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?

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.

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.

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.

• Cumulative vs. systemic global change
• Human driving forces/macro forces
• Proximate sources of change
• Global vs. regional land use/cover changes

• Land use/land cover
• Scale
• World regions

• Student Worksheets, Supporting Materials (provided)
• Calculators or computer access (spreadsheet software)
• Land use/cover maps (atlas) (sample provided)
• Pencils
• Readings (some provided)

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.