28.4 Human Activity and the Environment: Land-use Systems
419
and infonn policy makers in ways that promote
more effective understanding? Do conceptual
structures exist that can enable a discourse and
guide effective policy and research?
Much activity in this arena suffers from a lack
of a clear conceptual framework that integrates societal and biophysical processes and from a singleissue focus that fails to portray the complexity of
issues and their spatial and temporal characteristics. A simple illustration of the origins and remediation of the problem of urban smog can illustrate
this complexity (Table 28.1).
Urban smog develops under high-pressure atmospheric conditions in which a stable air mass
fails to disperse air pollutants from factories, vehicle emissions, and other sources. In the 1950s and
1960s, smog fonned under high-pressure conditions that persisted over a number of days in London, UK. The incidence of bronchial and cardiac
illnesses increased, and in one four-day smog in
1952 over 4000 people died. This situation was not
uncommon in industrial centers in many countries.
The search for a solution to the problem of human health was predicated on reducing the incidence
of smog. The issue was seen as a local one of
weather: stable air, preventing dispersal of particulate matter from the urban area, resulted in air quality decline dangerous to health. Solutions were found
in altering the industrial architecture by building tall
smokestacks that emit factory wastes into the atmosphere above the observed height of the inversion layer. Once above the inversion layer, the emissions were distributed by the winds present at those
levels. An architectural and economic solution effectively solved the local problem of urban smog.
This solution created a different problem, that of
acid rain in areas downwind from the areas emitting acid particles higher in the atmosphere. What
was initially a local problem of smog became a
more widespread problem of acid rain. The systems
involved were altered from the localized urban economic, atmospheric, and human health systems to
atmospheric, terrestrial, aquatic, and economic systems in areas experiencing the acid rain. Frequently, these systems were distant from and were
in states and even nations different from those originating the particle emissions. The search for solutions has necessitated involvement of political,
legal, and economic systems at regional to international levels. For example Canada and the United
States, western and northern European countries,
and individual states in the United States have come
into conflict over the impact of acid rain on their
economies and the expectation of remedial action.
This brief example, presented at a most general
level, illustrates the essential elements of a conceptual framework that would address the interaction of human and biophysical systems. The elements include those that are common to both
human and biophysical systems, such as space,
scale, and time, together with uncertainty and unpredictability. Both social and ecological scientists
recognize the need for a comprehensive approach.
Two related but separate conceptual frameworks,
landscape ecology and political ecology, illustrate
contemporary approaches that may provide a basis
for developing frameworks that more effectively
integrate the societal and the biophysical.
Although common elements are evident in the
conceptual approaches of biophysical and social
scientists, others are seldom shared. From the social science perspective, the issue of power is an
essential component, but one that receives insufficient attention in ecological approaches. Power reflected in legal, political, and economic systems detennines the outcome of conflicts in goals and
policies that are inherent in the management of dynamic interactions between human and biophysical
systems.
Critical categories for analyzing and explaining
human impacts on ecosystems through natural resources management (NRM) are political, economic, and social-cultural (Table 28.2), although
interactions occur between categories and some
processes may fit in more than one category.
28.4 Human Activity and
the Environment:
Land-use Systems
Patterns of land use are the spatial imprint of interactions between society and the physical environment. Embedded in them are economic objectives, cultural traditions, esthetic values, political
regulations, and the inertia of past decisions. Identical ecological settings can be interpreted and used
in distinct ways by different societies and even by
diverse groups within a society. Where such differences intersect, competition over land use results, and the outcome is a function of power expressed through negotiation or fiat.
28.4.1 Human Processes That
Affect Ecosystems
Attention has long been paid to the economic and
demographic processes that result in the transformation of the land surface and in the use and
419
and infonn policy makers in ways that promote
more effective understanding? Do conceptual
structures exist that can enable a discourse and
guide effective policy and research?
Much activity in this arena suffers from a lack
of a clear conceptual framework that integrates societal and biophysical processes and from a singleissue focus that fails to portray the complexity of
issues and their spatial and temporal characteristics. A simple illustration of the origins and remediation of the problem of urban smog can illustrate
this complexity (Table 28.1).
Urban smog develops under high-pressure atmospheric conditions in which a stable air mass
fails to disperse air pollutants from factories, vehicle emissions, and other sources. In the 1950s and
1960s, smog fonned under high-pressure conditions that persisted over a number of days in London, UK. The incidence of bronchial and cardiac
illnesses increased, and in one four-day smog in
1952 over 4000 people died. This situation was not
uncommon in industrial centers in many countries.
The search for a solution to the problem of human health was predicated on reducing the incidence
of smog. The issue was seen as a local one of
weather: stable air, preventing dispersal of particulate matter from the urban area, resulted in air quality decline dangerous to health. Solutions were found
in altering the industrial architecture by building tall
smokestacks that emit factory wastes into the atmosphere above the observed height of the inversion layer. Once above the inversion layer, the emissions were distributed by the winds present at those
levels. An architectural and economic solution effectively solved the local problem of urban smog.
This solution created a different problem, that of
acid rain in areas downwind from the areas emitting acid particles higher in the atmosphere. What
was initially a local problem of smog became a
more widespread problem of acid rain. The systems
involved were altered from the localized urban economic, atmospheric, and human health systems to
atmospheric, terrestrial, aquatic, and economic systems in areas experiencing the acid rain. Frequently, these systems were distant from and were
in states and even nations different from those originating the particle emissions. The search for solutions has necessitated involvement of political,
legal, and economic systems at regional to international levels. For example Canada and the United
States, western and northern European countries,
and individual states in the United States have come
into conflict over the impact of acid rain on their
economies and the expectation of remedial action.
This brief example, presented at a most general
level, illustrates the essential elements of a conceptual framework that would address the interaction of human and biophysical systems. The elements include those that are common to both
human and biophysical systems, such as space,
scale, and time, together with uncertainty and unpredictability. Both social and ecological scientists
recognize the need for a comprehensive approach.
Two related but separate conceptual frameworks,
landscape ecology and political ecology, illustrate
contemporary approaches that may provide a basis
for developing frameworks that more effectively
integrate the societal and the biophysical.
Although common elements are evident in the
conceptual approaches of biophysical and social
scientists, others are seldom shared. From the social science perspective, the issue of power is an
essential component, but one that receives insufficient attention in ecological approaches. Power reflected in legal, political, and economic systems detennines the outcome of conflicts in goals and
policies that are inherent in the management of dynamic interactions between human and biophysical
systems.
Critical categories for analyzing and explaining
human impacts on ecosystems through natural resources management (NRM) are political, economic, and social-cultural (Table 28.2), although
interactions occur between categories and some
processes may fit in more than one category.
28.4 Human Activity and
the Environment:
Land-use Systems
Patterns of land use are the spatial imprint of interactions between society and the physical environment. Embedded in them are economic objectives, cultural traditions, esthetic values, political
regulations, and the inertia of past decisions. Identical ecological settings can be interpreted and used
in distinct ways by different societies and even by
diverse groups within a society. Where such differences intersect, competition over land use results, and the outcome is a function of power expressed through negotiation or fiat.
28.4.1 Human Processes That
Affect Ecosystems
Attention has long been paid to the economic and
demographic processes that result in the transformation of the land surface and in the use and