Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change

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The scientific study of human-environment interactions is increasingly being recognized as a coherent interdisciplinary research area, related to but distinct from conventional environmental science. Environmental science studies the functioning of the physical and biological systems that are important to sustaining life on Earth. The emerging research area studies the interrelationships between these systems and human institutions and activities. The research area is integrative and interdisciplinary. It is centered in the social and behavioral sciences, but it integrates knowledge from these sciences with natural science knowledge to understand the human causes of environmental change; the human consequences of such change; and the ways in which individuals, organizations, and social institutions respond to the potential or actuality of environmental variation and change in pursuing their objectives. To facilitate research and community-development in the emerging field of human-environmental interaction, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences has operated a Committee on the Human Dimensions of Global Change (CHDGC). This award will provide support for core operations of the CHDGC, including identification of issues needing research attention and overseeing studies on these topics; interactions with various federal agencies on issues requiring scientific analysis of human-environment interactions; contributions to international research programs addressing human-environment relationships; and organization of workshops and other ad hoc activities that enhance scientific contributions to understanding of human-environment interactions but that might not be requested by federal environment agencies.Continued support for the CHDGC will facilitate that group's expanding on its traditional role as the primary NRC committee that spans social and behavioral science fields and looks to involve leading researchers in those communities in studies of problems related to human-environmental interaction. The funding will facilitate the conduct of one special workshop each year to examine specific topics, and it will enable the committee to examine topics that are not directly related to climate change but instead to other forms of human-natural system dynamics. Publications resulting from committee workshops and studies will continue to be major foundations for future work across a diverse set of fields. The research fostered by CHDGC activities will continue to directly address environmental topics of great public interest and concern. The results of committee workshops and studies will have benefits for land and resource managers as well as policy makers at all levels of government. The committee's work also will enhance interactions between social and behavioral scientists and natural scientists and engineers who already are active in environmental discussions, thereby enhancing the likelihood that more comprehensively framed and more integrated research activities will result in the future.