Document: TUR-3-18-8

Understanding of land dynamics: The southern Yucatan peninsular region project.

TURNER II, B.L.*

Graduate School of Geography and George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610 ¹

Abstract:
Land-use/cover change is a major foundation of global change, environmental, and sustainability sciences because individuals and societies interact with nature through the lens of place. The complexity and spatial variability of these interactions tend to inhibit general explanation and modeling for many of the critical questions of these sciences. The International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and International Human Dimensions Program thus call for advances in regional and smaller scale integrative assessments of land-use/cover change. A key aim is to explain and project this change in spatially explicit ways. The southern Yucatan peninsular region project is used as an example of the kind of integration and modeling sought. The region possesses the largest biosphere reserve in Mexico, and yet is experiencing rapid land change, explained in terms of the region's changing human-environment relationships. Two different, but linked , models explore advances in explaining and projecting the magnitude and location of changes in forest and cropland cover.

Keywords:

This abstract is being presented at: 4:35 PM in session:
Symposium # 17: Land Use and Land Cover Change: The Last Century and Prospects for the 21st Century.