Visualizing the Anthropocene: Human Land Use History and Environmental Management

Abstract

The term “Anthropocene” defines the current, human-dominated, geological epoch of human-caused environmental influences. Some researchers believe that the beginning of this epoch coincides with the inception of the Industrial Revolution (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000). Research is revealing that humans have affected environments on global and local scales for millennia. Contention over land management often hinges on disparate beliefs about the environment and the ways in which policy makers and the public visualize the past. There is a need to communicate the complexities of anthropogenic environmental change, on a local scale, through a medium that transcends different disciplines and cultural backgrounds. This paper discusses ongoing research of long-term human land use, and the ways human-environmental interactions have shaped the landscapes we encounter today. Environmentally based landscape visualizations are crucial forms of communication, which can be used to establish benchmarks for ecosystem restoration, future land management planning, and as a venue for better communication with the public. A picture may be worth more than a thousand words in bridging conflicting visions of nature, past, present, and future, in environmental disputes.

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere

Citation

Periman, Richard D. 2006. Visualizing the Anthropocene: Human Land Use History and Environmental Management. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 558-564