Summary: Human Driving Forces and their Impacts on Land Use/Land
Cover
Abstract
Land use/cover change has occurred at all times in all parts of the world.
Most affected and involved in these processes are the environmental spheres of
water, soil, and vegetative cover, which are closely linked to geomorphology,
climate, fauna, and especially human societies. The linkages among spheres are
highly complex and incompletely understood. The most profound questions with
respect to land use/cover and global change are:
- What forces drive land use/land cover change?
- What impacts -- direct and indirect, now and in the future -- do these
changes have on the environment and on human society?
- How might we respond to them most effectively?
The module
introduces the student to the complexities inherent in these questions, but
mainly focusses on the first of these. It illustrates the central role of the
study of land use/cover change within the larger field of global environmental
and climatic change, and is thus a good unit to introduce this topic.
Module Objectives
- to provide an introductory qualitative overview of the interactions
among driving forces, proximate sources, and environmental impacts of land
use/land cover (LULC) changes;
- to problematize the collection, compilation, and assessment of
quantitative data on regional and global land use/cover change;
- to assess quantitatively some general relationships between land
use/cover changes and human driving forces; and
- to stress the importance of scale in the study of human impacts on
land use/cover.
Skills
This modules builds the abilities
- to formulate and structure a research problem;
- to find relevant data from various sources (library, Internet, research
centers);
- to critically assess LULC data;
- to interpret and create scatterplots;
- to read LULC maps;
- to work cooperatively in group projects;
- to engage in group discussion;
- to communicate ideas orally and in writing.
Activities
The range of activities suggested for this module includes:
- group and panel discussions;
- team work;
- semi-formal interviewing;
- writing various kinds of papers (essays, reports, etc.);
- data searches and critical/careful assessment;
- reading and producing scatterplots;
- correlation and (optional) regression analysis; and
- reading maps.
Human Dimensions of Global Change
Concepts
- Cumulative vs. systemic global change
- Human driving forces/macro forces
- Proximate sources of change
- Global vs. regional land use/cover changes
Geographical Concepts
- Land use/land cover
- Scale
- World regions
Material Requirements
- Student Worksheets, Supporting Materials (provided)
- Calculators or computer access (spreadsheet software)
- Land use/cover maps (atlas) (sample provided)
- Pencils
- Readings (some provided)
In-Class Time
Requirements
6 class units, 50 min. each (2-3 weeks), assuming that at least 1-2
activities per unit are completed.
Difficulty
Intermediate to challenging. The module requires an ability to abstract, to
work independently and in groups, and to critically analyze readings and data.
While the module does not require previous knowledge of global change, it does
require students to grapple with scientific texts.
Last Revised: 6/14/04 Robert E. Ford rford@univ.llu.edu