Doctoral Dissertation Research in Geography and Regional Science

该博士论文奖将支持美国人口减少的文化生态研究。该项目的目的是建立系统动力学计算机模拟模型，以评估美国人口减少的历史统计数据，检查这些人口崩溃的据称原因的作用，并进行区域间比较。关于前哥伦比亚美洲人口的数量以及西班牙征服后美洲人口下降的规模存在争议。这个项目将系统动力学模型引入到新大陆印第安人人口减少的研究中。该技术允许将直接控制人口生存和繁殖的因素与更广泛的环境、社会文化、技术和历史环境中的因素明确和动态地联系起来。通过对不同区域模型的比较，本研究强调了地理位置对理解不同模式的重要性。更广泛地说，这个项目将帮助我们破译多种因素是如何影响欧洲人接触后土著社会人口下降的，并增加我们对人口变化的一般认识。

This doctoral dissertation award will support research on the cultural ecology of Amerind depopulation. The purpose of the project is to construct systems dynamics computer simulation models in order to assess the historical-statistics of Amerind depopulation, examine the roles of purported causes of these population collapses, and make interregional comparisons. Controversy exists about the magnitude of pre-Colombian Amerind populations and the scale of their ensuing decline after the Spanish conquest. This project introduces systems dynamics modeling to the study of New World Indian depopulation. The technique allows explicit and dynamic linkage of the factors directly governing human population survival and reproduction to elements in the broader environmental, sociolcultural, technical, and historical milieux. By comparing the models developed for different regions, this study emphasizes the importance of location in understanding differing patterns. More broadly, this project will help us decipher how multiple factors have affected the population decline of aboriginal societies after European contact and add to our general knowledge of population change.