Photo at right:
“Since prehistoric times, humans have lived by rivers and seas for the access to cheap and quick transportation and access to food sources and trade. However, fertile soil in a river delta is subject to regular inundation from normal variation in precipitation. Flooding is just one of nature’s many hazards that shape lives and cultures.”
Exploring the Environment
and Water
Boats sunken at the edge of a crop field, photo by Sumners Graphics, Inc.
People do not live in a vacuum. They interact with their environment. Climate, access to natural resources, and community infrastructure all have distinct influences on the quality of our life, health, economy and cultural practices.
Drought mitigation, wildfire management, the sustainability of cities, environmental conservation, human impacts of global climate change, pollution trends, privatization of water, the impact of environment on our mood: Insight into our environment provides unexpected insights into the human experience.
Since 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has financed the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA)’s study of drought and climate variability in Brazil called “Projeto Arizona.” The conclusion of the first phase of the study was that poverty, not climate, was the more significant cause of household vulnerability. Projeto Arizona has now evolved into a methodology for local-level public planning, using principles of participatory development and a geographic information systems (GIS) tool for mapping drought-related problems. The government of the state of Ceará, northeast Brazil, has adopted Projeto Arizona as its framework for local- level planning and drought mitigation throughout its 160 municipios.
Using NSF funds, a UA anthropologist has created a computer simulation model of hydrology, rice growth and pest population dynamics in the Balinese Water Temple system. The hypothesis tested was whether an optimum scale of regional coordination existed to strike a balance between two conflicting goals: efficient use of water and control of insect and insect-borne virus pests. Results suggest that an intermediate scale is optimal and that it corresponds with the scale administered by Water Temple Priests.
The burgeoning urban population in Sonora has taken a dangerous environmental toll, particularly with the threat of erosion due to hill-side housing expansion. Together with community members in Nogales, a BARA-led group is engaged in a major revegetation project involving the local schools.
UA geographers used Change Vector Analysis to characterize urban changes in Istanbul, Turkey. The two maps of the Buyuk Cekmece region (left is 1987, right is 1997) show land usage over time. The red sections represent urban and built-up areas. Understanding the changing urban environment is necessary to address sustainable development.
UA geographers are working to explain the effects of conservation boundaries on the conservation of endangered wildlife, including wolves and panthers. The results of their research in rural India suggest that, contrary to inherited wisdom, farmers and herders invading conservation reserves for grazing and collecting may actually support, rather than hinder, biodiversity conservation.
UA geographers used advanced times-series filtering techniques to show that air pollution trends in the Southwest are generally holding steady over the last decade, after allowing for year-to-year meteorological variations. Despite air quality improvements in the 1980s, rapid urban growth and increased traffic emissions have counteracted the benefits of reduced car tailpipe emissions and cleaner smokestacks.
Researchers from the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) have found that while Mexico is testing and documenting corporate pollution, especially of water, only 1% of the companies which have broken environmental laws are fined.
A BARA researcher is an expert on food waste and has spent the last 10 years tracking food waste from households, farms, stores and restaurants. Using contemporary archaeology and ethnography, he has followed the path food travels, while also studying the culture and psychology behind the process. The scholar has found that nearly half of America’s food never gets eaten. He also examines the economic and environmental implications of food waste.
Latin American Studies researchers have found that with growing corporate control of agricultural markets and growing standardization requirements on produce required by supermarkets, Mexican producers without irrigation water cannot compete for markets. One consequence is increased migration to the United States.
A water expert in Latin American Studies examines critical binational issues of water security, the impacts of NAFTA on rural Mexico, and the discourse of privatization of water in Argentina.
A Latin American Studies scholar is examining the politics surrounding municipal solid waste in Oaxaca, Mexico, including legal and illegal dumping. The researcher concentrates on the processes of marginalization creating today’s urban landscapes, and the ways in which these processes are challenged, and often reversed, through local political practices.
UA psychologists examine environmental influences on the entire range of human behavior, and consult with architects and engineers. One application of this research has been the improved design of nursing home environments.
UA sociologists have discovered that the way in which chemical manufacturing plants are organized (size, local vs. absentee ownership, etc.) influences the rate at which they pollute.
The Southwest Center and the Masiaca Indigenous Community are engaged in conservation, community development and research in El Pitayal, the cactus-rich coastal lowlands of southern Sonora. The researchers are helping community members produce consumer products made from the fruits of the pitaya (organ pipe).
A Southwest Center researcher is researching land fragmentation, land fraud, and the struggle to preserve open space and sustainable ranching in Arizona and the American West.
The fire-scarred mountains of San Bernardino using GIS satellite imagery.
UA geographers have contributed research to a web-based decision support system for managing wildfire in the Southwest: http://walter.arizona.edu. Using satellite remote sensing and GIS technology, they have given the public and policy makers the tools to develop personal priority maps and to produce a unified response among various groups.
A Latin American Studies researcher is studying a protest movement by farmers in Panama against the proposed enlargement of the Panama Canal. The farmers’ concern is that the enlargement would require flooding of their lands. The protest is important politically because this small group of relatively isolated farmers has apparently convinced the Panamanian government to redraw its plans. The protest is academically interesting because, unlike most current mobilizations in Latin America against development projects, the activists have not called on environmental principles to justify their opposition. The case points to the limitations of environmentalist rhetoric.
A UA geographer examines water rights and water markets in Chile, the world’s leading example of free-market water policies and institutions. The Chilean experience is watched carefully by government agencies and businesses across the globe.
A UA geographer focuses on policies and public perceptions surrounding the use of recycled “brown water” in irrigation projects in India and Mexico.
Research on “water stress” in the U.S.-Mexico border region - jointly conducted by UA geographers and faculty in the UA Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy - has found that rapid urban expansion coupled with climate variability drives water scarcity and quality deterioration in unique ways. Planned reuse of urban wastewater and medium-range climate and water resource outlooks greatly enhance public and private decision making to cope with and mitigate water stress.
Research on socially and environmentally responsible real estate investment is conducted in the Planning Degree Program, a unit in the Department of Geography and Regional Development. A planning researcher is working with the United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative to develop investment strategies that result in sustainable land use practices.
Faculty and students in the Planning Degree Program are working with Tucson neighborhoods to find ways to revitalize depressed areas through the production of comprehensive plans.
UA’s Planning Degree Program is a recognized leader in the assessment of transportation alternatives for elderly populations.
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