Spatial Methods in Coupled Human-Natural Systems: Landscape Change and Socio-Economic Inequalities

In this lecture, Dr. Tom Rudel presents two examples of the use of spatial methods to understand the difference and stratification in human impacts on the landscape. He presents one example of suburban sprawl in New Jersey and discusses the use of geospatial data and spatial regression to characterize stratification and development patterns. He then presents a second example of land-use change and agricultural management in Ecuador. He describes the research questions and the process of combining remote sensing data with household surveys and interviews to understand the drivers of difference in tree cover in pasture lands. He uses the example to illustrate how to interpret spatial stratification in the social and natural context within which it occurs.

  • About the Presenters
    Image
    Tom Rudel

    Tom Rudel

    Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Departments of Human Ecology and Sociology

    Dr. Tom Rudel conducts research on land-use change. He has researched the driving forces behind tropical deforestation both through case studies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and through quantitative analyses at the global scale. The latter set of studies has included work on "the forest transition." He has also done research on the forces that have driven suburban sprawl, primarily through field studies in the northeastern United States. He just finished a book, entitled Defensive Environmentalists and the Paths to Global Environmental Reform, to be published by Cambridge University Press.

    Image
    Tom Rudel

    Tom Rudel

    Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Departments of Human Ecology and Sociology

    Dr. Tom Rudel conducts research on land-use change. He has researched the driving forces behind tropical deforestation both through case studies in the Ecuadorian Amazon and through quantitative analyses at the global scale. The latter set of studies has included work on "the forest transition." He has also done research on the forces that have driven suburban sprawl, primarily through field studies in the northeastern United States. He just finished a book, entitled Defensive Environmentalists and the Paths to Global Environmental Reform, to be published by Cambridge University Press.

  • Supporting Materials

    Presentation slides: 

     
    Reading list:
    Rudel, T.K., Katan, T. and Horowitz, B. Amerindian livelihoods, outside interventions, and poverty traps in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Rural Sociology 78, no. 2, 167-184.
     

Presenters
Tom Rudel, Rutgers University
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