Population, Land Use, and Environment Research Directions (2005) / Chapter Skim
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7 The Urban Ecology of Metropolitan Phoenix: A Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Study--Charles L. Redman
7 The Urban Ecology of Metropolitan Phoenix: A Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Study--Charles L. Redman
Pages 163-192
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From page 163... ...
Associated with human participation in the system are economic and social drivers, radically altered land cover, flows of materials, and the impacts of a built environment. As in traditional long-term ecological research, interdisciplinary collaboration of ecologists, biogeochemists, earth scientists, and climatologists is fundamental, but added to the mix are sociologists, geographers, economists, political scientists, urban planners, anthropologists, civil and environmental engineers, mechanical and chemical engineers, and many community partners who share the zeal for understanding the urban ecosystem.
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From page 164... ...
CENTRAL ARIZONAPHOENIX LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH The overarching goal of the broader Long-Term Ecological Research program is to understand patterns and processes that underlie long-term changes in ecosystem structure and function. For an urban ecosystem, success in achieving this goal also hinges on understanding the complexities of intense human participation in the system -- with attendant economic and social drivers, radically altered land cover, accelerated cycling of materials, and heretofore unresearched ecological impacts of a built environment (Redman, 1999a)
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From page 165... ...
The plant association of the upper Sonoran life zone (on outwash slopes and pediments) is the saguaro-paloverde, with creosote bush dominating in low FIGURE 7-1 Boundaries of the Central ArizonaPhoenix Long-Term Ecological Research site (outlined)
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From page 166... ...
. Construction of local reservoirs and the Central Arizona Project canal (Kupel, 2003)
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From page 167... ...
In describing our findings, we refer to the following scales: 1. Individual land use patch types: these can be land use or land cover patches or even smaller units (i.e., households, lots, parks)
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From page 168... ...
It is vital to recognize that broad-scale social and environmental conditions, as well as local ecological and human legacies, constrain and sometimes guide the range of possible trajectories for land cover and land use. At an earlier workshop on integrating social science into the Long-Term Ecological Research network (Redman et al., 2004)
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From page 169... ...
Open-ended questions, such as determining the level at which excessive urban growth impacts water supply, air quality, or agricultural viability, are of paramount importance to the citizens of central Arizona. At what point in the urbanization process do cities contribute to, or become susceptible to, catastrophic vulnerability such as infrastructure inadequacy, transportation gridlock, air pollution extremes, geologic hazards, and health risks?
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From page 170... ...
170 POPULATION, LAND USE, AND ENVIRONMENT 1912 1934 1955 FIGURE 7-4 Land use maps of central ArizonaPhoenix.
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From page 172... ...
Although this spread into adjacent farmland continues today, most new developments since 1975 have occurred on former desert lands, often some distance out from the nearest residential area. This shift -- from urban residential development on former farmland, in which water once used on the farm was diverted for municipal uses, to development in pristine desert areas farther from canal and surface water distribution systems -- has profoundly impacted water policy and real estate opportunities (Knowles-Yánez et al., 1999; Gammage, 1999)
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From page 173... ...
A basic finding from our survey of how human activities inadvertently alter the environment is that while soil nitrate concentration is spatially autocorrelated in the desert plots, as one would expect from traditional ecological experiments, no such spatial relationship exists for the urban plots (Hope et al. no date)
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From page 174... ...
Moreover, although it is possible to distinguish land cover and land use types (patches; for example, our comparison of desert and urban plots) , this approach is perhaps best suited to gaining an understanding of the whole from viewing the mosaic of patches.
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From page 175... ...
. URBAN MODELS AND SOCIAL PROCESSES Data describing historical patterns of urban growth in central Arizona are being used as input for a series of models that characterize these patterns and to spark projects related to future growth.
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From page 176... ...
As we use the imagery to classify the land cover, we are also applying a variety of metrics to the spatial patterns observed by satellite, including texture, patchiness, density of edges, etc. (Netzband and Stefanov, 2003)
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From page 177... ...
A key objective of our studies is to distinguish between conditions in which facilities producing environmental risks choose to locate in poorer neighborhoods and conditions in which people with less wealth have little choice but to locate in affordable neighborhoods that are adjacent to these facilities. One case of confronting the human factors in land use and land cover change focuses on changes occurring at the geographic fringe of urban development.
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From page 178... ...
. Such basic models can be used as starting points for further investigation into the pattern of development and incorporate the effects of individual or group decisions by inhabitants, the composition of the population along the fringe, and the effects of external triggering events.
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From page 179... ...
Each factor has its own drivers and operates at various scales of space and time. Over the past 150 years, residents of central Arizona have chosen to reengineer 100 percent of the surface water flow through the Salt and Gila river valleys, extract groundwater, and import water from the Colorado River watershed via a 350-mile canal.
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From page 180... ...
180 POPULATION, LAND USE, AND ENVIRONMENT FIGURE 7-10 Age profiles of different cities in Maricopa County, Arizona (Gober, in press)
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From page 181... ...
Multiple factors drive agrarian landscape transformations, such as climate, population dynamics, economics, politics, technology, and perception. Rather than separating these factors, we seek to recognize and interpret the perception, impact, and response to the extant mental models held by elements of the population and the key triggering events (both crises and opportunities)
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From page 182... ...
We expect that there also were more BOX 7-1 Triggering Events in the Interaction of Population, Agriculture, and Environment in Central Arizona The Emergent Years (1867-1940) · Recognition of a vacant productive environmental niche (irrigable lower Salt River Valley)
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From page 183... ...
This transformation may, in turn, lead to a change in the initial condition of knowledge and mental models. This cycle plays out at multiple scales from the individual to international, and the system is often driven by impacts of events across scales (e.g., national policy impacting local decisions or local lobbying leading to national policy change)
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From page 184... ...
We embarked on an ambitious project to bring together these two different domains of activity without sacrificing the autonomy of any party. Our early belief that the research of the Central ArizonaPhoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project scientists could and should be relevant to local public officials infuses this integrative effort.
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From page 185... ...
Close connections with agency personnel on this project as well as the Long-Term Ecological Research project laid the foundation for a new project that aims to develop decision-making tools. The Decision Center for a Desert City, begun September 2004, will focus on how to integrate science into policy and management decisions that have to confront the uncertainty created by climate variability as it relates to water supply in the central Arizona region.
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From page 186... ...
In the initial years, we have had to emphasize background studies, baseline monitoring of a suite of variables, and experimentation that have led us to better define the processes that engage us. With these definitions in hand, we now can refine the substantive models and the patterns we observe and contribute to a more general understanding of urban ecosystems.
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From page 187... ...
Even with the addition of the new conceptual themes, the Central ArizonaPhoenix Long-Term Ecological Research and other projects described here continue to use traditional ecological and spatial theories to interpret the data patterns we observe. It is possible to explain data patterns by traditional ecological theory, but some patterns do not fit well and require special consideration.
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From page 188... ...
and decisions Advancing knowledge, Changes in understanding vulnerabilities (real and perceived) FIGURE 7-13 Conceptual model of Agrarian Landscapes in Transition project, whose ultimate goal is to understand past cycles of land use and human response in order to propose future scenarios.
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From page 189... ...
This consequence is particularly true of contemporary agrarian landscapes in which extensive monocropped fields have replaced naturally occurring plant diversity. However, I would argue that, at least as often, humans have acted to create additional boundaries in their environments, resulting in smaller patches than would exist without their presence.
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From page 190... ...
The Decision Center for a Desert City (NSF/SES-0345945) is codirected by Patricia Gober, who has also been a key researcher in the Central Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research project, as seen in two of her creative projects described here.
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From page 191... ...
Ramsey, and P.R. Christensen 2001 Monitoring urban land cover change: An expert system approach to land cover classification of semiarid to arid urban centers.
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From page 192... ...
International Insti tute for Sustainability, Arizona State University, Tempe.
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