HUMAN ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM APPROACH/ES PPT

The approaches in human system

1. HUMAN ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM APPROACH

2. ' The Human-Environment Systems (HES) in the social sciences is an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences. it bridges the gap between, and integrate knowledge from, the social and the natural sciences within one frameworkin thestudy of environmental and social issues. interaction of human systems with corresponding environmental or or technological systems (Scholz and Binder). Human-Environment System

3. HES approach conceptualizes mutual dependence between human environmental systems. describe this mutual dependence as “two different systems that exist in essential dependencies and reciprocal endorsement”. Scholz and Binder

4. Lui ,J.et al.(2007) made a clear articulation of the reason why an integration of the three aspects is necessary. They argued that “such integration is needed to tackle the increased complexity and to help prevent the dreadful consequences that may occur due to the fundamentally new and rapid changes, because the magnitude, extent, and rate of changes in human - natural couplings have been unprecedented in the past several decades , and the accelerating human impacts on natural systems may lead to degradation and collapse of natural systems which in turn compromise the adaptive capacity of human system”

5. To understand and appreciate the human- environment system (HES) approach in the social sciences, the following discussion outlines three areas or fields of inquiry where the HES approach is relevant and necessary both as an analytic tool and framework the study of the human causes of environmental change not only proximate causes, such as burning coal, releasing heavy metals into rivers, and clearing forests,that immediately change a part of the environment but especially indirect causes or driving forces, such as population growth,economic development , technological change, and alterations in social institution and human values that must be understood to forecast trends in environmentally destructive human activity and if necessary to change those trends. 1

6. A second field of inquiry concerns the effect of environmental change on things people value both proximate effects, such as on growing seasons and rainfall agricultural areas, endangered species, and so on, an indirect effects, such as on population migrations, international conflict, agricultural markets, and government policies. 2 3 The third field is the study of the feedback between humanity and the environment the ways individuals, organizations, and governments act on the basis of experienced or anticipated environmental change to manage human activity and preserve environmental values. These feedback provide the greatest challenge of scientist and policy makers, partly because there are so many ways people can intervene in the system (Stern 1993, 1897)

7. FEEDBACK MECHANISM ENVIRONMENT HUMANITY affects affects

8. FEEDBACK LOOP This phenomenon of system components both impacting each other creates a feedback loop. Feedack is impact to a system component that is a consequence of an action performed by the component. is a circumstance in which performing an action causes more performances of that action. is a circumstance in which performing an action causes fewer performances of that action. Positive FL Negative FL

9. Scholz and Binder It is important to understand that for feedback loops, the terms positive and negative o not mean good and bad. A positive feedback loop can be a bad thing, and a negative feedback loop can be a good thing, or vice versa.

10. LANDSCAPE The cocept of landscape has for quite a long time been important to geographers and other environmental scientists in undersanding HES. It has been used since the 1800s to focus on human -environment interactions and continues to evolve and be in widespread use. A landscape, in this context, is not just the scenery that you view from a scenic lookout point. Landscape include physical features like streams, oceans, forests, and soils as well as human-constructed buildings, trails, fences, and mines. Landscapes refers to both human and non-human phenomena Clearly, Humans and the Environment are inseparably part of the landscape. in other words, the human part and the environment part are closely coupled.

11. Scholz and Binder The famous geographer Carl Sauer (1889-1975) encouraged environmental thinkers to study the humanized environment (i.e., the environment as influenced by human activity) in terms of landscapes during the early and mid-twentieth century. Sauer characterized the process of landscape creation as always ongoing and thus necessary to see in historical terms. Carl Sauer

12. He imagined a landscape being transformed through time from its original, natural form into a “cultural landscape” via influence of human technologies and economies. As our understanding of the dynamism of human-environment systems has evolved, geographers have continued to recognized the importance of history while building a new emphasis on the recursive relationships (interactions in both directions) within human-environment landscapes.

13. One final important feature of a landscape-based approach is the emphasis on perception. “Landscapes aren't just “out there” waiting for us to interact with and learn from them. Instead, our interpretations of landscapes are shaped by our own preferences, needs, and experiences.

14. To date the significant studies on the studies on the many problems of human-environment interaction have been undertaken. For example, “in understanding how people perceive and judge environmental risks ; how societies create institutions for managing common property resources, such as fisheries, grassland and the atmosphere ; what brought about anthropogenic environmental changes in the past; the dynamics of public concern about the environment; and the economic forces affecting natural resource availability”

15. However, the field of inquiry of human-environmental interaction has achieved modest progress only.Stern (1993, 1898) identified both scientific and institutional reasons that explain such modest outcome.