UNIT No.
#1 - #2 - #3

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Supporting Material 1.1

Taking notes that make sense -- even in a year from now

As you work through the reading assignments for this and the following exercises, do not just read the articles, or just underline important passages. For understanding and remembering the arguments it is even more important to take notes on what you read. Taking concise, comprehensive, but not too long notes is a big step in preparing for classes and exams. The primary purpose of taking notes is to produce a brief overview of a text to help your memory recall the larger story of which they speak. If you are experienced in taking good notes, proceed to do so as you read your assigned materials. If you feel you could use some guidance in how to improve on this skill, follow the steps below.

a descriptive and/or provocative title,
a compelling or at least an internally consistent argument,
an apparent, intuitively logical, and hierarchical structure (look for subtitles!),
an obvious paragraph separation and sequence, and
a clear, understandable language (including correct grammar and spelling, reasonably short sentences, explanation for new or foreign terms, avoidance of unnecessary jargon and verbiage, etc.).

1 Gather the most obvious clues!

Browse through your article and note on a piece of paper its structure by writing down the title and all the subtitles of individual sections in the sequence in which they appear in the text. Indent all the subtitles that belong to the same logical section (to the same level in the hierarchy of importance) by the same amount so you know they are of similar importance and belong logically together. If there are no subtitles you need to look at the text a bit more closely: is there a sequence of themes that the author(s) go through in the course of the text? If you can discern them, list them in the sequence in which they appear! (You may also group them later into logical classes if you can discern any.)

Example:

Neglected dimensions of global land-use change: Reflections and data

The diversity of human land use
Human driving forces: a conceptual framework
Data on land-use change

Global trends
Regional trends
Country trends in land use

Intensification of land use
Population growth and land-use change
The effect of transportation and communication infrastructure Lifestyles and land-use change
The myth of past harmony between population and land
Conclusion
(Notes)

2 Put your mind's antennas out!

You can signal your brain to activate all the pertinent knowledge you already have about a subject by looking for titles and subtitles, as well as the logical structure of the text. These are the first hints as to the author's main argument in the text. The more conscious you become of these clues, the easier it will be for you to actually take in what someone writes. So looking back at the above example, what do you expect the text to be about? (Note that in this exercise we are just being explicit about what your brain does automatically, whenever you get new information!). 3 Read the text (again)!

If you have not read the article yet, do so now. Stop once in a while and recall what you thought the text would be about. Are your expectations met? (If they are not, you will probably be quite frustrated and most likely bored!) 4 Note the main argument!

Given your expectation of the text and reading through it, what would you say is its main argument? In other words, if you were to explain the gist of the article to a friend who hadn't read it, what would you say? 5 Concisely list the supporting arguments under each heading (or subtitle)!

Every argument needs supporting arguments, data, and other evidence to be convincing. As you go through the text once more -- paragraph by paragraph -- list in keyword style or short sentences what the supporting evidence and arguments the author(s) presented. If you can't decide what is important and what is not (and thus should be omitted from this listing), ask yourself whether you found it important to know this particular item to understand the logic behind the argument. If not, leave it out! Everything that is not essential to the argument you are most likely to forget anyway. 6 Check whether it makes sense!

Once you're through with Steps 1-5, look over your notes once again and see whether they make sense. (The best test is really three days after taking the notes, i.e. when you're already somewhat removed from having read the article. If they still makes good sense, you took good notes!) If you feel like somewhere you lost the thread of the argument, fill in the blanks. Also compare the length of your notes with the length of the article: if your notes are as long as the original article, you simply paraphrased the text. Notes by definition are short and never as prosaic as an essay!

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Supporting Material 1.3

Brazil - Land Use / Land Cover Maps

Figure 14: Brazil - Land Use / Land Cover Maps

graphic - insert
Source: CIA. 1977. Brazil. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency

Supporting Material 2.1

Activity 2.1 What's the problem anyway???

The problem:

I am really interested in whether population growth (the macro force) forces societies to change the way it produces agricultural products (proximate source of change), and, if so, what that means in terms of changes in the landscape (land cover).

One researchable question:

Does the change in US population between 1850 and 1990 correlate with concurrent changes in intensity of agricultural production and soil degradation?

Underlying assumptions:

Population growth has in fact causal powers ("...forces..."); note that in picking correlation as the method of choice, the causality assumption has been weakened to simple temporal coincidence.

The kind of farming affects how a landscape looks ("..and what that means in terms of...")

The change in US farming during this time was doubtlessly one of intensification ("...changes in intensity...")

This change has negative imlications for effective land use ("...soil degradation")

Operationalization:

Variable	Measure	Why this one?
Change in US population	Absolute difference between US population in census years between 1850 and 1990	Obvious choice; ablsolute figures easier to relate to than percentages
Change in intensity of agricultural production	Total amount of wheat yields from US farms per total area of land for wheat production (om tpms/ha, for 1850-1990)	Intensity needs a relative measure; wheat is a very important grain in the US;
Soil degradation	Amount of nutrients (C, N, Ca, Mg) in typical (representative) soil for wheat production minus the input of these nutrients through fertilizers	This difference reflects soil fertility (an indicator showing potential soil degradation). Note that it is virtually impossible to find such data for the time prior to the 1930s; alternative measures are equally hard to find.

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Supporting Material 3.7

Activity 3.7 The Personal Land Use Log

This is a list of examples of familiar products and activities which have an impact on land use/land cover. In fact, almost everything we do somehow relates to one or the other. Use, but don't feel limited to, these suggestions while recording your personal land use log.

Food and Drinks	Land Use/Land Cover	Some Affected Regions
bread and cereal fruit and vegetables	grain fields vegetable fields, gardens, greenhouses, orchards fodder (e.g. corn) fields, pastures pastures, meadows, stables	US Midwest California, The Netherlands, Massachusetts, tropical areas Corn belt, Pampas Wisconsin, Vermont
meat butter, cheese and other milk products juices, wine, beer coffee, tea, hot chocolate	orchards, vineyards, hops fields coffee, tea or cocoa plantations	California, France, Germany East & West Africa, China
CLOTHING wool jackets, socks jeans, t-shirts (cotton) leather shoes	meadows cotton fields/plantations meadows, water bodies, etc.	Ireland, Iceland, Scotland Southeastern US, Asia New England, Middle East
USE/LUXURY ITEMS cars (metal, rubber, glass)	iron ore mines, quartz quarries, rubber plantations petroleum fields	Quebec, South Africa Brazil Texas, Iran
plastic articles (bags, containers, toys, utensils) f urniture (wood, plastic, steel)	forests, iron ore mines, petroleum fields	Scandinavia, Central Europe, Saudi Arabia
WORK-RELATED ACTIVITIES writing/printing on paper or reading books constructions	coniferous forests, water bodies	Western Canadian provinces, Southeast Asia anywhere
truck driving	(Sub)urban areas, forests, rock and sand pits highways, container parks, petroleum fields	across the US Middle East
LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES playing ball running or biking taking photographs	ball parks, lawns, stadiums pavement, roads silver ore mines, forests, the landscapes that we capture	anywhere anywhere British Columbia, South Africa anywhere
OTHER electricity	coal and uranium mines, rivers, wind mill fields	Pennsylvania, Germany, South Africa, James Bay, Arizona

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Supporting Material 3.9a

Activity 3.9a A Beach Town Somewhere on the Eastern Seabord...

It is the year 2050, and this is Beachtown, a town of about 2000 permanent residents somewhere on the southern Atlantic coast of the US. Those of us who aren't quite retired yet have jobs either in the service sector here, or we work in the large inland cities. Our beaches are sandy and beautiful, although not much is left of them since climate change has caused the sea level to rise about 1 ft since the beginning of this century; as a consequence, beach erosion has steadily eaten away at our most important resource. We really depend on our beach: tourism is our most important industry, and the beach is what people come here for (by the thousands each summer!) ... Well, some of them also like to play golf, so that has put a lot of development pressure on the agricultural land and the wetlands -- developers buy out farmers and want to fill in the wetlands so they can build more golf courses, gated communities (private developments closed to the general public), hotel complexes, and entertainment facilities. And some of us would really like to see more of that happen: more golf courses, hotels, and entertainment parks mean more tourists, more jobs, more revenues, higher land prices, and thus more tax income to the community. But it looks like it will also mean getting into trouble with the environmentalists and the people who fish, even if they're just doing it part time or for sport: they care about the wetlands as nurseries for marine species, and a whole bunch of other species, especially birds. Some of these birds are here year-round, but many of them come through twice a year to breed or to stop over on their North-South migration. We've noted a marked decline in recent decades because so much of the wetlands have already been lost. And then, of course, we have to think about protecting our beachfront property against coastal hazards: hurricanes, winter storms, and the flooding that often goes along with them. A long time ago, the federal government stopped providing insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, so all we can hope for is some money from the state, but with the state it's "iffy;" nobody there seems to give any clear direction as to which way to go; they want to strengthen the tourist sector, cut down on public expenditure (like infrastructure that would have to be built if we developed the coast more, or for hazard mitigation), and claim that the state has a good environmental record -- all at the same time. All we know is: we have to do something....

The city council has called a public hearing to decide on the future direction of Beachtown. The following people attend this meeting:

- the mayor of Beachtown

- a developer- an environmentalist

- a beachfront property owner

- an employee of the Chamber of Commerce

- a hotel owner

- a retiree

- a part-time fisher/ part-time bar tender

Task:

Each student in your group should choose one role (others are possible by group agreement), and participate in the hearing/discussions. Each one of you really cares about Beachtown, but of course you all have different interests, ethics, and stakes in its future. Your charge is to decide together over the most appropriate land use of Beachtown, considering the many facets of this problem.

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Supporting Material 3.9b

Activity 3.9b A Beach Village Somewhere on the Indian Ocean...

A Beach Village Somewhere on the Indian Ocean... It is the year 2050, and this is Beachvillage, a community of about 600 people somewhere on the Mozambique shores of the Indian Ocean. Most of us here earn our living either in fishing or in the sisal plantations or date palm groves owned by rich farmers -- some of them are absentee landowners. Some of the men from the village also travel further inland for part of the year to work on cotton and citrus fruit plantations while the women stay here, and carry almost the entire burden of raising the kids and working the fields around the village for their daily food. Overall, we can make a living, but just barely. Prices for fish and crops are low, and we can't compete with the big farmers. The climate seems to have become less predictable, too ... we never know whether we will have enough rain! Most of the families in Beachvillage have at least four children, and if one of them (in all likelihood the oldest son) is sent to school, he's lucky! In the past couple of decades we had many of these educated, and some of the non-educated, youngsters leave the village for Nampula and other big cities -- hardly any of them ever come back! Because of our beautiful beaches we recently had some European developers come to speak to our village council about buying land from us so they can build a big hotel. Ever since the political situation has calmed down in our country, people from Europe feel safe enough to come to Mozambique for vacation. The developers promised we could keep on living like we do now on the remaining land; and even better, we could get jobs in their hotel. They said they could see how more of our young people would stay in the village that way. Well, we don't know... Shortly after the developers left, we had people from the World Wildlife Fund come to our village and tell us we should not sell our land to the hotel people; they told us it would lead to pollution of our coastal waters, diminishing our fish resources, spoil our beaches, kill the turtles that lay their eggs in the beach sand every year, and that the developers would probably cut down the mangroves just south of our village, too. We occasionally cut some mangrove trees too for fuel, but we would never destroy the whole forest; that's where the fish and shrimp spawn, and the mangroves slow down the storms coming in from the ocean -- we need them for protection. It's as if all of a sudden our piece of the coast was the most wanted piece along the world's shores; after the WWF people left, a regional development group associated with researchers from Mozambique University came here with a plan to improve our agricultural income. For that to work out, other villages from around the area all have to collaborate, so that we can create a viable and reliable market for our products, and get good prices for our crops. It's not clear yet, what other villages are going to do. But then again, we're not sure yet either. All we know is: we have to do something....

The oldest members of our village have asked the Beachvillage Council to come together and discuss the problem. The following people attend the meeting:

- the head of Beachvillage Council

- a plantation farmer

- one of the oldest people in the village

- a fisherman who also farms

- a young man who wants to work in the hotel

- an older man with formal education in environmental studies

- a mother of five children

- a woman with family in one of the neighboring villages

- a young farmer who is friends with the regional development cooperative

Task:

Each student in your group should choose one role (others are possible by group agreement), and participate in the village council discussions. Each one of you really cares about Beachvillage, but of course you all have different interests, ethics, and stakes in its future. Your charge is to decide together about the most appropriate land use for Beachvillage, considering the many facets of this problem.

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Last Revised: 2/18/00 Robert E. Ford rford@igc.org