| The earth’s surface is transforming at a mind-blowing rate, affecting everything from the price of a cup of coffee to the lives of polar bears.
Steven Manson, McKnight Land Grant Professor of Geography, wants people to understand more about the footprint we leave on earth and how we may curtail our negative impact. He is examining the pace at which humans are altering the planet using an approach called agent-based modeling.
Mason is feeding data collected from household interviews, archival material, and satellite images of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula into virtual landscape software he created — the Human Environment Land Integrated Assessment. This software helps find global patterns by modeling environmental change within the region.
Manson is also using his “computational intelligence modeling” to help Southern Yucatan policy makers better predict the impact of future land use. He argues many models scientists use have discounted the role of cultural and social values. His approach attempts to “capture some of the social dynamics and personal biases that influence human behavior.”
Manson’s work has a local focus, too. He is investigating urbanization in the Twin Cities through a project with the Twin Cities’ Metropolitan Council and the University’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, and is working with the St. Paul–based Eco-Education to create a curriculum centered on human-environment research, geographic information science, and remote sensing. The outreach activities will include a new University course and K-12 classes offered in collaboration with Eco-Education.
From the 2007 edition of Research, an annual publication of the OVPR.
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