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Policy interactions in human-landscape systems
1Department of Political Science, University of Arizona-International Studies Association, 324 Social Sciences, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA, agerlak@u.arizona.edu.
Environmental Management
|May 17, 2013
Summary
Understanding human-landscape interactions requires integrating natural and social sciences. Environmental policy research offers key themes like thresholds, scales, and feedback loops for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Area of Science:
- Integrative human-landscape systems science
- Environmental policy research
- Interdisciplinary collaboration
Background:
- Increasing human impact necessitates understanding complex human-landscape interactions.
- Interdependence of hydrogeomorphological, ecological, and human systems is recognized.
- Greater integration across disciplines is needed for theory building.
Purpose of the Study:
- To contribute to a conceptual framework for human-landscape systems.
- To describe how environmental policy research informs integrative themes.
- To identify complementarities for future interdisciplinary work.
Main Methods:
- Review of environmental policy research literature.
- Integration across diverse subfields and research programs.
- Analysis of four integrative themes from an NSF workshop: thresholds/tipping points, spatial scales/boundaries, feedback loops, time scales/lags.
Main Results:
- Environmental policy research provides valuable insights into key integrative themes.
- Diverse methodological and theoretical approaches within policy research can be complementary.
- Identified research complementarities can support future interdisciplinary collaborations.
Conclusions:
- Environmental policy research is crucial for advancing human-landscape systems understanding.
- Further interdisciplinary research is needed to address complex environmental challenges.
- Future research should focus on advancing collaborative work across natural and social sciences.
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