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Human–environment interactions: towards synthesis and simulation

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Abstract

Leaders of the PAGES Focus 5 programme ‘Past Ecosystem Processes and Human–Environment Interactions’ identify key issues for research on human–environment interactions for wider discussion. These include the need for long-term perspectives, the opportunities for maximising palaeoenvironmental research, the need for integration and regionalisation and the challenge of developing dynamic simulation models. A new organisational matrix for regional studies is outlined, based on a series of zonal/azonal regions and on the degree of human impact. Future priorities for palaeoenvironmental research include new studies in degraded human-dominated landscapes, highly-valued ecosystems and sites relevant to other IGBP Core Projects. Simulation of future human–environment interactions using modelling approaches that have been tested against long records lags behind global climate modelling, but cellular approaches for biogeophysical and multi-agent systems show promise.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge discussions at a recent (2005) PAGES Focus 5 meeting held in California, particularly with Prof Neil Roberts regarding regionalisation matrices.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, L69 7ZT, Liverpool, UK

    J. A. Dearing & F. Oldfield

  2. Environmental Change Research Centre, University College London, WC1 0AP, London, UK

    R. W. Battarbee

  3. Department of Geography, University of Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 166, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    R. Dikau

  4. INRS-ETE, 490 De La Couronne Québec, G1K 9A9, Québec, Canada

    I. Larocque

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  1. J. A. Dearing
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  4. I. Larocque
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Correspondence to J. A. Dearing.

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Dearing, J.A., Battarbee, R.W., Dikau, R. et al. Human–environment interactions: towards synthesis and simulation. Reg Environ Change 6, 115–123 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-005-0012-7

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