Are Human-Environment Systems Practicable?
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS is an approach that categorically affirms the significant relation between humans and their natural environment and the broad implications of this connection.
This method is comprehensively employed in ‘integrated geography’ (also called ‘human–environment geography’), the branch of geography that describes and clarifies the spatial aspects of interactions between individuals or societies and their natural environment (also called ‘coupled human– environment systems’).
The relations between human and physical geography were once more obvious than they are today. As human experience of the world is progressively mediated by technology, the links have usually become vague. Integrated geography represents a critically vital set of analytical tools for gauging the impact of human presence on the environment by measuring, for instance, the result of human activity on natural landforms and cycles.
The Human-Environment Systems Approach
As an approach, ‘human-environment systems’ combine both human and natural components to show complex interactions, and feedback between them. Arguably the most globally acknowledged framework for studying such systems is the ‘DPSIR model’ which affirms the five factors: drivers, pressures, state, impact, response.
The ‘DPSIR model’ recognizes the human activities which put pressure on the environment and how these pressures transform the existing state of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. This leads to effects or impacts on the environment as well as on social and economic systems.
Human society in turn tries to problem-solve in order to reduce, remove or prevent the drivers and pressures, restore the state of the environment, and mitigate impacts. This model can be used to evaluate the causes and impacts of environmental change and the strategies applied to manage them.
Another related framework is the ‘coupled human–environment system’ which is also known as ‘coupled human and natural system’ or CHANS. It is an integrated scientific framework for exploring the interface and reciprocal interactions that link human (e.g., economic, social) to natural (e.g., hydrologic, atmospheric, biological) sub-systems of the planet. This system notes that social and natural systems are inseparable.
Research into CHANS is increasing in frequency in scientific field regarding the sustainability and conservation of ecosystems and society. Some of these researches build on the disciplines of human ecology, ecological anthropology, environmental geography, economics, and other eco-bio-geo-physical fields.
Going beyond traditional research methods in the social and natural sciences, CHANS takes on broader investigations into the complex nature of reciprocating interactions and feedbacks between humans on the environment and the effect of the environment on humans. Some researches challenge the more traditional research programs that tended to separate the social from the ecological sciences.
How Human-Environment Interactions Shape Cultural and Natural Landscapes
The discussions on the relationship between humans and the environment obviously reveal how the interrelationships between people and their environments shape the so-called cultural and natural landscapes. There are at least three key concepts which underlie human-environment relationships: (1) Humans depend on the environment; (2) Humans modify the environment; and (3) Humans adapt to the environment.
Practically, humans depend on the natural environment which is made up of living things and non-living things. Humans rely on these things for their basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing.
But humans also modify or transform the natural environment. They do this basically to meet their current and progressively growing needs. For instance, people plow and irrigate fields, build dams, and also dig mines. On land, they construct houses, schools, and shopping centers on land.
Furthermore, humans adapt to the environment. People have
resided in virtually each corner of the world by productively adapting to
varied natural settings. For instance, persons who live in the mountainous
regions of Baguio City use heating
units to keep their homes warm while people in the lowlands, especially in
urban Central Luzon and Metro Manila, use air conditioning much of the year to
stay cool in the heat.
The manners by which people choose to use, modify, and adapt to their natural settings thus reflect not only the natural but also the cultural landscapes of a certain region. By cultural, we mean to include people’s economic and political circumstances as well as their technological abilities. Indeed, studying geography, especially using the human-environment systems as an approach, fosters appreciation of our natural environment and of our cultural differences.
How humans have employed, adapted to, and changed their environment to survive and make life more comfortable and convenient necessarily have effects on the environment. Most of these human activities on environment have had positive impacts on the lives of humans, such as better suiting their needs and wants, but are not necessarily good for the environment.
Specific examples of human-environment interaction, which illustrate how human-environment interactions shape cultural and natural landscapes, include irrigation, terrace farming, digging canals, and constructing roads.
Irrigation systems are built to bring water from nearby sources, usually rivers, to regions where crops are grown. Early civilizations like in Egypt and China employed irrigation systems to cultivate more food, allowing them to develop and grow as a civilization and to have a relatively improved culture. More innovative irrigation systems have been developed in modern times to produce crops even in areas once thought barren.
Terrace farming comprises cutting out flat areas (terraces) into near vertical slopes to permit farming. Terrace farms look like steps cut into a mountainside. This adaptation to mountainous environment enabled not only the people in Banawe, northern Philippines but also the early Chinese, Japanese, and the Inca of Mesoamerica to raise sufficient food for their large populations.
The construction of roads enabled civilizations not only to exchange goods and services with other cultures but also to invade and conquer. The Roman and Incan Empires constructed elaborate road systems throughout their empires which enabled them to maintain good communication and institute a strong, centralized government. In our day, the numerous systems of roads that crisscross most of the world’s continents continue to allow for good communication, trade, and even cultural diffusion.
Canals are manmade waterways, which like roads, are used for trade and transportation. The early Chinese civilization constructed an extensive canal network that enabled them to trade and communicate with most of their population. At present, canals such as the Suez Canal linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, have contributed profoundly to global trade and communication … continue reading
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