by
Jefferson Fox, Ronald R. Rindfuss, Stephen
J. Walsh, and Vinod Mishra (eds.)
ISBN: 1-40207-322-4
Publisher:
Kluwer Academic Publishers; Boston 2003
People and the Environment: Approaches for Linking Household and Community Surveys to Remote Sensing and GIS addresses a need for a
comprehensive and rigorous treatment of linking across
thematic domains (e.g., social, biophysical, and
geographical) and across space and time scales for
research and study within the context of
human-environment interactions. The human dimensions
research community, LULCC program, and human and
landscape ecology communities are collectively viewing
the landscape with a spatially-explicit perspective,
where people are viewed as agents of landscape change
that shape and are shaped by the landscape, and where
landscape form and function are assessed with a
space-time context. Current researchers and those
following this early group of integrative scientists
face challenges in conducting this type of research,
but the potential rewards for insight are substantial.
People
and the Environment will appeal to a wide range of
natural, social, and spatial scientists with interest
in conducting population and environment research and
thereby characterizing (a) land use and land cover
dynamics through remote sensing, (b) demographic and
socio-economic variables through household and
community surveys, and (c) local site and situation
through resource endowments, geographical
accessibility, and connections of people to place
through GIS. Case studies are used to examine theories
and practices useful in linking people and the
environment. Also described are land use and land
cover dynamics and the associated social, biophysical,
and geographical drivers of change articulated through
human-environment interactions.
