Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human - Environmental Interaction and Sustainability in an East African Agricultural Landscape

9305503特纳，很少有问题像经济发展和环境变化之间的关系那样，完全关注人与环境相互作用的动态性质。在非洲，发展与环境的接口被认为是非洲的一种“危机”，特别是在东非，农业系统融入全球经济和前所未有的人口增长对人、土地和资源造成了巨大的压力。这一博士论文研究项目将通过探索坦桑尼亚北部人口稠密的农业区梅鲁山的Olmotonyi分水岭的景观变化过程，提供当代人与环境相互作用的一个戏剧性领域的案例研究。调查员将记录从殖民时代到现在的景观的社会和生态历史。她还将对当前的土地使用模式和做法进行清点，并了解土地使用者对未来前景的看法。对土地使用者的详细访谈将探索社会和环境的变化以及个人对过去、现在和未来土地利用和生计选择的看法。该项目是对正在发生重大变化的区域中人与环境相互作用的复杂动态的全面和历史考察。它将扩大关于全球环境变化的人类层面的一般知识，特别是通过确定当地居民对当前和未来选择的看法，这是在审查可能的“可持续发展”形式时经常被忽视的一个因素。作为博士论文改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。***

9305503 TURNER Few issues focus on the dynamic nature of human- environmental interaction as completely as does the relationship between economic development and environmental change. In Africa, the development-environment interface has been considered as a "crisis" of Africa, especially in eastern Africa, where incorporation of farming systems into the global economy and unprecedented population growth have created intensive pressures on people, land, and resources. This doctoral dissertation research project will provide a case study of one dramatic area of contemporary human-environmental interaction by exploring processes of landscape change in the Olmotonyi watershed of Mount Meru, a densely populated agricultural region in northern Tanzania. The investigator will document the social and ecological history of the landscape from colonial to present times. She also will inventory current land-use patterns and practices and elicit the perceptions of land users about future prospects. Detailed interviews with land users will explore social and environmental changes and individuals views about past, present, and future land-use and livelihood alternatives. This project constitutes a holistic and historical examination of the complex dynamics of human-environmental interaction in a region undergoing significant change. It will expand general knowledge about the human dimensions of global environmental change, especially the through identification of the perceptions of local residents of current and future options, a factor that often has been ignored in examination of possible forms of "sustainable development." As a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. ***