development in California  I don’t like it, but it is the law  I know paying using the property taxes was bandied about  The argument against it was it would mean some would be paying for water they aren’t using and others could be big water users, but pay a small special assessment on their property taxes  I think the decision that was made to base it on usage was out of fairness  It seems to me if people are using water and not paying their share of the costs it is not fair  The Senior issue is very difficult  If someone is retired for twenty years is it realistic to think prices don’t go up during the 20 years of retirement  Think what prices were in 1990 compared to today  Should Seniors never have to pay for capital improvements? Paso Robles also had very low water rates  Rates that are no longer possible given the circumstances  Desalination will happen eventually  California is out of water  If you want to pay $1,000,000 a gallon there is no more allotable water of any consequence in California  The expense will be tremendous — still have to build a desalination plant, still have to build a pipeline  I don’t know if the plant has to be built along the ocean or if the salt water could be piped over to Paso Robles  If it has to be built along the ocean, Paso Robles doesn’t own land on the ocean and, in any case, the environmentalists will keep it in courts for years as they have done so for other proposed desalination plants in Southern California  Eventually necessity will force desalination past the environmentalists, but not yet 
pasojim says:	09/13/2010 at 7:46 am
Whatisup – On one of your previous post you made the comment you haven’t heard any of the legal suggestions for the water issue, But you obviously have  That is a good thing  So we can move the discussion ahead 
Once, again this was handled incorrectly by our city custodians from the beginning  And now here we are  The public is not supporting this very expensive, very limited benefit project  As you said, until a plan is developed that the public can support, things don’t look good 
All this discussion about the water issue has only reinforced my opinion the issue hasn’t been about water, only how the plan should be paid for  Or more specifically, to what extent do we allow our elected custodians and our un-elected GOD tzar decide which laws they will follow and which laws they will ignore  When the City GOD tzar tell citizens at a council meeting if we don’t agree with the City’s plan, then we should just sue him, and when the City Attorney explains to a citizen at a City Council meeting that she does have to respond to their questions because she does NOT work for them  When the project is voted down by the citizens and the council brings it right back up, it is clear that our elected representatives are not doing their job providing direction to their employees and listening to and representing the CITIZENS 
The subject of the original post was the need to elect different representation  I think with all the conversation made on this post, as well as the post on Cal Coast about the hiring of the new legal firm you were involved in, Supports my original opinion 
Context 2: Sowing the Seeds of Future Research: Data Sharing, Citation and Reuse in Archaeobotany
Reading: Sowing the Seeds of Future Research: Data Sharing, Citation and Reuse in Archaeobotany
University of Oxford, GB
Lisa is a post-doctoral research fellow at All Souls College, University of Oxford  Her publications include the co-authored volume The Rural Economy of Roman Britain (Britannia Monographs, 2017)  Her research interests are focussed on agricultural practices in the later prehistoric and Roman period and the utilisation of archaeobotanical data to investigate human-plant relationships 
The practices of data sharing, data citation and data reuse are all crucial aspects of the reproducibility of archaeological research  This article builds on the small number of studies reviewing data sharing and citation practices in archaeology, focussing on the data-rich sub-discipline of archaeobotany  Archaeobotany is a sub-discipline built on the time-intensive collection of data on archaeological plant remains, in order to investigate crop choice, crop husbandry, diet, vegetation and a wide range of other past human-plant relationships  Within archaeobotany, the level and form of data sharing is currently unknown  This article first reviews the form of data shared and the method of data sharing in 239 articles across 16 journals which present primary plant macrofossil studies  Second, it assesses data-citation in meta-analysis studies in 107 articles across 20 journals  Third, it assesses data reuse practices in archaeobotany, before exploring how these research practices can be improved to benefit the rigour and reuse of archaeobotanical research 
Keywords: Archaeobotany, Data reuse, Data sharing, Open science
How to Cite: Lodwick, L , 2019  Sowing the Seeds of Future Research: Data Sharing, Citation and Reuse in Archaeobotany  Open Quaternary, 5(1), p 7  DOI: http://doi org/10 5334/oq 62
Accepted on 29 May 2019 Submitted on 25 Mar 2019
Archaeology is a discipline built on the production and analysis of quantitative data pertaining to past human behaviour  As each archaeological deposit is a unique occurrence, ensuring that the data resulting from excavation and analysis are preserved and accessible is crucially important  Currently, there is a general perception of a low level of data sharing and reuse  Such a low level of data availability would prevent the assessment of research findings and the reuse of data in meta-analysis (Kansa & Kansa 2013; Moore & Richards 2015)  As observed across scientific disciplines, there is a major problem in the reproduction of scientific findings, commonly known as the ‘replication crisis’ (Costello et al  2013)  A range of intersecting debates contribute to this, including access to academic findings (open access), open data, access to software and access to methodologies, which can be broadly grouped as open science practices  Without these, the way that scientific findings can be verified and built upon is impaired  Questions of reproducibility have been raised in recent years in archaeology, with considerations of a range of practices which can improve the reproducibility of findings, and a recent call for the application of open science principles to archaeology (Marwick et al  2017)  Discussion has so far focussed on access to grey literature (Evans 2015), data sharing (Atici et al  2013), data citation practices (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018) and computational reproducibility (Marwick 2017), with a focus on lithics, zooarchaeological evidence, and archaeological site reports 
Quantitative assessments of current levels of data sharing, data citation and reuse remain limited in archaeology  The focus of evaluation has been on the uptake of large-scale digital archives for the preservation and dissemination of digital data, such as the Archaeology Data Service (ADS), utilised by developer-led and research projects, and recommended for use by many research funders in the UK (Richards 2002; Wright and Richards 2018)  Much less focus has been paid to the data-sharing practices of individuals or small-groups of university-based researchers who may be disseminating their research largely through journal articles  Recent work on the availability of data on lithics assemblages found a low level of data sharing (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018) and there are perceptions of low levels of data reuse (Huggett 2018; Kintigh et al  2018)  Within zooarchaeology numerous studies have explored issues of data sharing and reuse (Kansa & Kansa 2013, 2014), and the sub-discipline is seen as one of the most advanced areas of archaeology in regards to open science (Cooper & Green 2016: 273)  Beyond zooarchaeology, however, explicit discussion has remained limited 
This paper assesses data sharing and reuse practices in archaeology through the case study of archaeobotany – a long established sub-discipline within archaeology which has well-established principles of data recording  Archaeobotany is an interesting case study for data sharing in archaeology as it straddles the division of archaeology between scientific and more traditional techniques  Quantitative data on archaeological plant remains are also of interest to a range of other fields, including ecology, environmental studies, biology and earth sciences  The key issues of data sharing and data reuse (Atici et al  2013) have been touched upon in archaeobotany over the past decade within broader discussions on data quality (Van der Veen, Livarda & Hill 2007; Van der Veen, Hill & Livarda 2013)  These earlier studies focussed on the quality and availability of archaeobotanical data from developer-funded excavations in Britain and Cultural Resource Management in North America (Vanderwarker et al  2016: 156)  However, no discussion of data-sharing and reuse in academic archaeobotany occurred  A recent review of digital methods in archaeobotany is the notable exception, with discussions of the challenges and methods of data sharing (Warinner & d’Alpoim Guedes 2014) 
Currently, we have no evidence for the levels of data sharing and reuse within archaeobotany  This article provides the first quantitative assessment of 1) data publication in recent archaeobotanical journal articles 2) data citation in recent archaeobotanical meta-analysis 3) the reuse of archaeobotanical datasets, in order to assess whether practices need to change and how such changes can take place 
2  Data Publication and Re-use Practices in Archaeobotany
2 1  History of data production and publication
Archaeobotanical data falls within the category of observational data in archaeology (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018)  Archaeobotanical data is considered as the quantitative assessment of plant macrofossils present within a sample from a discrete archaeological context, which can include species identification, plant part, levels of identification (cf  – confer or “compares to”), and a range of quantification methods including count, minimum number of individuals, levels of abundance and weight (Popper 1988)  Archaeobotanical data is usually entered into a two-way data table organised by sample number  Alongside the counts of individual taxa, other information is also necessary to interpret archaeobotanical data, including sample volume, flot volume, charcoal volume, flot weight, level of preservation, sample number, context number, feature number, feature type and period  Beyond taxonomic identifications, a range of other types of data are increasingly gathered on individual plant macrofossils (morphometric measurements, isotopic values, aDNA) 
Archaeobotanical training places a strong emphasis on recording data on a sample-by-sample basis (Jacomet & Kreuz 1999: 138–139; Jones & Charles 2009; Pearsall 2016: 97–107)  Time-consuming methodologies utilised in the pursuit of accurate sample-level data recording include sub-sampling and splitting samples into size fractions and counting a statistically useful number of items per sample (Van der Veen & Fieller 1982)  The creation of sample-level data means analysis is often undertaken on the basis of individual samples, for instance the assessment of crop-processing stages and weed ecological evidence for crop husbandry practices  The analysis of sample level data also enables archaeobotanical finds to be integrated alongside contextual evidence from archaeological sites  Requirements for the publication of this data are in place in some archaeological guidelines, for instance current Historic England guidelines for archaeological practice in England (Campbell, Moffett & Straker 2011: 8) 
From the earliest archaeobotanical reports, such as Reid’s work at Roman Silchester, the sample from which plant remains were recovered was noted (Lodwick 2017a), but often results were reported as a list of taxa, or long catalogues of detailed botanical descriptions with seed counts, such as Knörzer’s work at Neuss (Knörzer 1970)  Early systematic archaeobotanical reports displayed data within in-text tables, for example Jones’s work at Ashville (Jones 1978) and the two-way data table has been the standard form of reporting archaeobotanical data ever since  Often data tables are presented within book chapters or appendices, but the financial, space and time constraints of book publishing are limiting  Furthermore, there is the perception that specialist data was not necessary for publication (Barker 2001)  Hence, alternative methods of the dissemination of specialist archaeological data were pursued in the later twentieth century 
From the 1980s, archaeobotanical data tables were often consigned to microfiche following a Council for British Archaeology and Department of Environment report (Moore & Richards 2015: 31), with the example of the excavation of Roman Colchester where the contents of all archaeobotanical samples were available on microfiche (Murphy 1992)  An alternative in the 2000s was providing data tables on CD Rom as seen, for instance, in the CD accompanying the study of a Roman farmstead in the Upper Thames Valley (Robinson 2007) or the One Poultry excavations in London (Hill and Rowsome 2011)  Meanwhile, the inception of the Archaeology Data Service, a digital repository for heritage data, in 1996 meant archaeological datasets were increasingly digitally archived, for instance the data from the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Project (Foreman 2018) or a recent large-scale research excavation at Silchester (University of Reading 2018)  In these cases, archaeobotanical data is available to download as a  csv file 
Whilst the data publication strategy of large excavations was shifting, the availability of data from post-excavation assessment reports has remained challenging  So-called ‘grey literature’ results from the initial evaluation stage of developer-funded investigations and accompanying post-excavation assessment often contain a semi-quantitative evaluation of archaeobotanical samples on a scale of abundance  Whilst paper reports were initially deposited with county Historic Environment Records, a process of digitisation focussing on the Roman period has meant many pdfs are now available through the ADS (Allen et al  2018), whilst born-digital reports are now deposited through OASIS (Online AccesS to the Index of archaeological investigationS), as part of the reporting process (Evans 2015), althought the extent to which specialist appendices are included is variable 
These varying ‘publication’ strategies means archaeobotanical data is often available somewhere for recent developer-funded excavations and large-scale developer-funded excavations, even if much of this data is as a printed table or  pdf file (Evans 2015; Evans and Moore 2014)  However, academic journals are typically perceived as the most high-status publication venue for archaeobotanical data, and a crucial publication venue for academics in order to comply with institutional requirements and the norms of career progression  Aside from the problem of access to pay-walled journals by those without institutional subscriptions to all journals, the publication of primary data alongside research articles faces various problems, from the outright lack of inclusion of data, to problematic curation of supplementary data and a lack of peer review of data (Costello et al  2013; Warinner and d’Alpoim Guedes 2014: 155; Whitlock, 2011)  The extent of these problems for archaeobotany is currently unknown  Given the growth in archaeobotanical data production as methodologies are introduced into many new regions and periods over the last decade, it is vital that we know whether the mass of new data being produced is made available and is being reused 
Recent important advances within archaeobotanical data sharing have focussed on the construction of the ARBODAT database, developed by Angela Kreuz at the Kommission für Archäologische Landesforschung in Hessen  The database is used by a range of researchers in Germany, the Czech Republic, France and England (Kreuz & Schäfer 2002)  Data sharing enabled by the use of this database has facilitated research on Neolithic agriculture in Austria, Bulgaria and Germany (Kreuz et al  2005), and Bronze Age agriculture in Europe (Stika and Heiss 2012)  The use of this database makes data integration between specialists easier due to the shared data structure and metadata description, but often the primary archaeobotanical data is not made publicly available 
2 2  Meta-analysis in archaeobotany
Beyond the need to preserve information, a key reason for the formal sharing of archaeobotanical data is in its reuse to facilitate subsequent research  There has been a long-standing concern within archaeobotany with the need to aggregate datasets and identify temporal and spatial patterns  The palaeobotanist Clement Reid maintained his own database of Quaternary plant records in the late nineteenth century (Reid 1899), which formed the foundation of Godwin’s Quaternary database (Godwin 1975)  Mid-twentieth century studies of prehistoric plant use compiled lists of archaeobotanical materials incorporating full references and the location of the archive (Jessen & Helbaek 1944)  The International Work Group for Palaeoethnobotany was itself founded in 1968 in part with the aim to compile archaeobotanical data, first realised through the publication of Progress in Old World Palaeoethnobotany (Van Zeist, Wasylikowa & Behre 1991), and subsequently through the publication of annual lists of new records of cultivated plants (Kroll 1997) 
To take England as an example, regional reviews produced by state heritage authorities have provided catalogues of archaeobotanical datasets in particular time periods and regions (e g  Murphy 1998)  When one archaeobotanist has undertaken the majority of study within a region, pieces of synthesis within books have provided a relatively comprehensive review, for instance in the Thames Valley, UK (Lambrick & Robinson 2009)  Over the last decade regional synthesis has occurred within several funded reviews which produced catalogues of sites with archaeobotanical data (Lodwick 2014; McKerracher 2018; Parks 2012) and a series of funded projects in France have enabled regional synthesis (Lepetz & Zech-Matterne 2017)  However, many of these reviews are not accompanied by an available underlying database, and draw upon reports which are themselves hard to access 
Through the 1990s and 2000s, a series of databases were constructed in order to collate data from sites in a particular region and facilitate synthetic research  However, these databases have all placed the role of data archiving onto later projects specifically funded to collate data, rather than sourcing datasets at the time of publication  Such a model is unsustainable, and is unlikely to result in all available datasets being compiled  The Archaeobotanical Computer Database (ABCD), published in 1996 in the first issue of Internet Archaeology, contained much of the archaeobotanical data from Britain available at the time of publication, largely at the level of individual samples  The database was compiled between 1989 and 1994 and is still accessible through the accompanying online journal publication (Tomlinson & Hall 1996)  The ABCD made major contributions to recent reviews of the Roman and Medieval periods (Van der Veen, Livarda & Hill 2008; Van der Veen, Hill & Livarda 2013)  However, the database could only be centrally updated, with the online resource remaining a static version, lacking much of the new data produced subsequent to the implementation of PPG16 in 1990  The ADEMNES database, created through a research project undertaken at the Universities of Freiburg and Tübingen, contains data from 533 eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern sites (Riehl & Kümmel 2005)  Kroll has maintained the Archaeobotanical Literature Database to accompany the Vegetation History and Archaeobotany articles (Kroll 2005) now accessible as a database (Kirleis & Schmültz 2018)  Numerous other databases have collated archaeobotanical studies, including the COMPAG project (Fuller et al  2015), the Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe project (Colledge 2016), RADAR in the Netherlands (van Haaster and Brinkkemper 1995), BRAIN Botanical Records of Archaeobotany Italian Network (Mercuri et al  2015) and CZAD – Archaeobotanical database of Czech Republic (CZAD 2019) 
The majority of databases have a restricted regional coverage, whilst research-project driven period-specific databases provide overlapping content  Whilst there are a wide range of archaeobotanical databases available, few contain primary datasets (other than the ABCD) which can be downloaded as  csv files  Data which is most commonly available are bibliographic references per site, with some indications of mode of preservation, quantity of archaeobotanical data, and sometimes taxa present  The databases do not inter-relate to each other, and function primarily as bibliographic sources enabling researchers to find comparative sites or to identify published datasets which need to be re-tabulated prior to meta-analysis  The IWGP website curates a list of resources, but otherwise the resources are often disseminated through the archaeobotany jiscmail list 
Beyond the aim of cataloguing archaeobotanical data within a region and period, meta-analysis is often used in archaeobotany to identify spatial and chronological trends in a range of past human activities, for instance crop choice, crop husbandry practices, plant food consumption, the trade in luxury foods or the use of plants in ritual  Meta-analysis can be undertaken on the basis of simple presence/absence data per site, but in order for such analysis to be rigorous and comparable, sample-level data must be utilised  For instance, sample-level data is required for meta-studies, in order to identify high-quality samples of unmixed crops for weed ecology analysis (Bogaard 2004), to assess the importance of context in the evaluation of wild plant foods (Wallace et al  2019), or to use volumetric measurements as a proxy for scale (Lodwick 2017b)  The reuse of archaeobotanical data also extends to include datasets used as “controls” in commonly used forms of statistical analysis, for instance Jones’s weed data from Amorgos, Greece, which is utilised as a control group in discriminant analysis of crop-processing stage (Jones 1984), and ethnographic observations of crop items in different crop-processing stages (Jones 1990) 
2 3  Open data principles and solutions
Debates over issues of data publication and meta-analysis have been on-going across scientific disciplines over the last decade (Editors 2009), and have been summarised within principles of open science, as recently set out in relation to archaeology (Marwick et al  2017)  Open Data is one of the three core principles for promoting transparency in social science (Miguel et al  2014)  The FAIR principles, developed by representatives from academia, industry, funding agencies, industry and publishers, provide four principles which data sharing should meet for use by both humans and machines – Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (Wilkinson et al  2016)  A recent report assessing the adoption and impact of FAIR principles across academia in the UK included archaeology as a case study (Allen and Hartland 2018: 46)  It reported how the ADS was often used to archive data, but that “The journal itself provides the “story” about the data, the layer that describes what the data is, how it was collected and what the author thinks it means ” The report also raises the problem that smaller projects may not have the funding to utilise the ADS, meaning that other repositories are utilised  Increasingly, archaeological data is made available through a wide range of data repositories (OSF, Mendeley Data, Zenodo, Open Context), university data repositories (e g  ORA-Data), or social networking sites for academics (Academia edu, ResearchGate)



ground_truth: Fairness.

prompt_front: Now, answer the following question based on the text below, only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What are some reasons for the lack of data sharing in archaeobotany?

Read the following text and answer briefly.

Context 2:  More widely in archaeology, some have observed that archaeological data is rarely published (Kintigh et al  2014), and recent reviews have reported low levels of data sharing (Huggett 2018; Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018)  A closely related issue is that of data reuse  Responsible reuse of primary data encourages the sharing of primary data (Atici et al  2013), but levels of data reuse in archaeology are thought to remain low (Huggett 2018)  Principles for responsible data citation in archaeology have recently been developed summarising how datasets should be cited (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018) 
In order to assess the current status of data sharing, citation and data re-use in archaeobotany, a review was undertaken of the publication of primary data and the publication of meta-analysis in major archaeological journals over the last ten years, building on recent pilot studies within archaeology (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018)  The review of academic journals provided a contrast to recent assessments of archaeobotanical data deriving from developer-funded archaeology (Lodwick 2017c; Van der Veen, Hill & Livarda 2013)  Journal articles have been selected as the focus of this study as the provision of online supplementary materials in the majority of journals and the ability to insert hyperlinks to persistent identifiers (eg a DOI) to link to datasets available elsewhere should not limit the publication of data and references  Much archaeobotanical data is also published elsewhere, especially from projects not based in the university sector, that is commercial or community archaeology in the UK  Archaeobotanical datasets emanating from this research are more commonly published through monographs, county journal articles, and unpublished (or grey literature) reports, but these are beyond the scope of the current review 
All journal articles were included which represent the principle reporting of a new archaeobotanical assemblage  The selected journals fall within three groups  First, what is considered the specialist archaeobotanical journal (Vegetation History and Archaeobotany (VHA))  Second, archaeological science journals (Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, Environmental Archaeology, The Holocene, Journal of Archaeological Science (JAS), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (JASR), Journal of Ethnobiology, Quaternary International, Journal of Wetland Archaeology), which can be considered as specialist sub-disciplinary journals which should be maintaining data-quality  Third, general archaeology journals (Antiquity, Journal of Field Archaeology, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of World Prehistory)  Finally, the broader cross-disciplinary journals PLoS One and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) were included  Published articles from the past ten years (2009–2018) have been analysed in order to assess the availability of plant macrofossil data  This ten-year period brackets the period where most archaeological journals have moved online and adopted supplementary materials 
Data citation in synthetic studies has been assessed in the same range of publications  The extent of data reuse ranges from the analysis of whole sample data to the presence/absence of individual crops  The location of a data citation has been assessed in the same range of publications, with the addition of journals where occasional research incorporating archaeobotanical data is featured (Britannia, Journal of Archaeological Research, Ethnobiology Letters, Medieval Archaeology, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, World Archaeology)  The underlying dataset for the analysis is available in Lodwick 2019 
4 1  Primary data sharing
Here, the location of primary archaeobotanical data, that is sample level counts of macroscopic plant remains, was assessed for 239 journal articles across 16 journals (Lodwick 2019 Table 1)  Figure 1 shows the results grouped by journal  Overall, only 56% of articles shared their primary data  In, Antiquity, JAS, JASR, PLOS One, Quaternary International and VHA, the highest proportion of publications did not include their primary data, that is to say that the sample-by-sample counts of plant macrofossils was not available  This level of data is comparable to the findings of other pilot studies in archaeology  Marwick and Pilaar Birch found a data sharing rate of 53% from 48 articles published in Journal of Archaeological Science in Feb – May 2017 (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018: 7), and confirm previous assertions that data is often withheld in archaeology (Kansa 2012: 499)  This is better than some disciplines, with a 9% data sharing rate on publication found across high impact journal science publications (n = 500) (Alsheikh-Ali et al  2011) and 13% in biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics (n = 4370) (Womack 2015), yet still indicates that nearly half of articles did not include primary data  Primary archaeobotanical data is more likely to be shared in archaeobotanical and archaeological science journals than general archaeology journals  However, within the primary archaeobotanical journal, VHA, 51% of articles do not include their primary data (Figure 1) 
Chart showing the location of primary archaeobotanical data by journal in primary archaeobotanical data publications 
Where primary data was not shared, the data which was available ranged from summary statistics, typically counts or frequencies, reported either by site, site phase, or feature group  Figure 2 summarises these results by year, showing that there is a gradient within articles not sharing their full ‘raw’ data, from those only provided sample counts on one aspect of the archaeobotanical assemblage, to those only presenting data graphically or within discussion  Beyond full data, the most common form of data shared is either summary counts per site or summary counts per feature or phase  Whilst this data does enable some level of reuse, the results of any sample-level data analysis presented within an article cannot be verified, and the data cannot be reused for crop-processing or weed ecology analysis which requires sample level data  Furthermore, such data would have been collected on a sample-by-sample basis, but this information is lost from the resulting publication 
Chart showing the form of archaeobotanical data shared by year in primary archaeobotanical data publications 
The forms in which data are made available vary across journals  The sharing of primary data within an article remains the most common data sharing form in archaeobotany (Figure 1)  Data tables in text require manual handling to extract data, in journals such as VHA, whilst in other journals in-text tables can be downloaded as  csv files  These however would not be citable as a separate dataset  Supplementary datasets are the third most common form of data sharing  Indeed, the use of electronic supplementary material has been advocated recently for by some journals, such as the Journal of Archaeological Science (Torrence, Martinón-Torres & Rehren 2015)  Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are the most common form of supplementary data, followed by  pdfs and then word documents (Figure 1)  Both  xlsx and  docx are proprietary file formats, and not recommended for long term archiving or open science principles  There is no indication of improvement over the last decade in the form of data sharing  In 2018, 50% of articles did not share their primary data, and where the data was shared, it was in proprietary forms ( docx,  xlsx) or those that do not easily facilitate data reuse ( pdf) (Figure 3) 
Chart showing the location of archaeobotanical data from 2009–2018 in primary archaeobotanical data publications 
Just one of the articles included in this review incorporated a dataset archived in a repository (Farahani 2018), in contrast to the substantial growth in data repositories across academic disciplines (Marcial & Hemminger 2010)  Other examples provide the underlying data for monograph publications, such as that of the archaeobotanical data from Gordion, Turkey (Marston 2017a, 2017b), Silchester, UK (Lodwick 2018; University of Reading 2018) and Vaihingen, Germany (Bogaard 2011a; Bogaard, 2011b) 
Several of the journals that have been assessed have research data policies  In the case of Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, sufficient papers have been surveyed to assess the impact of the research data policy on the availability of data  Figure 4 show the proportion of data sharing formats through time just for VHA (note the small sample size)  The introduction of a research data policy in 2016 encouraging data sharing in repositories has not resulted in any datasets being shared in that format  Of the 10 articles published in PLOS One after the introduction of a clear research data policy in 2014, 4 did not contain primary data  However, elsewhere, journals with no research data policy, such as Antiquity, has one of the lower levels of data sharing (Figure 1) 
Chart showing the location of primary archaeobotanical data in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 
There are various reasons for why a primary dataset may be lacking  The option of providing supplementary datasets has been available in many of the journals here since before the start of the surveyed period (e g  Vegetation History and Archaeobotany in 2004), and so cannot be a reason for the absence of data publication in this journal while it may be a reason in other journals  Reasons suggested for a lack of data sharing within archaeology include technological limitations, and resistance amongst some archaeologists to making their data available due to cautions of exposing data to scrutiny, lost opportunities of analysis before others use it and loss of ‘capital’ of data (Moore & Richards 2015: 34–35)  Furthermore, control over how data tables is presented (taxa ordering, summary data presented) may also contribute to the preferential publishing of data within journal articles  Another factor to consider is the emphasis on the creation of new data through archaeological research (Huvila 2016)  The creation of a new archaeobotanical dataset through primary analysis is a key form of training in archaeobotany, and the perception of the value of the reuse of other previously published archaeobotanical journals may be low, hence not encouraging the sharing of well-documented datasets  Excellent exams of data reuse have resulted in influential studies (Bogaard 2004; Riehl 2008; Wallace et al  2019), and would hopefully encourage further data sharing in the future 
Given that there are numerous examples of meta-analysis which do take place in archaeobotany, it seems likely that the prevalent form of data sharing is through informal data sharing between individual specialists  However, this does not improve access to data in the long term, and is inefficient and time consuming, with large potential for data errors (Kansa & Kansa 2013), and relies on personal networks, which are likely to exclude some researchers  The absence of primary data in many archaeobotanical publications thus inhibits the verification of patterns observed within a dataset, and strongly limits the re-use potential of a dataset 
4 2  Data citation
One of the common arguments for increasing data sharing is an associated increase in the citation of the articles which have data available  Here, the data citation practices of meta-analyses of plant macrofossil data undertaken over the last decade have been reviewed  20 journals were consulted, including a wider range of period-specific journals, and 107 articles were assessed (Lodwick 2019 Table 2)  Data citation was assessed as ‘in text’ or ‘in table’ to refer to when the citation and the bibliographic reference were within the article, as ‘in supplementary data’ when the citation and reference were within the supplementary materials, and as ‘no citation’ when no citation and reference was provided 
21% of articles (n = 22) did not contain any citations to the underlying studies  16% (n = 17) contained citations within supplementary data files  50% of articles (n = 53) contained a citation within a table within the main article, and 14% (n = 15) contained citations within the main text  For the 21% of articles without data citations, the results of these studies could not be reproduced without consulting individual authors  The papers supplying the underlying data also received no credit for producing these datasets  Where articles contain citations within the main article (in text or table), full credit is provided to the underlying studies, a citation link is created through systems such as google scholar, and the study can be easily built upon in the future  Where the citation is provided within supplementary data, the original studies do receive attribution, but are not linked to so easily 
Through time, there is a steady decrease in the proportion of studies without citations to the underlying data, whereby of the 17 meta-analysis articles published in 2018, only one had no data citations  In comparison, in 2009, 3 out of 8 meta-analysis articles contained no data citation (Figure 6)  Overall this is a more positive outlook on the reuse of published data, but the consistent presence of articles lacking data citation indicates that improvements are needed  Reasons for a lack of data citation may include restrictions on word counts imposed by journals, a lack of technical knowledge in making large databases available, or the wish to hold on to a dataset to optimise usage  Considering the type of journal (Figure 5), levels of data citation are worse in general archaeology journals, with sub-disciplinary journals showing slightly better levels of data citation  In particular VHA has a lack of consistency in where data citations are located 
Chart showing the location of data citations in meta-analysis journal articles by journal type 
Chart showing the location of data citations in meta-analysis journal articles from 2009–2018 
4 3  Reuse of archived archaeobotanical datasets
The majority of data citations assessed in the previous section are to articles or book chapters rather than data-sets  The ADS currently hosts 66 data archives which have been tagged as containing plant macro data, deriving mainly from developer-funded excavations but also some research excavations  However, in some of these the plant macro data is contained within a pdf  As, the archiving of archaeobotanical datasets in data repositories is still at an early stage, the reuse of these datasets is assessed here on a case-by-case basis  The archaeobotanical dataset from the Neolithic site of Vaihingen, Germany (Bogaard 2011b) has not been cited on google scholar  Metrics are provided through the ADS, showing this dataset has been downloaded 56 times with 477 individual visits (as of 25/2/19)  The archaeobotanical dataset from Gordion by Marston has no citations on Google Scholar (Marston 2017b), neither does the Giza botanical database (Malleson & Miracle 2018), but these are both very recently archived datasets  In contrast, the Roman Rural Settlement Project dataset, which includes site-level archaeobotanical data, has received greater levels of use, with 12 citations in Google Scholar, over 40,000 file downloads, and over 35,000 visits (Allen et al  2018) and the archaeobotanical computer database (Tomlinson & Hall 1996) has been cited 44 times, and is the major dataset underpinning other highly-cited studies (Van der Veen, Livarda & Hill 2008; Van der Veen, Hill & Livarda 2013)  Whilst there is clearly precedence for the reuse of archaeobotanical databases, current data citation practices within archaeobotany do not yet appear to be formally citing individual datasets, meaning an assessment of the reuse of archived archaeobotanical datasets is challenging 
5  Steps Forward
This review of data sharing, citation, and reuse practices in archaeobotany has found medium levels of data sharing, good levels of data citation, but so far limited levels of reuse of archived data sets  This picture is similar across archaeology, in part attributed to the status of archaeology as a small-science, where data-sharing takes place ad-hoc (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018)  Here, recommendations are discussed for improving these data practices within archaeobotany, of applicability more widely in archaeology 
Clearly an important step is improving the sharing of plant macrofossil data  Given the reasonable small size of most archaeobotanical datasets (a  csv file < 1mb), and a lack of ethical conflicts, there seems to be few reasons why the majority of archaeobotanical data couldn’t be shared  In the case of developer-funded derived data, issues of commercial confidentiality could limit the sharing of data  A key stage is establishing why levels of data sharing are not higher  Issues within archaeobotany may include the conflict between having to publish results within excavation monographs, which may take some time to be published, and have limited visibility due to high purchase costs and no digital access, and the need to publish journal articles for career progression within academia  The production of an archaeobotanical dataset is very time-consuming, and interim publication on notable aspects of an assemblage may be considered as a necessary publication strategy  More broadly, one important aspect is issues of equity in access to digital archiving resources (Wright & Richards 2018), such as differential access to funds, training and knowledge  A recent study in Sweden found that we need to know concerns, needs, and wishes of archaeologists in order to improve preservation of archaeological data (Huvila 2016), especially when control of ones data may be linked to perceptions of job security  In order to make improvements in data sharing and reuse across archaeology, we need improved training in data sharing and the reuse of data in higher education (Touchon & McCoy 2016; Cook et al  2018), improved training in data management (Faniel et al  2018), and crucially, the necessary software skills to make the reuse of archived datasets attainable (Kansa & Kansa 2014: 91)  Examples of good practice in archaeobotany are the Vaihingen and Gordion datasets which demonstrate how datasets can be archived in data repositories to accompany a monograph (Bogaard 2011b; Marston 2017b), whilst Farahani (2018) provides an excellent example of a journal article, where the primary data is supplied as a  csv in a cited data repository along with the R script for the analysis 
In tandem with the need to encourage authors to share their data, is the need for journals to create and implement research data policies  Given the existence of research data policies in many of the journals included here, this reflects other findings of the poor enforcement of data policies by journals (Marwick & Pilaar Birch 2018), supporting arguments that journals should not be relied upon to make data accessible, and data should instead by deposited in digital repositries  In order to implement change in data sharing, there is a role to play for learned societies and academic organisation in lobbying funding bodies, prioritising data sharing in research projects  A key step is through journal editorial boards, and the enforcement of any pre-existing research data policies (Nosek et al  2015)  Revi



ground_truth: Technological limitations, resistance to exposing data to scrutiny, and desire to hold onto data for personal use.

prompt_front: Now, answer the following question based on the text below, only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: How does the framework capture the reduced-order dynamics?

Read the following text and answer briefly.

Context 3: Paper Info

Title: Interpretable reduced-order modeling with time-scale separation Interpretable reduced-order modeling with time-scale separation
Publish Date: 7 March 2023
Author List: Sebastian Kaltenbach (from CSE-Lab, ETH Zurich, Harvard SEAS), Phaedon-Stelios Koutsourelakis (from CSE-Lab, ETH Zurich, Harvard SEAS), Petros Koumoutsakos (from CSE-Lab, ETH Zurich, Harvard SEAS), Harvard Seas (from CSE-Lab, ETH Zurich, Harvard SEAS)

Figure

FIG  5  Comparison between the phase-space of the reference solution (left) and the phase-space of the predictions
FIG  7  Comparison between predictions and reference solutions for a new initial condition fort = 1 25, 3 75, 7 5, 12 5, 20, 30  (from left to right and top to down) We note that with longer prediction time the uncertainty bounds increases Despite the chaotic nature of the KS equation, the predictive posterior mean is close to the reference solution for t ≤ 12 5

abstract

Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) with high dimensionality are commonly encountered in computational physics and engineering  However, finding solutions for these PDEs can be computationally expensive, making model-order reduction crucial  We propose such a data-driven scheme that automates the identification of the time-scales involved and, can produce stable predictions forward in time as well as under different initial conditions not included in the training data 
To this end, we combine a non-linear autoencoder architecture with a time-continuous model for the latent dynamics in the complex space  It readily allows for the inclusion of sparse and irregularly sampled training data  The learned, latent dynamics are interpretable and reveal the different temporal scales involved 
We show that this data-driven scheme can automatically learn the independent processes that decompose a system of linear ODEs along the eigenvectors of the system's matrix  Apart from this, we demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework in a hidden Markov Model and the (discretized) Kuramoto-Shivashinsky (KS) equation 
Additionally, we propose a probabilistic version, which captures predictive uncertainties and further improves upon the results of the deterministic framework 

INTRODUCTION

High-fidelity simulations of critical phenomena such as ocean dynamics and epidemics have become essential for decision-making  They are based on physically-motivated PDEs expressing system dynamics that span multiple spatiotemporal scales and which necessitate cumbersome computations   In recent years there is increased attention to the development of data-driven models that can accelerate the solution of these PDEs as well as reveal salient, lower-dimensional features that control the long-term evolution 
In most cases, data-driven reduced-order models are not interpretable  In particular, models based on neural networks despite good predictive capabilities , they offer a black-box description of the system dynamics  A possible remedy is applying a symbolic regression to the learned neural network representation , but this adds additional computational cost due to the two-step procedure 
A number of frameworks such as SINDy allows to learn interpretable dynamics but it relies on the a-priori availability of lower-dimensional descriptors and of time-derivatives which can be very noisy for both simulation and experimental data  Other frameworks are tailored to specific problems such as molecular dynamics  
Here, we present a framework that only needs the value of the observables, and not their derivatives, as training data and is capable of identifying interpretable latent dynamics  The deployment of interpretable latent dynamics ensures that conservation of important properties of that are reflected in the reduced-order model  
The present method is related to approaches based on the Koopman-operator extended Dynamic Mode Decomposition (eDMD) but uses continuous complex-valued latent space dynamics and only requires one scalar variable per latent dimension to describe the latent space dynamics  Therefore we do not have to enforce any parametrizations on the Koopman matrix  
The time-continuous formulation moreover allows to incorporate sparse and irregularly sampled training data and fast generation of predictions after the training phase  By using a complex-valued latent space we can also incorporate harmonic effects and reduce the number of latent variables needed  Linear and non-linear autoencoders are used to map the observed, high-dimensional time-series to the lower-dimensional, latent representation and we identify simultaneously the autoencoder as well as the latent dynamics by optimizing a combined loss function 
Hence the to tasks of dimensionality reduction and discovery of the reduced dynamics are unified while other frameworks treat the two parts separately   Apart from using an architecture based on autoencoders to identify the latent space, projection-based methods could also be employed   We are also proposing a probabilistic version of our algorithm ) that makes use of probabilistic Slow Feature Analysis  
This allows for a latent representation that arart from being time-continuous, can quantify the predictive uncertainty and hierarchically decompose the dynamics into their pertinent scales while promoting the discovery of slow processes that control the system's evolution over long time horizons  The rest of the paper is structured as follows: We introduce the methodological framework as well as algorithmic details in section II 
Particular focus is paid on the interpretability of the inferred lower-dimensional dynamics  In section III we present three numerical illustrations, i e  a system of linear ODEs, a hidden Markov Model and the discretized KS-equation  We then present in section IV the probabilistic extension of the framework and apply it to the KS-equation 
We conclude with a summary and a short discussion about possible next steps  We introduce the autoencoders deployed in this work, followed by the interpretable latent space dynamic and discuss the training process  We consider data from high-dimensional time series x n ∈ R f with n = 1,    , T   We remark that the intervals between the different states do not need to be uniformly spaced 

Autoencoder

A core assumption of the method is that each high-dimensional state x n can be compressed to a lower-dimensional representation z n ∈ C c with c << f   We identify this lower-dimensional representation by an autoencoder consisiting of a parameterized encoder and decoder  The encoder maps the high-dimensional representation to the latent space as:
The latent space is complex-valued  The decoder reconstructs the high-dimensional representation based on the latent variables as: We denote the parameters of the encoder as well as the decoder by θ  As discussed later in Section II C, both set of parameters are optimized simultaneously during training and therefore there is no need for differentiating them 

Interpretable Latent Space Dynamics

We employ a propagator in the latent space to capture the reduced-order dynamics of the system  In contrast to other time-extended variational autoencoder frameworks, our representation uses complex valued latent variables  In addition the latent variables are treated independently  The latter feature enables us to have an interpretable latent dynamics as well as a model that is especially suitable for being trained in the Small Data regime due to the small number of required parameters 
This is in contrast to temporal propagators such as LSTMs   For each dimension i of the latent variable z we are using the following continuous ODE in the complex plane: By solving this ODE, we can define the operator: Interpretable reduced-order modeling with time-scale separation Here, λ is a vector containing all the individual λ's and ∆t n indicates the time-step between the latent states 
The symbol is used to indicate a component-wise multiplication  We remark that the latent variables and the parameter governing the temporal evolution are complex numbers and their role in describing the system dynamics is similar to that of an eigenvalue  The real part is associated with growth and decay whereas the imaginary part is representing the periodic component 
This approach has similarities with the Koopman-operator based methods and the extended dynamic mode decomposition   In contrast to the methods mentioned before we are using a continuous formulation in the latent space that allows us to incorporate scarce and irregularly sampled training data and directly rely on complex numbers in the latent space 

Training and Predictions

We optimize a loss function that combines both a reconstruction loss as well as a loss associated with the error of our learned propagator in the latent space: (5) We note that we could directly incorporate mini-batch training by only taking the summation over a subset of the N available training data 
For new predictions of unseen states, we use the encoder to generate a latent representations which is then advanced in time by the learned propagator  At a designated time step we are using the decoder to reconstruct the high-dimensional solution  We applied our algorithm to three systems  First, we show that the algorithm is capable of exactly reproducing the solution of a linear ODE and to identify its eigenvalues 
Afterwards we are applying the framework to a high-dimensional process generated by a complex latent dynamics, which is correctly identified  As a final test case, we are applying the algorithm to a Kuramoto Shivashinski (KS) equation  Interpretable reduced-order modeling with time-scale separation

Linear ODE

We are considering a two-dimensional ODE system for x = y 1 y 2 : Based on the obtained training data we run our algorithm using a linear encoder and decoder structure as well as two latent variables z  The loss function was optimized using the Adam algorithm   As we consider a linear ODE we can analytically compute the eigenvalues involved and compare it with the parameters λ identified by our algorithm 
We observe in Figure that the algorithm was able to recover the correct values, i e  the eigenvalues 7 and 3 of the given linear ODE  The system does not have a periodic component and the two imaginary parts correctly go to zero, whereas the real parts converge to the reference value  Moreover we are also able to identify for the linear mapping between our latent variables z and the training data a matrix consisting of a multiple of the eigenvectors (1,1) and (1,-1) and thus the correct solution 
This example was chosen to show that the algorithm is able to quickly identify the exact solution of a linear ODE in terms of its linearly independent components 

Hidden multiscale dynamics

We consider eight-dimensional synthetic time series data produced by an underlying twodimensional complex valued process  In particular, the data points x are generated by first solving for the temporal evolution for the two complex-valued processes p 1 and p 2 and than mapping to the eight-dimensional space by using a randomly sampled linear mapping W  
One of the two processes used to generate the data is chosen to be much slower than the other one and both processes have a periodic component  dp 2 dt = (−0 9 + 1 5i)p 2 (8) As training data we consider 40 time series with 150 data points each, obtained by simulating the described processes for a maximum of t = 15 s and then sampling from the obtained data points 
Hence the training data consists of: • 40 time-series • with each consisting 150 observations of the x at a uniform time-step ∆t = 0 0025 The autoencoder obtained consists of one linear layer for both the decoder as well as the encoder  The model is trained for 5000 iterations using the Adam optimizer and a learning rate of 10 −3  
The results for the convergence of the parameters λ 1 and λ 2 can be found in Figure   We note that the process which is slower decaying and thus more responsible for the long-term evolution of the system has a higher convergence rate than the faster process  With the obtained parameters λ as well as the trained autoencoder, we compute predictions based on the last time step used for training, i e  we apply the encoder to obtain our latent representation and than use the latent dynamics to advance the latent representation in time 
Afterwards, we employ the decoder to reconstruct the full high-dimensional system  The results can be found in Figure and show very good agreement between predictions and reference data  This example shows that our model is successfully able to carry out dimensionality reduction and moreover indicates that the convergence rate between latent processes can be different 
The latter is relevant when training models as for accurate predictions all latent processes and their dynamics should be converged 

Kuramoto-Sivashinsky

Finally, we applied our algorithm to the KS equation and aim to identify a reduced-order model for the solution u(y, t): We employed periodic boundary conditions, µ = 1 and a domain size y ∈ [0, 22]  For this domain-size, the KS-equation exhibits a structurally stable chaotic attractor as discussed in The black lines divides the area for which training data was given from the area without raining data 
;   The equation is discretized in space using a discretization step of 22 64 resulting in a state vector x of dimension 64 and a nonlinear system of coupled ODEs  This is solved using a stiff fourth-order solver  We employed a non-linear encoder and decoder with four fully-connected layers each and ReLU-activation functions as well as Dropout Layers between the fully-connected layers 
We trained the model for 200000 iterations using Adam and a learning rate of 5 • 10 4 and assuming a five-dimensional latent space  We obtained the λ's in Figure   Four latent variables have λ's close to zero and thus a slow temporal dynamic that is responsible for the long-term evolution whereas one latent variable is quickly decaying 
Based on the obtained parameters, we do predictions based on an unseen initial condition not contained in the training data  We are able to reconstruct the correct phase space based on our predictions despite only using a very limited amount of training data  The results for the phase space can be seen in Figure  
Although the small-scale fluctuations in the temporal dynamics are not well captured, the model identifies the correct manifold which has a good accuracy compared to the reference solution  All phase-spaces were obtained by using a finite-difference operator on the data or predictions  These results are in accordance Interpretable reduced-order modeling with time-scale separation with whose LSTM-based temporal dynamic model was also able to find the correct phase space but not to track the actual dynamics for long-term predictions 
Our model is not able to account for noise in the temporal evolution and thus dealing with chaotic, small-scale fluctuations is challenging  We believe that a probabilistic version of our algorithm could be advantageous here  This section contains a fully probabilistic formulation for the deterministic model discussed before 
We replace the Autoencoder with a Variational Autoencoder and the ODE in the latent space with a SDE  The loss function which we optimize is the Evidence-Lower Bound (ELBO) 

Model Structure

We postulate the following relations for our probabilistic model using an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) for each dimension i of the latent space and a Wiener process W t in the latent space: We again assume that the latent variables z t are complex-valued and a priori independent  Complex variables were chosen as their evolution includes a harmonic components which are observed in many physical systems 
We assume an initial conditions z 0,i ∼ CN (0, σ 2 0,i )  The total parameters associated with the latent space dynamics of our model are thus {σ 2 0,i , σ 2 i , λ i } c i=1 and will be denoted by θ together with all parameters responsible for the decoder mapping G (see next section)  These parameters along with the state variables z t have to be inferred from the data x t  
Based on probabilistic Slow Feature Analysis (SFA) , we set σ 2 i = 2; (λ j ) and σ 2 0,i = 1  As a consequence, a priori, the latent dynamics are stationary  A derivation and reasoning for this choice can be found in Appendix A  Hence the only independent parameters are the λ i , the imaginary part of which can account for periodic effects in the latent dynamics 

Variational Autoencoder

We employ a variational autoencoder to account for a probabilistic mappings from the lower-dimensional representation z n to the high-dimensional system x n   In particular we are employing a probabilistic decoder The encoder is used to infer the state variables z based on the given data and thus defined in the inference and learning section 

Inference and Learning

Given the probabilistic relations , our goal is to infer the latent variables z 0:T as well as all model parameters θ  We follow a hybrid Bayesian approach in which the posterior of the state variables is approximated using amortized Variational Inference and Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) point-estimates for θ are computed 
The application of Bayes' rule for each data sequence x 0:T leads to the following posterior: where p(θ) denotes the prior on the model parameters  In the context of variational inference, we use the following factorization of the approximate posterior i e  we infer only the mean µ and variance σ for each state variable based on the given data points 
This conditional density used for inference is the encoder-counterpart to the probabilistic decoder defined in the section before  It can be readily shown that the optimal parameter values are found by maximizing the Evidence Lower Bound (ELBO) F(q φ (z 0:T ), θ) which is derived in Appendix B  We compute Monte Carlo estimates of the gradient of the ELBO with respect to φ and θ with the help of the reparametrization trick and carry out stochastic optimization with the ADAM algorithm  

Results for the probabilistic extension

We applied our probabilistic version to the KS-equation  We used the same settings as for the deterministic approach but considered up to 10 complex latent variables  The obtained λ's are in Figure   The probabilistic model allows us to quantify the uncertainty in predictions  In Figure predictions for various time-steps and the respective uncertainty bounds are shown for an unseen initial condition 
Due to the chaotic nature of the KS-equation and the small amount of training data, the underlying linear dynamic of our model is only able to capture the full dynamics for a limited time horizon  Fortunately, due to the probabilistic approach the model is capable of capturing chaotic fluctuations with increasingly wide uncertainty bounds 
We also computed the phase space representation for the KS-equation based on the predictions obtained by our model and compare it with the reference solution  The probabilistic model identifies the correct manifold with a better accuracy than the deterministic model  As some of the small-scale fluctuations are accounted as noise, the resulting manifold is more concentrated at the origin and the obtained values are slightly smaller than the reference manifold although their shape is very similar 



ground_truth: By using a propagator in the latent space.