NRE 501 section 039

Land Use and Global Change

Prof. Dan Brown

TTh 2:30-4PM

This course explores the interactions between land use, land cover, and environmental processes at multiple scales.  The emphasis is on understanding the interactions between land use changes and climate change.  These interactions are bi-directional: global land-use changes have been a significant source of carbon to the atmosphere, while climate change and variability requires adaptation and modification of land-use practices. Land-use modification provides one means of mitigating increases in atmospheric carbon due to fossil fuel burning.  Land-use change takes place in the context of a wide range of social, economic, and environmental processes. Understanding how land uses are, or should be, allocated to achieve multiple goals, including food and fiber production, space for human settlement, provision of ecosystem services, and access to renewable energy sources, requires consideration of these multiple objectives and of the various factors driving land-use decisions at multiple scales.