North American Land Change: Decision Making in Coupled Human-Environment Systems
Investigator(s)
Principal investigator:
Steven M. Manson, Department of Geography, University of Minnesota, USA
E-mail: manson(at)umn.edu
Abstract
This project advances understanding of decision making in coupled human-environment systems by explaining the patterns, processes, and impacts of two critical forms of land change: urbanization and deforestation. It addresses GLP goals to understand human-induced environmental changes and determine the impacts of land change on human societies and ecosystems. The research centers on the continued development of a multiscalar, dynamic, and spatially-explicit computer model of the interactions among individuals, social structures, and environmental systems that define deforestation in the Southern Yucatan of Mexico and urbanization in the Twin Cities of the United States. This effort combines remotely sensed data with in-depth interviews, field research, and myriad spatial socioeconomic and environmental data sets. Integrating data and modeling allows the proposed research to test competing conceptions of individual rationality, examine the role of social and environmental dynamics in land change, and determine the relative merits of the ASTER, MODIS, and TM/ETM+ remote sensing platforms for modeling the patterns, processes, and impacts of land change.
URL
For more details please see: here
