Spring Semester 1997
Monday, January 13, 1997
Soohong Park, CIPEC
Postdoctoral Fellow in Geographic Information Systems. "Cellular
Automata as Analytical Engines in Geographic Information Systems."
Abstract
Contemporary Geographic Information Systems (GIS) suffer from
a variety of problems. These include poor performance for many
operations, poor ability to handle dynamic spatial models, and
poor handling of the temporal dimension. Cellular Automata (CA)
have much in common with raster GIS and also excel in many of
the areas of deficiency of GIS. CA are dynamic systems based
on discrete time and space. The CA model of space is analogous
to the tessellation models of contemporary raster GIS. While
CA have many similarities to GIS, and indeed excel in many areas
in which GIS are deficient, they cannot themselves be considered
as GIS since they lack the necessary sophisticated capabilities
in data input, data storage and retrieval, and data output.
However, the advantages of CA in data analysis and modeling
are significant. In order to fully exploit the advantages of
each system - GIS and CA - we have developed a methodology and
prototype system for coupling GIS and CA, in which the CA serves
as an alternative analytical engine for the GIS. The integrated
system features three parts in addition to the GIS and CA systems:
a common user interface, a data model translator, and an inter
operational handler. While the methodology is generic and applicable
to any raster GIS and any 2-D CA, the prototype system developed
uses Idrisi as the GIS and CAM-6 and Cellular as the CAs. In
the prototype system, spatial, temporal (i.e., time series),
and spatio-temporal filters as well as spatial diffusion operators
are developed. In addition, the integrated system provides a
flexible framework for the programming and running of dynamic
spatial models as well as the promise of the improved system
performance. We conclude that CA represent a viable alternate
analytical engine for GIS and provide increased ability for
higher dimensional modeling within GIS.
top
of page
Monday, January 20, 1997
Lisa Naughton, Center of International Studies,
Princeton
University. "Farming on the Forest Edge: Risk Distribution
Around Kibale National Park, Uganda."
Abstract
Subsistence farmers neighboring Kibale National Park, Uganda
fear and resent many wildlife species. In this paper, systematic
records of crop damage by wildlife and livestock are compared
with local complaints of worst animals and most vulnerable crops.
Concordance and discrepancies in complaints versus actual damage
are discussed in light of coping strategies and the influence
of ethnicity, gender, and affluence on risk perception. Crop
losses were greatest at the park edge where immigrants were
disproportionately represented. State proprietorship of wildlife
amplifies local risk perceptions and constrains traditional
coping strategies such as hunting.
top
of page
Monday, January 30, 1997
Lee J. Alston, Department of Economics,
University of Illinois. "Competing Claims
to Land: The Sources of Violent Conflict in the Brazilian
Amazon."
Abstract
This paper examines the determinants and impact of violent
conflict over land in the Brazilian Amazon. The settlement
process and the legal bases for conflicting claims to land are
described. Although civil law guarantees the sanctity
of title, the Brazilian Constitution adds a beneficial use criterion
as a condition for title enforcement. This provision is
part of a land reform or redistribution effort. Forested
lands on large private ranches do not meet this criterion and
hence, are vulnerable to invasion by squatters. An analytical
framework is provided to generate hypotheses for testing.
Using data from the Brazilian census, the Pastoral Land Commission,
and a survey of contested areas in the state of Para, we examine
both the characteristics of regions where violence reduced estimated
land-specific investment by 19.6% and lowered estimated agricultural
land values by 7.8%, all these constant. These are significant
effects in a poor, frontier society. We also find that
squatter organization and, ironically, title are important determinants
of the expropriation of private farms for redistribution to
squatters. The implications of land violence for economic
growth as well as for the maintenance of rain forests are discussed.
top
of page
Monday, February 17, 1997
Constance D. Becker, IFRI Research Associate
(International Forestry
Resources and Institutions), Indiana University. "Crafting
Win-Win Solutions in a Forest Commons in Western Ecuador."
Abstract
Inventing or sustaining cultural systems that provide people
with an adequate standard of living while preserving ecosystem
functions and biological diversity is thought to be one of the
greatest challenges facing humanity now and in the coming century
(Hartshorn, 1995; Pearce and Moran, 1994; Perrings, 1995). With
human populations growing and many natural resources showing
per capita declines (WRI, 1994), creative solutions to curb
environmental degradation are in demand. Innovation is thought
to be most needed in tropical developing nations where threats
to biodiversity are greatest and where financial means and political
stability supportive of conservation are often lacking (McNeely,
1989). This presentation describes an approach used by a small
conservation NGO to affect forest preservation in a community
in western Ecuador. The case study is presented in a theoretical
framework of general interest to social and natural scientists
concerned with tropical forest management.
top
of page
Monday, March 3, 1997
Paul Turner, Ph.D. Candidate in Political
Science at Indiana University. "Constitutional Politics
and Deforestation: A Cross-National Analysis of the Humid Tropics."
Abstract
In the nascent explanatory literature on tropical deforestation,
population growth, poverty, economic development, and incorporation
into the world economy are commonly cited as the main driving
forces underlying most tropical forest loss. Only recently have
researchers begun to look at how institutional factors mediate
the relationship between these driving forces and land-use outcomes
such as tropical deforestation. In this research, I explore
the linkages between institutional factors at the constitutional
level--the level at which the terms and conditions of governance
for a given polity are established--and tropical forest loss
in approximately fifty-five tropical countries during the 1970s
and 1980s. I hypothesize that those countries with more open
constitutional settings will suffer lower levels of deforestation
than those whose constitutional settings are more closed. Preliminary
results suggest confirmation of this hypothesis with some qualifications.
top
of page
Monday, April 21, 1997
David J. Dodds, CIPEC Postdoctoral Fellow,
Anthropologist. "Rio Platano, Honduras:
CIPEC Research Site for Summer 1997."
Abstract
During May through August, 1997, research will be conducted
by David Dodds in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve in eastern
Honduras. The goal of the study is to identify the demographic,
ethnic, institutional, and geographic components of deforestation
patterns within one of the largest biosphere reserves in Central
America. The focal forest of the study, Banaka, is a tropical
broad leaf rain forest covering an open-access tract of fertile
land increasingly utilized for swidden agriculture, agroforestry,
and cattle pasture by three ethnic populations (Miskito, Garifuna,
and Hispanic/ladino) within the Reserve. Demographic
pressures on land use through the interaction of fertility,
morality, and local migration will be identified through collection
of local census information (at schools and public health clinics)
and a detailed fertility history survey of 200 women randomly
sampled in four villages within and around the Reserve.
Rapid rural appraisal techniques (community and focal group
interviews) will identify user groups and institutions shaping
rules-in-use for the Banaka forest. Settlement and land
use data will be georeferenced with a GPS to aid analysis of
available Landsat TM imagery for classification of land use
cover and change. In the CIPEC site sampling matrix, the
Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve falls within the cells for Tropical
Moist Forest/Government Owned (with regard to the area's status
as a biosphere reserve).
top
of page
408 North Indiana Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408-3799
Phone: (812) 855-2230
TDD: (812) 855-7654
Fax: (812) 855-2634
Last Updated: May 11, 2005
Comments: cipec@indiana.edu
Copyright
2005, The Trustees of Indiana
University.
