Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited

The human use of the land is one of the critical links between people and the Earth system, with changes in land use contributing to the significant modification of hydrology, ecology, geomorphology, climate and biogeochemical cycles. Over the past decade there have been several major research effor...

Mô tả đầy đủ

Chi tiết về thư mục
Những tác giả chính: Liverman, D, Cuesta, R
Tác giả khác: British Society for Geomorphology (BSG)
Định dạng: Journal article
Ngôn ngữ:English
Được phát hành: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2008
Những chủ đề:
_version_ 1826264685554434048
author Liverman, D
Cuesta, R
author2 British Society for Geomorphology (BSG)
author_facet British Society for Geomorphology (BSG)
Liverman, D
Cuesta, R
author_sort Liverman, D
collection OXFORD
description The human use of the land is one of the critical links between people and the Earth system, with changes in land use contributing to the significant modification of hydrology, ecology, geomorphology, climate and biogeochemical cycles. Over the past decade there have been several major research efforts (e.g. IGBP-IHDP LUCC, ESSP) to link the social and natural sciences through the study of land-use and land-cover change, with particular attention being paid to the potential of linking remote sensing with socioeconomic data, local case studies with larger scale modelling efforts, and scientific research with the needs of stakeholders. This paper evaluates the extent to which such land-use-change studies can provide reliable data, explanation and projections of future land use. It assesses how such studies might address major theoretical questions in social and natural science such as those concerning the role of population or of institutions in land-use dynamics, or the detailed attribution of hazards to physical or social processes. In general, and using examples of research conducted in Mexico, the paper concludes that progress has been limited, because of factors that include the difficulties in gathering socio-economic information at global and regional scales, linking social data to satellite imagery, and forecasting human activities and policies. For interactions between the social and earth sciences to succeed, a certain level of tolerance and mutual understanding will be needed so that social scientists understand the earth science aspiration for quantitative socio-economic scenarios and predictions, and earth scientists understand the variations in how social scientists explain human behaviour and institutions and accept the clear limits to predicting human activities and decisions.
first_indexed 2024-03-06T20:11:49Z
format Journal article
id oxford-uuid:2ad78add-4fa8-4ff7-9a8c-38360e11563d
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-06T20:11:49Z
publishDate 2008
publisher John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:2ad78add-4fa8-4ff7-9a8c-38360e11563d2022-03-26T12:27:20ZHuman interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisitedJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:2ad78add-4fa8-4ff7-9a8c-38360e11563dEnvironmentEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.2008Liverman, DCuesta, RBritish Society for Geomorphology (BSG)The human use of the land is one of the critical links between people and the Earth system, with changes in land use contributing to the significant modification of hydrology, ecology, geomorphology, climate and biogeochemical cycles. Over the past decade there have been several major research efforts (e.g. IGBP-IHDP LUCC, ESSP) to link the social and natural sciences through the study of land-use and land-cover change, with particular attention being paid to the potential of linking remote sensing with socioeconomic data, local case studies with larger scale modelling efforts, and scientific research with the needs of stakeholders. This paper evaluates the extent to which such land-use-change studies can provide reliable data, explanation and projections of future land use. It assesses how such studies might address major theoretical questions in social and natural science such as those concerning the role of population or of institutions in land-use dynamics, or the detailed attribution of hazards to physical or social processes. In general, and using examples of research conducted in Mexico, the paper concludes that progress has been limited, because of factors that include the difficulties in gathering socio-economic information at global and regional scales, linking social data to satellite imagery, and forecasting human activities and policies. For interactions between the social and earth sciences to succeed, a certain level of tolerance and mutual understanding will be needed so that social scientists understand the earth science aspiration for quantitative socio-economic scenarios and predictions, and earth scientists understand the variations in how social scientists explain human behaviour and institutions and accept the clear limits to predicting human activities and decisions.
spellingShingle Environment
Liverman, D
Cuesta, R
Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited
title Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited
title_full Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited
title_fullStr Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited
title_full_unstemmed Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited
title_short Human interactions with the Earth system: people and pixels revisited
title_sort human interactions with the earth system people and pixels revisited
topic Environment
work_keys_str_mv AT livermand humaninteractionswiththeearthsystempeopleandpixelsrevisited
AT cuestar humaninteractionswiththeearthsystempeopleandpixelsrevisited