Question

land use pattern vary from time to time and place to place examine

Answer 1

The regions of India, China, and the United States described in this volume are each unique, as all places are.1But do they have common discernible patterns of land use change that may provide insights into the dynamics of how people and places interact? The Tri-Academy Project examined and compared the timelines, patterns, and associated attributes of land use change in six study regions—Kerala, India; Haryana, India; Jitai Basin, China; Pearl River Delta, China; South Florida, USA; and Chicago, USA. In doing so, project researchers achieved a closer look at the intertwined fates of the forestland, grassland, wetland, agricultural land, and built-up land in those regions. The transformation from less intensively modified forests, grassland, and wetland, to land uses with greater human modification, such as agricultural fields and urban settings, is the most usual trajectory but not the only one (Arizpe et al., 1994). A comparison of these and other transformations provides the foundation for the analysis of population/land use dynamics described in this chapter. The goal of this analysis, as with other land use change studies, is to contribute to the integration of the natural and social sciences, the linkage of science to policy, and the development of pathways to sustainable development.