Topic：Human-Environment Interactions in the Amazon Rainforest and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador

Speaker：Dr. Stephen J. Walsh，University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Time：2:30 pm Sept. 24, 2012

Venue：Room 2321, IGSNRR

Introduction to the speaker：

Dr. STEPHEN J. WALSH– Lyle V. Jones Distinguished Professor; Professor of Geography; Director, Center for Galapagos Studies; Co-Director, Galapagos Science Center, San Cristobal Island, Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador; Member, Curriculum for the Environment & Ecology; Research Fellow, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Adjunct Professor, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador.

Professor Walsh examines coupled human-natural systems and land use/cover dynamics in frontier environments and in iconic protected areas. His research also emphasizes pattern-process relationships at the alpine and sub-alpine environments, and focuses on landscape characterization through statistical and spatial modeling and spatial analysis approaches. Of particular interest are new developments in the fusion of multi-resolution remote sensing imagery, Object Based Image Analysis, and complexity theory.

Agent Based Models are used to explore “what if scenarios” of land use/cover change through spatial simulations, links between theory and model outcomes, and trajectories of land change set by the pathways of human-environment interactions. Human-environment interactions in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador are examined through the lens of Complex Systems and Agent Based Models.

Dr. STEPHEN J. WALSH（swalsh@email.unc.edu）

From Department of Physical Geography and Global Change, IGSNRR