Population and Environment
Population processes, human behavior, and agency in the transformation of Earth's surface
A debate for the ages. It began over 200 years ago when English economist Thomas Malthus prophesied that Earth will one day no longer be able to sustain the exponentially increasing population. Today, this debate between population and environment has evolved into a broader effort of understanding people and environment and its interrelationship with land. A group of CPC fellows has developed a program of research based in a number of different settings around the world that tackle these complex relationships.
Research in Northern Tanzania examines the causes and consequences of livelihood changes of agriculture and labor migration by the Masaai people upon the ecosystem. In the Galapagos Islands, which face a government declared ecological emergency, UNC is supporting a center facility on Isabela Island with support from CPC. By fostering research at the Isabela Center for Galapagos Studies, CPC researchers hope to understand the human, terrestrial and marine sub-systems of the Galapagos. In Thailand, interdisciplinary research on human-environment interactions conducted by CPC fellows has focused on deforestation and the introduction of cash agriculture as both determinants and consequences of population change, especially migration. This research program is also studying social inequality in relation to the floods and droughts that are endemic to the region. In the Ecuadorian Amazon, population-environment interactions are shaped by the social and ecological dynamics of colonists, indigenous groups, communities, protected areas, and the petroleum industry, and those dynamics are being studied at CPC through the combination of spatial data and questionnaire data collected by CPC research teams.
A key component to the research is inventive developments in the methodology of analyzing such information. Led by CPC Fellows, the methodology of cellular automata (CA), agent-based modeling (ABM) and complex systems are among the forefront of their field and especially used in the Thai and Galapagos research.
Related Fellows:
- Richard E. Bilsborrow
- Michael E. Emch
- Barbara Entwisle
- Clark Gray
- Pamela Jagger
- Paul W. Leslie
- Lisa D. Pearce
- Ronald R. Rindfuss
- Paul R. Voss
- Stephen J. Walsh
Related Research:
- Dynamically Integrating Macro and Micro Processes
- HSD: Collaborative Research: Dynamics of Parks as Agents of Change in Eastern & Southern Africa
- PIRE Collaborative Research and Training in Social Context, Population Processes, and Environmental Change
- Spatial Health Research Group
