Framework for Integrating Economic and Ecologic Dimensions of Human Ecosystems II: Processes and Problem Chains within Natural Stratum

Clapham, W.B. & Pestel, R.F. (1978). Framework for Integrating Economic and Ecologic Dimensions of Human Ecosystems II: Processes and Problem Chains within Natural Stratum. IIASA Research Memorandum. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: RM-78-030

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Abstract

A human ecosystem (e.g. agriculture) is a managed environment. It may be maintained in a state very different from that of a natural ecosystem. But the basic laws of the natural system (here termed the natural stratum of the human ecosystem) still hold. The interactions of the processes governed by these laws can be seen as a highly branched chain of issue areas which are influenced and observed by society at certain key places. The overall ecosystem is not highly controllable. So an analysis of problems in a human ecosystem must consider the chain of issue areas connecting them with the points of control as well as those aspects of the system actually monitored by society. The linkage of ecosystem processes into problem chains provides a straightforward way of organizing a detailed analysis of the dynamics of the natural stratum of a human ecosystem. At its simplest, this analysis may be relatively qualitative, but the problem chain approach also simplifies the organization of quantitative analyses based on mathematical models.

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