Land Change Science in the Tropics

Land in the tropics and sub tropics occupy approximately 40 percent of the Earth’s surface and is currently home to a a large portion of the world’s population. This book provides a detail ed scientific account of the current state and condition of land change in the Tropics. The main themes of tropical land change science include not only extensification and intensifi cation, butal so diversification and co mpetition for land; resilience of land systems; the multiple roles of institutions, markets, societies, and individu als; andth e effects of decisions made at manifold spatial, temporal, and organizational scales in influencing land change. These themes together with issues such as frontier settleme nt, dynamics of plant invasions and other changes in environmental qualitya ssociated with alternate land uses clearly demonstrate the importanceof an integrateda nd interdisciplinary understanding of socio economic and human systems aswell as environ mental systems. This book takes such a coupled approach to human and natural systems and investigates land change as anexe mplar oft he funda mental interdependence of society, economy, and environment. Development of methodologies required for achieving a more integrated and interdisciplinary understanding of land change in coupled natural and human systems are an important effort in the international land change sci ence community. This book addresses and explores manyof t hese meth odologies,provi ding detailed case studies that demonstrate the importance of strong methodologies.

Andrew Millington is Professor of Geography and Director of Environmental Programs in Geosciences at Texas A&M University. He was previously Chair of the Dept of Geography at Leicester University, has worked at the Universities of Reading and Sierra Leone, and has been Visiting Professor at University College, Dublin and the University of Gent. He has received B.Sc. (Hull University, 1973), M.A. (University of Colorado, 1977) and D. Phil. (University of Sussex, 1985) degrees. He has researched natural resources issues in western Asia, Africa and South America with funding from the European Union, The World Bank and the UK Natural Environmental Research Council. He was formerly Editor of The Geographical Journal and he serves on the editorial boards of the Annals of the AAG and The Geographical Journal.

Wendy Jepson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. She earned her doctorate from the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003. Her research focuses on land-use and land-cover change along South America’s modern agricultural frontier, particularly the savannas and dry tropical forests, and the transformation of landscapes in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas. She also examines the relationship between water, society, and equity on the US-Mexico Border. She serves on the editorial board of GeoJournal: An International Journal of Geography