Environmental Social Science: Human - Environment interactions and Sustainability

Environmental Social Science......Page 6
Contents......Page 10
List of Illustrations......Page 12
Preface......Page 14
1 The Challenge of Human–Environment Interactions Research......Page 18
The Evolution of Social Ecological Systems......Page 19
Characterization of Contemporary Global Environmental Changes......Page 24
History of the Development of the Human Dimensions Agenda......Page 33
Characteristics of the Research on the Human Dimensions......Page 37
The Way Forward: Integrative Science......Page 39
Population, Technology, and Central Place Theories......Page 42
Population and Environment Theories......Page 48
Agency and History......Page 51
Decision-theoretic Approaches......Page 54
Political Economy and Political Ecology......Page 59
Cultural Ecology......Page 63
3 Theories and Concepts from the Biological Sciences......Page 66
Evolution by Natural Selection......Page 67
Species Respond Individualistically, Not as Communities......Page 68
Interactions with Other Species: Niche and Neutral Theories......Page 69
Top-down vs. Bottom-up Control in Ecosystems......Page 70
Succession......Page 71
Island Biogeography......Page 76
Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Theories......Page 78
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Processes/Services......Page 79
The Ecosystem Concept in Biology and the Social Sciences......Page 80
4 Spatially Explicit Approaches......Page 87
Remote Sensing and GIS......Page 91
A Case Study Using GIS/Remote Sensing to Study Amazonian Deforestation......Page 94
Urban–Rural Spatial Dynamics......Page 100
Modeling and GIS......Page 105
5 Multi-scale and Multi-temporal Analysis......Page 110
An Approach to Multidisciplinary, Multi-scale Research......Page 114
Scale......Page 117
Local Level of Analysis......Page 120
Regional Level of Analysis......Page 123
Global Level of Analysis......Page 125
Future Directions......Page 127
Introduction......Page 129
Spatially Explicit Processes in Ecological and Social Systems......Page 136
Agent-based Modeling of Complex Systems......Page 141
Conclusions......Page 145
7 Environmental Decision Making......Page 147
Institutional Analysis......Page 152
Individual Behavior and Environmental Decisions......Page 155
Decisions and Social Context......Page 157
Conclusions......Page 161
8 Towards Sustainability Science......Page 164
Sustainability Science Research Priorities......Page 166
Cities and Sustainability Science......Page 170
Climate Change and Sustainability......Page 174
Conclusions......Page 177
References......Page 179
Index......Page 224