This project advances understanding of decision making in coupled human-environment systems by explaining the patterns, processes, and impacts of two critical forms of land change: urbanization and deforestation.  It addresses the need to understand human-induced environmental changes and determine the impacts of land change on human societies and ecosystems. The research centers on the continued development of a multiscalar, dynamic, and spatially-explicit computer model of the interactions among individuals, social structures, and environmental systems that define deforestation in the Southern Yucatan of Mexico and urbanization in the Twin Cities of the United States.  This effort combines remotely sensed data with in-depth interviews, field research, and myriad spatial socioeconomic and environmental data sets.  Integrating data and modeling allows the proposed research to test competing conceptions of individual rationality, examine the role of social and environmental dynamics in land change, and determine the relative merits of the ASTER, MODIS, and TM/ETM+ remote sensing platforms for modeling the patterns, processes, and impacts of land change.

This project has local outreach activities and will create elements of a K-16 curriculum of human-environment research, geographic information science, and remote sensing.  These activities include a new university course and K-12 classes offered in collaboration with local educators.  These programs train scientists to study earth systems science and enhance K-12 and university teaching of environmental sciences, geographic information science, and remote sensing.  The proposed education programs also focus on diversifying the workforce by supporting participation of underrepresented groups in K-12 and university education.  Outreach activities focus on collaborating with, and providing training for, several local stakeholder organizations in using geospatial technologies to assess social and environment impacts of alternative land-change scenarios.  Additional activities focus on communicating to the public the importance of remote sensing and geographic information science for understanding human-environment relationships.

Supported by: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, New Investigator Program in Earth-Sun System Science (08/01/2006-07/31/2009). North American Land Change: Integrated Research and Education on Decision Making in Coupled Human-Environment Systems (NNX06AE85G). PI: S. M. Manson ($343,383).

See Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA), Human-Environment Education, and Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region (SYPR) on the HEGIS research page for related research and support.