This contributed volume presents relevant examples of socio-environmental research that highlight the challenges and opportunities of using geotechnologies in interdisciplinary settings across the vast, culturally, and environmentally mega-diverse region known as Latin America. While remote sensing has been mostly used for mapping and monitoring physical features, geographic information systems open up opportunities for the integration of socio-economic and environmental data collected through individual and community-based surveys, in-situ measurements, and other participatory research techniques to offer additional analytically grounded power when evaluating socio-environmental processes that shape Latin American landscapes.

The topics addressed in this book include deforestation and land degradation, borderlands dynamics, agriculture and agroecological systems, environmental conservation and development, public health, tourism, environmental justice, archeology, volunteered geography and urban planning, among others. The book is intended for academics, graduate and undergraduate classrooms, and general audiences with interest in Latin America and the socio-environmental issues that threaten the sustainability of the region and local communities. The book will also appeal to practitioners, managers, and policy makers interested in the application of geo-technologies and field-based research to address complex socio-environmental problems in the Global South.

Uses GIS and remote sensing analytical frameworks to facilitate a dialogue between the physical and social sciences Synthesizes current geographic information science approaches to socio-environmental research in Latin America Documents solutions to socio-environmental issues in complex landscapes through interdisciplinary collaboration

Autorentext

Dr. Santiago López is an Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and Director of the Environmental Education and Research Center at the University of Washington-Bothell, Bothell, WA. He holds a PhD in Geography and the Environment from University of Texas at Austin, a MA in Geography from Arizona State University, and a BEng in Geographical Engineering from the Armed Forces University (ESPE) in Ecuador. His research interests include human-environment dynamics, land use and land cover transformations, and climate change with an emphasis on GIScience applications and has taught about these themes at higher education institutions in the US and Ecuador.

Klappentext

This contributed volume presents relevant examples of socio-environmental research that highlight the challenges and opportunities of using geotechnologies in interdisciplinary settings across the vast, culturally, and environmentally mega-diverse region known as Latin America. While remote sensing has been mostly used for mapping and monitoring physical features, geographic information systems open up opportunities for the integration of socio-economic and environmental data collected through individual and community-based surveys, in-situ measurements, and other participatory research techniques to offer additional analytically grounded power when evaluating socio-environmental processes that shape Latin American landscapes. The topics addressed in this book include deforestation and land degradation, borderlands dynamics, agriculture and agroecological systems, environmental conservation and development, public health, tourism, environmental justice, archeology, volunteered geography and urban planning, among others. The book is intended for academics, graduate and undergraduate classrooms, and general audiences with interest in Latin America and the socio-environmental issues that threaten the sustainability of the region and local communities. The book will also appeal to practitioners, managers, and policy makers interested in the application of geo-technologies and field-based research to address complex socio-environmental problems in the Global South.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Interdisciplinarity, GIScience, and Socio-environmental Research in Latin America.- Chapter 2. Using Spatial Time-series and Field Data to Understand Cultural Drivers of Land Change: Connecting Land Conflict and Land Change in Eastern Amazonia.- Chapter 3. Crossing Boundaries: Transboundary Geographic Information in the Amazon Borderlands of Peru and Brazil.- Chapter 4. Territorial Implications of Economic Diversification in the Waorani Ancestral Lands.- Chapter 5. New Insights on Water Quality and Land Use Dynamics in the Napo Region of Western Amazonia.- Chapter 6. From Mapping to Guiding: An Emergent Framework for the Multiple Uses of Remote Sensing and GIScience in Socio-Environmental Research in the Peruvian Andes.- Chapter 7. The Use of Remote Sensing in Air Pollution Control and Public Health.- Chapter 8. Human-environmental Interactions and their Impacts on Temperate Forests in the Exploradores Valley in Western Patagonia.- Chapter 9. El Chaltén, Argentine Patagonia: A successful Combination of Conservation and Tourism?.- Chapter 10. GIS Approaches to Environmental Justice in Mexico's Oil and Gas Production Zones with Implications for Latin America.- Chapter 11. Contributions to Socio-Environmental Research through Participatory GIS in Archaeology.- Chapter 12. Comparing Volunteered Data Acquisition Methods on Informal Settlements in Mexico City and São Paulo: a Citizen Participation Ladder for VGI.- Chapter 13. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Interdisciplinary GIScience Research on Human-environment Dynamics in Latin America.