Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Unprecedented changes are occurring in our natural systems caused by human action. How should humans prepare for these changes? Keys to this question may be found in records of the human past. Taking a historical ecological approach to the data mining and synthesizing of radiocarbon and archaeological records from major northwest European river catchment areas has potential to intimately inform us of past human land use near these topographically unifying fluvial systems. Exploring land use over large temporal and spatial time spans, and consequently transformations in primary resource reliance, through the spatial analysis tools offered by GIS software provides a foundation for generating responses to the unparalleled environmental changes anthropogenic action has set in motion. Correlating changes in human activity to changes in the environment can identify where improvements to the reciprocal human-environment relationship may be made or where harmful consequences may be avoided.