Collaborative Research: Socio-Spatial Processes of Road Extensions and Forest Fragmentation in the Brazilian Amazon

以前对亚马逊的研究没有系统地记录道路建设的社会空间过程与道路网络对景观和生态系统的几何特征之间的联系。 生态学文献将道路问题视为一种纯粹的空间现象，并强调栖息地破碎化对环境的影响，而没有首先考虑推动道路建设的社会过程。 社会科学研究仅涉及道路建设对毁林的总体影响，鉴于森林破碎化的各种空间几何结构的重要生态影响，这是一个相当生硬的衡量标准。 因此，生态和社会科学家在道路和环境变化方面的知识基础仍然存在差距。 该项目旨在通过研究道路延伸的社会过程以及由此产生的巴西亚马逊热带森林前沿道路网络扩展的空间结构，开始弥合这一差距。 研究人员将该项目置于一个理论框架中，以了解道路延伸的社会空间过程，以及延伸的空间逻辑如何导致具有可变空间架构的道路网络。 该框架借鉴了微观经济学理论的见解，土地保有制度和财产权的工作，以及政治生态学，以了解伐木者，土地所有者和寻求扩大亚马逊道路网络的利益集团联盟的道路扩展过程。 在这一框架的基础上，伐木者和土地所有者将在应对不同力量时延长道路。 由于这些代理人实现不同的目标与不同形式的资本，由此产生的道路网络预计将有不同的空间结构，并对森林破碎化有不同的影响。 研究方法包括采访伐木工人，土地所有者，和其他参与者在道路延伸努力沿着Transamazon高速公路，特别关注的社会空间过程，导致个别路段的建设。 实地采访将产生一个样本的道路延伸在不同的历史和经济情况下沿着Transamazon。 调查人员将把联合收割机的访谈数据与覆盖研究区域的数字地图结合起来，从而将扩展过程与由此产生的道路网络的空间结构联系起来。这一研究项目应有助于填补道路建设、人类土地利用和森林破碎化方面的生态和社会科学文献之间的空白。 在巴西新的基础设施项目和亚马逊环境迅速退化的背景下，对道路的社会进程和空间结构进行研究是非常及时的。 通过将巴西人纳入美国和巴西大学，将促进对亚马逊人类土地利用和生态变化的社会，经济和生态层面的综合和更连贯的理解。 调查人员还希望传播有关道路延伸和森林破碎化的教学模块和可视化产品，用于大学教学、学术演讲和与利益攸关方团体的会议。

Previous research on the Amazon has not systematically documented the link between the socio-spatial processes of road construction and the geometric signature of road networks on landscapes and ecosystems. Ecology literature approaches the issue of roads as a purely spatial phenomenon, and emphasizes the ensuing environmental impacts of habitat fragmentation without attending to the social processes driving road construction in the first place. Social science research has only addressed the aggregate impact of road construction on deforestation, a rather blunt measure given the important ecological implications of various spatial geometries of forest fragmentation. As a result, a gap remains between the knowledge bases of ecological and social scientists concerned with roads and environmental change. This project aims to start bridging that gap by examining the social processes of road extensions and the resulting spatial architecture of expanding road networks in a tropical forest frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. The investigators ground the project in a theoretical framework for understanding the socio-spatial processes of road extensions and how the spatial logic of extensions leads to road networks with variable spatial architectures. That framework draws on insights from microeconomic theory, work on tenure institutions and property rights, and political ecology to understand the process of road extensions by loggers, landholders, and coalitions of interest groups who seek to amplify road networks in the Amazon. On the basis of this framework, loggers and landholders are expected to extend roads as they respond to different forces. As these agents fulfill different objectives with different forms of capital, the resulting road networks are expected to have distinct spatial architectures and to have different impacts on forest fragmentation. Research methods include interviews with loggers, landholders, and other participants in road extension efforts along the Transamazon highway, with special attention given to the socio-spatial processes leading to construction of individual road sections. The field interviews will generate a sample of road extensions under different historical and economic circumstances along the Transamazon. The investigators will combine the interview data to digital maps covering the study area, thereby linking extension processes to the spatial architecture of resulting road networks. This research project should help fill a gap left between the ecological and social science literatures on road building, human land use, and forest fragmentation. In the context of new infrastructure projects in Brazil and the rapid pace of environmental degradation in the Amazon, research on the social processes and spatial architecture of roads is very timely. A synthetic and more coherent understanding of the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of human land use and ecological change in the Amazon will be fostered through the inclusion of Brazilians in both U.S. and Brazilian universities in this project. The investigators also expect to disseminate teaching modules and visualization products concerning road extensions and forest fragmentation for university instruction, scholarly presentations, and meetings with stakeholder groups.