Understanding the human dimensions of land change

Land change science (LCS) as a field is involved with modeling, predicting, and understanding the dynamics of land cover and land use as a coupled human–environment system (Turner et al., 2007). Models in LCS give a quantified lens into changes in land cover, revealing trends and driving forces of change. LCS employs GIS and Remote Sensing approaches to understanding land change, but this often limits understanding due to the small scale. A multiscalar approach is necessary in order have a fuller picture into the reasons of land change. This is an aspect of political ecology that when applied to LCS can be very powerful.

Political ecologist, like LCS, also study human-environment systems, but they take into account multiple scales, actors, and views into a problem. Through this approach complexities in human system are highlighted with how they impact the environment. In order to do this work a researcher often has to embed themselves into the communities executing changes in the environment. It is important to ground an understanding of the processes changing the environment to the role of specific actors, thereby rendering these processes more telling and substantial in political terms (Blaikie, 1995).

Political ecologist often look at power, either through the state but also even between groups or individuals. For example, rights, management, and access to environmental resources are often different between genders, and power relations within the household, which influences the control of land, natural resources, labor and capital (Carney, 1993). Furthermore, communities behaviors are not static and do change with changing situations. Oldekop et. al (2012) study on scarcity perceptions of indigenous Amazonian Kichwa communities is evidence that communities adapt management practices to environmental changes. So having one model for actors decision-making process is limiting in understanding how people adapt to the situation they find themselves in.

Political ecologist have shown that the human element in the human-environment system is complex, dynamic, and multiscalar. To improve LCS studies, researchers need to recognize this. Walker et al. (2003) is an example of a LCS study that does addresses theses shortcoming in LCS by utilizing behavioral theory to bridge the divide between the large and small scales. By modeling the spatial decision making of how loggers build road networks in the Amazon, Walker et. al. (2003) were able to explain how loggers shape their road networks, thus influencing land change in the Amazon. Their approach involved survey methods and key informant interviews, bringing researchers to the field. This gained direct insight into how loggers make spatial decisions, and in particular how they collaborate among each other to territorialize their operations so as to avoid conflicts (Walker et. al., 2013). This study was greatly improved by being able to connect on the ground decisions with regional land cover change.

Theoretical development is the cornerstone of academic endeavors in LCS. Being an interdisciplinary field, LCS can integrate not only traditional disciplines, but also borrow theories, methods, and approaches from other interdisciplinary fields like political ecology. Theories should be developed and shared between LCS and other environmental change and sustainability fields.

Works Cited

Blaikie, P. 1995. Changing environments or changing views? A political ecology for developing countries. Geography, 203-214.

Carney, J. 1993. Converting the wetlands, engendering the environment: the intersection of gender with agrarian change in The Gambia. Economic Geography, 69(4), 329-348.

Oldekop, J. A., Bebbington, A. J., Truelove, N. K., Holmes, G., Villamarín, S., & Preziosi, R. F. 2012. Environmental impacts and scarcity perception influence local institutions in indigenous Amazonian Kichwa communities. Human Ecology, 40(1), 101-115.

Turner, B. L., Lambin, E. F., & Reenberg, A. 2007. The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(52), 20666-20671.

Walker, R., Arima, E., Messina, J., Soares-Filho, B., Perz, S., Vergara, D., ... & Castro, W. 2013. Modeling spatial decisions with graph theory: logging roads and forest fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon. Ecological Applications, 23(1), 239-254.