Canadian Forest Service Publications
Integrating socio-economic data for integrated land management (ILM): examples from the Humber River Basin, western Newfoundland. 2011. Eddy, B.G.; Dort, A. Geomatica 65(3): 283-291.
Year: 2011
Issued by: Atlantic Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 34422
Language: English
Availability: PDF (request by e-mail)
Abstract
The application of geomatics for Integrated Land Management (ILM) often focuses on analysis and modelling of bio-physical dimensions of a study area. However, data about human dimensions, such as socioeconomic conditions of communities within a region, are equally important to consider as key drivers behind various ILM scenarios. Incorporating socio-economic conditions of communities in a spatially-explicit manner presents a number of challenges due to differences in spatial frameworks associated with human and biophysical data. This paper presents an approach for integrating socio-economic data for ILM analysis that allows better geospatial alignment and integration of human and biophysical dimensions, and further allows for a more local, contextual analysis of the relationships and dependencies particular communities have with the surrounding landscape and its resources. It does this using a concept of communities as ‘human habitats’ whereby each community in a region can be analyzed in terms of how it is co-evolving and adapting with other communities in the region and with natural changes in the bio-physical landscape.