HSD: Human and Social Dynamics in Myvatnssveit, Iceland, from the Settlement to the Present

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Increasing attention in recent years has focused on trying to better understand the complex interactions through which humans (individually and as members of formal and informal groups) interact with the many different biophysical systems that collectively constitute their natural environment. Studies of longer-term human-environmental interaction often have been hampered by a paucity of data and information about human activities that can be related to longer-term natural system databases. This interdisciplinary and international project will consider the interaction of human societies with their surroundings; specifically with climate and ecosystems, within the context of economic and social constraints. The overarching goal of the project is to foster breakthroughs in understanding the dynamics of human action and development, as well as knowledge about organizational, cultural, and societal adaptation and change. Further specific goals involve the explanation of changes in economic practices in the Myvatn area of northern Iceland from early settlement times (about AD 870 onwards) to the present. Three major economic and ecological transitions have been identified in the area: one from about 1150 to 1200; a second in the 1880s; and a third from about 1990 to the present. Each transition involved both local and global climatic and economic factors, and each produced successive cascades of change in vegetation, soil, land holding, and settlement locations. Drawing on information from the social and natural sciences as well as the humanities, this project will benefit from the expertise of local informants in the community, as well as on a wealth of highly detailed documentary records of social and economic change, both historical and contemporary, and an extensive archaeological record. Several different databases will be compiled and analyzed, including environmental and climate data, soils- and sediment-based cultural records, and present-day agronomic, socioeconomic, and population records. The investigators will use an innovative approach for integrating archaeological, historical, and environmental strands of evidence through modeling. The project also will make use of systems theory in order to focus on agents of change in social-ecological systems. This synergistic research approach is expected to result in a detailed analysis of how the economic growth and social development of a society, in this case in northern Iceland, is influenced by its eco-systemic links and socioeconomic institutions.This project will take advantage of long-term databases that have been collected regarding both society and the local environment in the Myvatn area over the 1,100-year period when people have lived in the region. The project will provide new insights into the dynamics of dramatic changes in the region, including almost-complete deforestation, massive soil erosion, and repeated cycles of starvation and abandonment as well as examples of long periods of successful management of land and natural resources by the local population. This study is expected to help identify factors that produced long-term sustainable farming in some localities and irreversible soil erosion in others. The project will contribute to understanding of the complex webs of interaction between present and future environmental changes, and the physical and cultural landscape. Because significant climatic change is anticipated in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, rapid social and environmental change is anticipated in the Myvatn region and in many other parts of the world in coming decades. Few guidelines exist for promoting genuinely sustainable strategies for community development and survival. Studies like this that include long-term perspectives will help to identify policies and behaviors that are likely to promote (or reduce) resilience and sustainable resource use. An award resulting from the FY 2005 NSF-wide competition on Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) supports this project. All NSF directorates and offices are involved in the coordinated management of the HSD competition and the portfolio of HSD awards.