GM4.1 Human-Landscape interaction in the Anthropocene |
Convener: Paolo Tarolli | Co-Conveners: Hans Middelkoop , Veerle Vanacker , Tony Brown |
Human activities may leave a remarkable signature in the landscape, by altering Earth’s morphology, climate, and ecosystems. Demographic growth, socio-economic development and urbanization have intensified land use conversions, and have profoundly affected fluxes of particulate matter, nutrients and contaminants through fluvial systems. To date, human-engineered landscapes cover a large extent of the Earth's surface. The legacy of these impacts exerts strong influence over modern and future environment, and may pose critical limits to human development. Therefore, the recognition that most landscapes have co-evolved as a result of natural and anthropogenic forcing represents a challenge for better understanding human-landscape interactions. The purpose of this session is to stimulate the debate on human-landscape interactions, by presenting the state of the art of this research field, and by underlining potential future directions. The session particularly invites recent work on new advances on the quantification of time-lags of responses, feedback mechanisms, and threshold behavior in human-landscape interactions. We welcome studies on the quantification of human disturbances from a wide range of technological applications such as remote sensing for Earth surveys, empirical and modeling approaches, and geochemical tracing techniques in soils and sediments. Early stage researchers are strongly encouraged to present their research.
This session is sponsored by the BSG - British Society for Geomorphology
INVITED TALK Dr. Anne Chin - University of Colorado Denver: "Feedbacks in human-landscape systems"