Demography at CIPEC
by: David Dodds, Postdoctoral Fellow in Demography
Population is a key variable in the study of global environmental change.
However, the link between population and the environment is complex: the
impact of population upon the environment is mediated by many other variables
such as political institutions, tenurial regimes, biophysical characteristics
of resources (e.g., vegetation types, soil quality, precipitation), technologies
of land use, market demands and prices, transportation networks, human
attitudes toward reproduction and nature, and other historical factors.
Not only does population impact the environment, but environmental conditions
can shape population trends: land degradation may cause out-migration,
or land scarcity may promote fertility control and decline.
Thus an important concern of CIPEC methodology is to identify population-related
drivers of deforestation, and the ways that forest conditions may also
shape population. Ideally, each site is studied by employing a time series
of demographic data across multiple levels of spatial aggregation. To accomplish
this task, a variety of data sources, data collection techniques, and analyses
are employed by CIPEC researchers. At the site level, data about the population
of local settlements and user groups are always collected. In some sites,
researchers conduct reproductive history interviews and house-to-house
surveys to understand local trends in fertility, mortality, and migration
and other useful information such as household size and age structure.
At regional levels, researchers make use of census data from a variety
of sources such as health clinics, schools, and national government censuses,
which may be aggregated by hamlets, towns, municipalities, and provinces.
At the national level, researchers analyze data from government censuses
and international organizations (e.g., United Nations, see below). An evolving
CIPEC research methodology is the placement and representation of demographic
data in its spatial context with the aid of remote
sensing and geographic
information systems (GIS) technologies.
Recent CIPEC papers on Population and Environment:
Useful Demography Sites
General Demography
Data: International
Data: United States
Data: Latin America
Professional Associations
Related Research Centers
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Last Updated: May 11, 2005
Comments: cipec@indiana.edu
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2005, The Trustees of Indiana
University.
