The HEIMA Lab is an interdisciplinary research group that integrates qualitative and computational social science, environmental and policy impact assessment, and geospatial analytical approaches to advance human-environment geography.
My broad research interests are in human-environmental interactions and land-use change. Specifically, I am interested in how people make land-use decisions, how those decisions modify the functioning of natural systems, and how those modifications feedback on human well-being, livelihoods, and subsequent land-use decisions. All of my research begins with a complex systems background with the aim of understanding the dynamics of human-environment interactions and their consequences for environmental and economic sustainability.
I also have expertise in synthesis methods (e.g., meta-analysis) for bringing together leveraging disparate forms of social and environmental data to understand how specific cases (i.e., local) of land-use change contribute to and/or differ from broader-scale (i.e. regional or global) patterns of human-environment interactions and land change outcomes.
Skills and Expertise
- Spatial Analysis
- Environment
- Land Use Planning
- Land-Use Management
- Sustainability
- Spatial Statistics
- Geostatistical Analysis
- Geographical Analysis
- Geospatial Science
- Digital Mapping
My research focuses on building a systemic understanding of coupled human-natural systems. In particular, I am interested in understanding how patterns of land-use and land-cover change emerge from human alterations of natural processes and the resulting feedbacks. Study systems of interest include those undergoing agricultural to urban conversion, typically known as urban sprawl, and those in which protective measures, such as wildfire suppression or flood/storm impact controls, can lead to long-term instability.
Keywords: Coupled human-natural systems; anthropogenic landscapes; complex systems; agent-based modeling; process-based modeling; emergence; land-use change; barrier islands; artificial dune construction; urban-wildland interface (UWI); CHALMS; Anthromes.
Projects
- The Global Land Rush: A Socio-Environmental Synthesis
- Landscapes in Transformation in Central America (LITCA)
Interests:
- Narco-Trafficking and Land-Use Change
- Narco-Deforestation
- Making the Hidden Visible: Accelerated Land-Use Change and Degradation Caused
- by Narco-Trafficking In and Around Central America’s Protected Areas
- DisRupting Illicit Supply Networks
- Anticipatory InterDiction In Narco-Trafficking Networks
- Illicit Drug Trafficking Networks: Behavioral Responses to InterDiction
- Large-Scale Land Aquisitions
- The Global Land Rush: A Socio-Environmental Synthesis
Subject areas:
- Geospatial Analysis
- Water Science
- Human Geography
Keywords: human-environment interactions, traffiking, GIS, modeling, food-energy-water
