PARENT SESSION
Symposium #6: The next generation: Applications of the LTER framework for integrated social and ecological research.
Sponsored by the LTER Network
Organized by: P. Nowak and B. Kahn.
Monday, August 6, 2001. 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Madison Ballroom B
Synthesis of social and ecological approaches for the spatial analyses of human ecosystems, with examples from Phoenix, Arizona and Baltimore, Maryland.
Kinzig, Ann 1, Grove, Morgan2, 1 2
ABSTRACT- Sometimes shared, but rarely fused, the social and ecological sciences have each developed with their own traditions and approaches to spatial analyses. For interdisciplinary research, however, it is increasingly necessary to synthesize these separate social and ecological approaches, particularly if we are to advance our understanding of the dynamics of human ecosystems. In this presentation, we review the major approaches traditionally taken towards spatial analysis in the social and ecological sciences. Based upon this brief review, we discuss some of the opportunities for greater interdisciplinary collaboration by highlighting some of the more promising integrative research questions concerning spatial patterns in human-dominated ecosystems, and offer a survey of some of the leading datasets and software that would be of practical use in this integrated analysis. Finally, we close with several examples comparing the Central Arizona Phoenix (CAP) and Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) projects with particular attention to the ecological and social core areas of the LTER Network (demography, technology, land use, land cover, consumption, primary production) in order to illustrate a synthetic approach to the spatial analyses of human ecosystems.
KEY WORDS: urban geography, spatial analyses, human ecosystem