A partial instructional module on global and regional land use/cover change: assessing the data and searching for general relationships

Land use/cover change has occurred at all times in all parts of the world. Most affected and involved in these processes are the environmental spheres of water, soil, and vegetative cover, which are closely linked to geomorphology, climate, fauna, and especially human societies. These linkages between spheres are highly complex and, as of yet, incompletely understood. The most profound questions with respect to land use/cover and global change are: “What forces drive land use/land cover change?”, “What impacts — direct and indirect, now and in the future — do these changes have on the environment and on human society?” and “Can and should we, and if so, how, respond to these changes?” This partial teaching module, developed under the auspices of the Second Commission on College Geography of the Association of American Geographers, introduces students to the complexities inherent in these questions, but mainly focusses on the first of these. It illustrates the central role of the study of land land use/cover change within the large field of global environmental and climatic change, and is thus a good unit to introduce this area of interest.