Human Settlement Patterns Research Articles

Impact of Internal Migration on Population Redistribution in Europe: Urbanisation, Counterurbanisation or Spatial Equilibrium?

The classical foundations of migration research date from the 1880s with Ravenstein’s “Laws of migration”, which represent the first comparative analyses of internal migration. While his observations remain largely valid, the ensuing century has seen considerable progress in data collection practices and methods of analysis, which in turn has permitted theoretical advances in understanding the role of migration in population redistribution. Coupling the extensive range of migration data now available with these recent theoretical and methodological advances, we endeavour to advance beyond Ravenstein’s understanding by examining the direction of population redistribution and comparing the impact of internal migration on patterns of human settlement in 27 European countries. Results show that the overall redistributive impact of internal migration is low in most European countries but the mechanisms differ across the continent. In Southern and Eastern Europe migration effectiveness is above average but is offset by low migration intensities, whereas in Northern and Western Europe high intensities are absorbed in reciprocal flows resulting in low migration effectiveness. About half the European countries are experiencing a process of concentration toward urbanised regions, particularly in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, whereas countries in the West and South are undergoing a process of population deconcentration. These results suggest that population deconcentration is now more common than it was in the 1990s when counterurbanisation was limited to Western Europe. The results show that 130 years on, Ravenstein’s law of migration streams and counter-streams remains a central facet of migration dynamics, while underlining the importance of simple yet robust indices for the spatial analysis of migration.* This article belongs to a special issue on “Internal Migration as a Driver of Regional Population Change in Europe: Updating Ravenstein”.

Understanding the spatiotemporal development of human settlement in hurricane-prone areas on the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts using nighttime remote sensing

Abstract. Hurricanes, as one of the most devastating natural hazards, have posed a great threat to people in coastal areas. A better understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of human settlement in hurricane-prone areas largely benefits sustainable development. This study uses the nighttime light (NTL) data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) to examine human settlement development in areas with different levels of hurricane proneness from 1992 to 2013. The DMSP/OLS NTL data from six satellites were intercalibrated and desaturated with the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) optical imagery to derive the Vegetation Adjusted NTL Urban Index (VANUI), a popular index that quantifies human settlement intensity. The derived VANUI time series was examined with the Mann–Kendall test and Theil–Sen test to identify significant spatiotemporal trends. To link the VANUI product to hurricane impacts, four hurricane-prone zones were extracted to represent different levels of hurricane proneness. Aside from geographic division, a wind-speed-weighted track density function was developed and applied to historical storm tracks which originated in the North Atlantic Basin to better categorize the four levels of hurricane proneness. Spatiotemporal patterns of human settlement in the four zones were finally analyzed. The results clearly exhibit a north–south and inland–coastal discrepancy of human settlement dynamics. This study also reveals that both the zonal extent and zonal increase rate of human settlement positively correlate with hurricane proneness levels. The intensified human settlement in high hurricane-exposure zones deserves further attention for coastal resilience.

Adaptation of the Spatial Pattern of a Settlement to Disaster in Simeulue Regency, Aceh Province

This study aims to find out how the spatial pattern of settlements in disaster areas adapt to earthquake and tsunami disaster in Simeulue Regency, Aceh Province. The research used a qualitative approach and descriptive method Data collection technique used literature study and field observation., Data analysis used the Delphi method. The study result showed that the influential factors that save many Simeulue people from earthquake and tsunami disaster occurred on Sunday, 26 December 2004 is the spatial pattern of settlement which is very suitable to tsunami disasters such as geographical condition in the form of the pattern of human settlements, vegetation formation, condition of topography and morphology. The geographical condition was beneficial where people can save themselves to highland when a tsunami occurs. The implication of the spatial pattern of settlement in Simeulue Regency is very friendly for tsunami disaster mitigation.

Nahua mushroom gatherers use area-restricted search strategies that conform to marginal value theorem predictions

We develop a method of analysis for testing the marginal value theorem (MVT) in natural settings that does not require an independent definition or mapping of patches. We draw on recent theoretical work on area-restricted search (ARS) that links turning-angle and step-size changes to geographically localized encounter-rates. These models allow us to estimate "giving-up times" using encounter-annotated GPS tracking data. Applied to a case study of Nahua mushroom foragers, these models identify distinct forms of intrapatch and interpatch search behavior, with intrapatch search transitioning to interpatch search after a predictable interval of time since the last encounter with a harvested mushroom. Our empirical estimate of giving-up time coincides with the theoretically optimal giving-up time derived under the MVT in the same environment. The MVT is currently underused in studies of human foraging and settlement patterns, due in large part to the difficulty of identifying discrete resource patches and quantifying their characteristics. Our methods mitigate the need to make such discrete maps of patches and thus have the potential to broaden the scope for empirical evaluations of the MVT and related theory in humans. Beyond studies of naturalistic foraging in humans and other animals, our approach has implications for optimization of search behavior in a range of applied fields where search dynamics must be adapted to shifting patterns of environmental heterogeneity affecting prey density and patchiness.

Filling new territories with Palaeolithic rock art. Cueva Hermosa (Calcena, Zaragoza, Spain)

The new rock art discovery at Cueva Hermosa (Calcena, Zaragoza) can be defined as the second Palaeolithic rock art site found in the Middle Ebro basin (Spain). Three decorated panels showing the remains of series of red dots or paint have been documented until now. Two of the panels are located near the current entrance of the cave, while the third more complex panel is in the interior. Panel 3 is composed of a well-organised dot series, regularly separated, forming 12–13 columns in a rectangular-like shape. This group, divided into two subgroups (possibly because of the rock preservation conditions), was drawn in a sort of large natural niche, partially modified by human action, whose morphology could suggest a mammoth-like profile. This topic (clouds of red dots) is quite abundant in Cantabrian and French Palaeolithic rock art sites (Fuente del Trucho, Altamira, Castillo, Chufin, Marsoulas…) and is quite well represented in association with natural reliefs (Pindal, Pestillac, Aldène, Mayenne, Font de Gaume…).Cueva Hermosa suggests new interpretative possibilities relating to human occupation with rock art manifestations in peripheral areas, providing information about human settlement patterns and communications networks in the Middle Ebro basin and Meseta during the Upper Palaeolithic.

"A Flood of Problems" in Michigan: An Urban Environmental History

The Michigan Historical Review 45:1 (Spring 2019): 81-107©2019 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved “A Flood of Problems” in Michigan: An Urban Environmental History By Nancy Germano Spring rains produced “A Flood of Problems,” announced the front page of the Kalamazoo Gazette on Saturday, April 19, 1975. The previous evening’s four-inch downpour exceeded the city’s total rainfall for the entire month of April 1974 (3.59 inches) and April 1973 (3.99 inches). The newspaper’s reporters detailed local “problems,” including flooded roads, overflowing sewer systems, and flooded basements in homes near the sewage treatment plant. Lansing and Flint also experienced heavy rain. Flooding and mudslides closed Interstates 75, 96, and 496 and US Highway 23. A mudslide on westbound I-496 in Lansing trapped several vehicles, including a fire engine.1 Flooding across the state was described as the “worst since 1947.” With expected damage in the millions of dollars, Governor William G. Milliken asked President Gerald R. Ford for federal disaster aid for fourteen counties.2 While Lansing endured the initial brunt of the 1975 storm emergency, Kalamazoo remained in the path of rising waters and suffered subsequent damage. Kalamazoo authorities evacuated eighty area families from their homes, while others voluntarily abandoned their homes. City crews worked round the clock to fill sandbags and pump out basements. Kalamazoo Township Supervisor F. E. Griffith told a Gazette reporter that the fire department gave top priority to pumping basements for those homes that would not fill with water again, explaining that it was not practical to pump an entire neighborhood surrounded by a pond of water. City health officials warned homeowners to avoid contact with the water because of probable pollution from septic systems, to disinfect walls and household items, and to throw away all food items except canned goods. The Gazette also ran an article featuring warnings by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development of the hazards that might await 1 “Kalamazoo All Awash! 4-Inch Rainfall Drenches Area,” Kalamazoo Gazette (hereafter KG), 19 April 1975. 2 “Five Area Counties Involved,” KG, 21 April 1975. 82 The Michigan Historical Review occupants returning to flood-damaged homes, including structural damage, gas leaks, and electrical system damage.3 As flooding receded, municipal public works crews and federal disaster teams inspected for damage and assessed the costs. President Ford, himself from southwestern Michigan, declared his home state a major disaster area. Statewide, April’s flooding caused $75 million worth of damage.4 In Kalamazoo, Civil Defense Director Walter Jones estimated $1 million in public costs for township police, fire, patrol, and rescue workers, along with damage to private homes and businesses that equaled or exceeded that amount.5 Perhaps to reassure traumatized residents with long-term perspective, the Gazette ran a follow-up piece—“Flooding a Part of Kalamazoo History”—which showed photographs of past floods and lightheartedly noted that “historically, on occasion, life is ‘goo’ in Kalamazoo.”6 In this article, Kalamazoo serves as an important case history for exploring urban Michigan’s complex relationships with riverine landscapes.7 This is not a story of inevitable environmental degradation resulting from human settlement patterns and intervention in the natural processes of the floodplain.8 Nonetheless, Kalamazoo’s urban flood history does represent persistent conflicts between urban land development rights and a city’s desire to capitalize on its natural wealth, on the one hand, and community and environmental security and sustainability on the other. I begin with a biographical examination of the city and its river, focusing on how people experienced flooding firsthand.9 3 “It Depends on Rainfall,” KG, 23 April 1975; “Dozen Families Flee Homes,” KG, 23 April 1975; “It Spells Trouble! Floods Causing Some Problems, Worries, Unusual Circumstances,” KG, 23 April 1975; “Enter Flooded Home Carefully,” KG, 24 April 1975. 4 “Kalamazoo to Receive Flood Aid,” KG, 28 April 1975. 5 “Water Level Drops,” KG, 25 April 1975. 6 “Flooding a Part of Kalamazoo History,” KG, 26 April 1975. 7 This article is based in part on the author’s doctoral dissertation, “The Urban Midwest’s ‘Dangerous Friends’: At the Confluence of Flooding Rivers, an Environmental Movement, and...

“A Flood of Problems” in Michigan: An Urban Environmental History

The Michigan Historical Review 45:1 (Spring 2019): 81-107©2019 Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved “A Flood of Problems” in Michigan: An Urban Environmental History By Nancy Germano Spring rains produced “A Flood of Problems,” announced the front page of the Kalamazoo Gazette on Saturday, April 19, 1975. The previous evening’s four-inch downpour exceeded the city’s total rainfall for the entire month of April 1974 (3.59 inches) and April 1973 (3.99 inches). The newspaper’s reporters detailed local “problems,” including flooded roads, overflowing sewer systems, and flooded basements in homes near the sewage treatment plant. Lansing and Flint also experienced heavy rain. Flooding and mudslides closed Interstates 75, 96, and 496 and US Highway 23. A mudslide on westbound I-496 in Lansing trapped several vehicles, including a fire engine.1 Flooding across the state was described as the “worst since 1947.” With expected damage in the millions of dollars, Governor William G. Milliken asked President Gerald R. Ford for federal disaster aid for fourteen counties.2 While Lansing endured the initial brunt of the 1975 storm emergency, Kalamazoo remained in the path of rising waters and suffered subsequent damage. Kalamazoo authorities evacuated eighty area families from their homes, while others voluntarily abandoned their homes. City crews worked round the clock to fill sandbags and pump out basements. Kalamazoo Township Supervisor F. E. Griffith told a Gazette reporter that the fire department gave top priority to pumping basements for those homes that would not fill with water again, explaining that it was not practical to pump an entire neighborhood surrounded by a pond of water. City health officials warned homeowners to avoid contact with the water because of probable pollution from septic systems, to disinfect walls and household items, and to throw away all food items except canned goods. The Gazette also ran an article featuring warnings by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development of the hazards that might await 1 “Kalamazoo All Awash! 4-Inch Rainfall Drenches Area,” Kalamazoo Gazette (hereafter KG), 19 April 1975. 2 “Five Area Counties Involved,” KG, 21 April 1975. 82 The Michigan Historical Review occupants returning to flood-damaged homes, including structural damage, gas leaks, and electrical system damage.3 As flooding receded, municipal public works crews and federal disaster teams inspected for damage and assessed the costs. President Ford, himself from southwestern Michigan, declared his home state a major disaster area. Statewide, April’s flooding caused $75 million worth of damage.4 In Kalamazoo, Civil Defense Director Walter Jones estimated $1 million in public costs for township police, fire, patrol, and rescue workers, along with damage to private homes and businesses that equaled or exceeded that amount.5 Perhaps to reassure traumatized residents with long-term perspective, the Gazette ran a follow-up piece—“Flooding a Part of Kalamazoo History”—which showed photographs of past floods and lightheartedly noted that “historically, on occasion, life is ‘goo’ in Kalamazoo.”6 In this article, Kalamazoo serves as an important case history for exploring urban Michigan’s complex relationships with riverine landscapes.7 This is not a story of inevitable environmental degradation resulting from human settlement patterns and intervention in the natural processes of the floodplain.8 Nonetheless, Kalamazoo’s urban flood history does represent persistent conflicts between urban land development rights and a city’s desire to capitalize on its natural wealth, on the one hand, and community and environmental security and sustainability on the other. I begin with a biographical examination of the city and its river, focusing on how people experienced flooding firsthand.9 3 “It Depends on Rainfall,” KG, 23 April 1975; “Dozen Families Flee Homes,” KG, 23 April 1975; “It Spells Trouble! Floods Causing Some Problems, Worries, Unusual Circumstances,” KG, 23 April 1975; “Enter Flooded Home Carefully,” KG, 24 April 1975. 4 “Kalamazoo to Receive Flood Aid,” KG, 28 April 1975. 5 “Water Level Drops,” KG, 25 April 1975. 6 “Flooding a Part of Kalamazoo History,” KG, 26 April 1975. 7 This article is based in part on the author’s doctoral dissertation, “The Urban Midwest’s ‘Dangerous Friends’: At the Confluence of Flooding Rivers, an Environmental Movement, and...

Land reclamation, farm mechanisation, rural repopulation: the shifting landscape of the Gharb Valley in Morocco, 1912–1956

This article investigates rural resettlement schemes implemented by the French colonial administration in the light of the relationship between major economic, social and demographic dynamics in the Protectorate of Morocco. It explores the ways in which the French colonisers transformed the rural landscape of the Gharb valley in Morocco’s Rabat region. I depict the spatial configuration of the several stages by which rural colonisation and agricultural modernisation took place in the region, in relation to the patterns of human settlement they produced. The initial spatial configuration of the Gharb, determined by French colonial policies through the official colonisation programme and its orientation toward extensive agriculture, was subverted by the massive introduction of water drainage and irrigation infrastructure. The construction of reservoir dams and the establishment of drainage and irrigation perimeters across the valley induced a concentration of private and public investments that led to rural modernisation in certain, delimited areas. To compensate for a rural exodus that was overcrowding the outskirts of major Moroccan urban centres and for the lack of a local workforce available for employment on colonists’ farms, the French architect and urban planner Michel Écochard and his collaborators at the Service de l’Urbanisme conceived an ambitious programme of rural resettlements in the Gharb valley.

Exposing the urban continuum: implications and cross-comparison from an interdisciplinary perspective

ABSTRACTThere is an increasing availability of geospatial data describing patterns of human settlement and population such as various global remote-sensing based built-up land layers, fine-grained census-based population estimates, and publicly available cadastral and building footprint data. This development constitutes new integrative modeling opportunities to characterize the continuum of urban, peri-urban, and rural settlements and populations. However, little research has been done regarding the agreement between such data products in measuring human presence which is measured by different proxy variables (i.e. presence of built-up structures derived from different remote sensors, census-derived population counts, or cadastral land parcels). In this work, we quantitatively evaluate and cross-compare the ability of such data to model the urban continuum, using a unique, integrated validation database of cadastral and building footprint data, U.S. census data, and three different versions of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) derived from remotely sensed data. We identify advantages and shortcomings of these data types across different geographic settings in the U.S., which will inform future data users on implications of data accuracy and suitability for a given application, even in data-poor regions of the world.

Prehispanic and colonial landscape change and fluvial dynamics in the Chalco Region, Mexico

The late Quaternary deposits of the lakeshore plain and western edge of Lake Chalco in the southeastern Basin of Mexico were explored in order to understand the influence of alluvial sedimentation on archeological visibility and preservation, as well as to seek out records that would permit direct comparison of erosion and sedimentation with the demographic record derived from the archeological survey. The Chalco lakeshore plain is traversed by two of the largest rivers in the region, and the pattern of human settlement recorded here by archeological survey is partly an artifact of alluvial sedimentation, where the most prominent settlements were observed in areas with little or very slow sedimentation. Detailed radiocarbon dating of the alluvial deposits indicates that prior to the establishment of a sedentary lifestyle, alluvial sedimentation was slow. Catastrophic soil erosion is inferred from a period of widespread rapid alluviation and mass movements during late Preceramic, Early and Middle Formative periods, which were periods of rapid population growth. Mass movements appear to coincide also with periods of wetter climate. No evidence of sedimentation was noted during the population collapse that occurred at the end of the Formative. The next phase of alluvial sedimentation occurred during the Early Classic to Late Toltec periods, which were also periods of population expansion during a gradually drying climate. The Postclassic period, which was the largest Pre-Columbian demographic expansion, was paradoxically accompanied by minor evidence of alluvial activity. The last and most widespread period of alluvial activity occurs in the post-Conquest period and is difficult to date with precision but appears to occur primarily during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

SCALING THE SIZE, STRUCTURE, AND DYNAMICS OF RESIDENTIALLY MOBILE HUNTER-GATHERER CAMPS

Short-term hunter-gatherer residential camps have been a central feature of human settlement patterns and social structure for most of human evolutionary history. Recent analyses of ethnohistoric hunter-gatherer data show that across different environments, the average size of hunter-gatherer bands is remarkably constant and that bands are commonly formed by a small number of coresident families. Using ethnoarchaeological data, we examine the relationship between the physical infrastructure of camps and their social organization. We compiled a dataset of 263 ethnoarchaeologically observed hunter-gatherer camps from 13 studies in the literature. We focus on both the scale of camps, or their average size, structure, and composition, and the dynamics that governed their variation. Using a combination of inferential statistics and linear models, we show that the physical infrastructure of camps, measured by the number of household features, reflects the internal social organization of hunter-gatherer bands. Using scaling analyses, we then show that the variation among individual camps is related to a predictable set of dynamics between camp area, infrastructure, the number of occupants, and residence time. Moreover, the scale and dynamics that set the statistical variance in camp sizes are similar across different environments and have important implications for reconstructing prehistoric hunter-gatherer social organization and behavior from the archaeological record.

Holocene vegetation change in northernmost Fennoscandia and the impact on prehistoric foragers 12 000–2000 cal. aBP– A review

While single pollen records are widely used in reconstructing the environment for nearby prehistoric settlements, they are less helpful when addressing large‐scale issues of variation in human settlement patterns. In order to assess the impact of vegetation change on regional prehistoric settlement and subsistence patterns in an ecotone sensitive area, we inferred the general change in main vegetation types based on palaeobotanical investigations from across northernmost Fennoscandia. Tundra vegetation was predominant during the Lateglacial and earliest parts of the Holocene. Maritime birch forests rich in ferns started to expandc. 11 000 cal. aBPand became dominant from 10 000 cal. aBP. Pine expanded from theNEof the investigation area and pine‐birch forest dominated in the inland around 8000 cal. aBP. A gradual degeneration of forest towards more open birch woodland startedc. 6000 cal. aBPwith the most marked change around 3500 cal. aBP. Along the northern outer coast, this eventually led to open heathland. Comparison with the archaeological setting suggests a general correlation between low forest cover and extensive mobility patterns, while widespread and varied forest cover appear to have led to a more sedentary way of life. The background for this is arguably that the forested landscapes hosted a larger diversity of resources within a shorter foraging distance, while areas and periods with low forest cover required longer travels to obtain the desired prey and materials.

The Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich event I on the Iberian Peninsula: A regional climate modelling study for understanding human settlement patterns

Abstract The spatial distribution and dating of archaeological sites suggest a poor occupation of southern Iberia by hunter-gatherers after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and during Heinrich event 1 (H1) compared to Northern Iberia. The H1 was a period of cold and arid climate conditions and is suspected to have played an important role in the population dynamics in Europe at the end of the Pleistocene. In this study, the potential influence of climate change on the human settlement patterns in Iberia is analysed based on regional palaeoclimate modelling. Here, the WRF model is used to simulate continuous time slices of 30 years of climate conditions representative for both the LGM and H1 at high spatial resolution. The model results indicate that, apart from a general decrease in temperature, a considerable decrease in precipitation over southern Iberia occurred during the H1, that agrees with the available climate proxy data. The analysis of ombrotypes unveils extremely arid conditions, particularly over southern Iberia and during the growing season (summer), which could have constrained the availability of food and water to the inhabitants. The total area in Iberia that can be characterized as ultrahyperarid in summer enlarged from 2% (13 K km2) during the LGM to 22% (148 K km2) during the H1. Likewise, the reconstruction of vegetation types shows an increase of non-arboreal (open shrubland, grassland) types at the expense of arboreal types in southern Iberia for H1. Thus, the different climate conditions and changes in palaeovegetation between the LGM and H1 probably played a major role in the decrease of the hunter-gatherer populations in southern Iberia.

Globally Universal Fractal Pattern of Human Settlements in River Networks

AbstractRiver networks play a key role in the spatial organization of human settlements. Both river networks and human settlements have been found to exhibit regular self‐similar patterns, but little is known about the generalized spatial patterns of human settlements embedded within river networks. Here based on night light data, we find a universal fractal structure at the global scale, with both robust Hortonian scaling relationships with the extent of human settlements and statistically significant power law scaling of the power spectra of human area functions. Globally, we find consistent patterns of power law preferential downstream clustering of human settlements across all six populated continents, typically up to 40% of the maximum flow length. This downstream clustering suggests an optimum distribution of humans in large river basins for trade, transport, and natural resource utilization but with attendant implications for human impacts on rivers. Recognition of such spatial patterns helps generalize assessments of human impacts on rivers, with direct implications for management of water quality and biological diversity in river networks.

Multi-Level Relationships between Satellite-Derived Nighttime Lighting Signals and Social Media–Derived Human Population Dynamics

Satellite-based measurements of the artificial nighttime light brightness (NTL) have been extensively used for studying urbanization and socioeconomic dynamics in a temporally consistent and spatially explicit manner. The increasing availability of geo-located big data detailing human population dynamics provides a good opportunity to explore the association between anthropogenic nocturnal luminosity and corresponding human activities, especially at fine time/space scales. In this study, we used Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band (DNB)–derived nighttime light images and the gridded number of location requests (NLR) from China’s largest social media platform to investigate the quantitative relationship between nighttime light radiances and human population dynamics across China at four levels: the provincial, city, county, and pixel levels. Our results show that the linear relationship between the NTL and NLR might vary with the observation level and magnitude. The dispersion between the two variables likely increases with the observation scale, especially at the pixel level. The effect of spatial autocorrelation and other socioeconomic factors on the relationship should be taken into account for nighttime light-based measurements of human activities. Furthermore, the bivariate relationship between the NTL and NLR was employed to generate a partition of human settlements based on the combined features of nighttime lights and human population dynamics. Cross-regional comparisons of the partitioned results indicate a diverse co-distribution of the NTL and NLR across various types of human settlements, which could be related to the city size/form and urbanization level. Our findings may provide new insights into the multi-level responses of nighttime light signals to human activity and the potential application of nighttime light data in association with geo-located big data for investigating the spatial patterns of human settlement.

Human settlement and wood utilization along the mainstream of Heihe River basin, northwest China in historical period

In recent years, archaeologists have studied how ancient humans have shaped, and been shaped by, their surrounding environments in an effort to provide valuable insight into the patterns of human-environment interaction during prehistoric and historical periods. Along the Heihe River in Hexi Corridor of northwest China, archaeologists have found many ancient cities that are good places to explore changes in human settlement patterns in relation to environment change in historical periods. In this paper, we present our investigation of seven ancient cities to clarify the chronology of these cities and their strategy for wood use in the area through the application of radiocarbon dating and charcoal identification. Our results suggest that the ages of many cities are younger than previous estimates, and humans mainly used Tamarix and mixed Tamarix and broad leaf trees in the lower and middle reaches of the Heihe River basin between ∼ AD 240–1380 respectively, and roughly matches the modern spatial distribution of natural woody vegetation in the area. In comparison to the results of archaeological, paleoclimatic and historical studies in Hexi Corridor, we propose that ancient human strategies for wood use and their impact on environment of the Heihe Basin are primarily relevant to human lifestyles rather than climate change.

Delineating Spatial Patterns in Human Settlements Using VIIRS Nighttime Light Data: A Watershed-Based Partition Approach

As an informative proxy measure for a range of urbanization and socioeconomic variables, satellite-derived nighttime light data have been widely used to investigate diverse anthropogenic activities in human settlements over time and space from the regional to the national scale. With a higher spatial resolution and fewer over-glow and saturation effects, nighttime light data derived from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument with day/night band (DNB), which is on the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite (Suomi-NPP), may further improve our understanding of spatiotemporal dynamics and socioeconomic activities, particularly at the local scale. Capturing and identifying spatial patterns in human settlements from VIIRS images, however, is still challenging due to the lack of spatially explicit texture characteristics, which are usually crucial for general image classification methods. In this study, we propose a watershed-based partition approach by combining a second order exponential decay model for the spatial delineation of human settlements with VIIRS-derived nighttime light images. Our method spatially partitions the human settlement into five different types of sub-regions: high, medium-high, medium, medium-low and low lighting areas with different degrees of human activity. This is primarily based on the local coverage of locally maximum radiance signals (watershed-based) and the rank and magnitude of the nocturnal radiance signal across the whole region, as well as remotely sensed building density data and social media-derived human activity information. The comparison results for the relationship between sub-regions with various density nighttime brightness levels and human activities, as well as the densities of different types of interest points (POIs), show that our method can distinctly identify various degrees of human activity based on artificial nighttime radiance and ancillary data. Furthermore, the analysis results across 99 cities in 10 urban agglomerations in China reveal inter-regional variations in partition thresholds and human settlement patterns related to the urban size and form. Our partition method and relative results can provide insight into the further application of VIIRS DNB nighttime light data in spatially delineated urbanization processes and socioeconomic activities in human settlements.

Introducing the North Water: Histories of exploration, ice dynamics, living resources, and human settlement in the Thule Region

The North Water is a recurrent polynya in the High Arctic situated between Northwest Greenland and Ellesmere Island of Canada. The North Water makes a dynamic space, where various processes may enhance or obstruct each other, accelerating or halting particular modes of human–animal relations in the region, where life itself depends on the North Water. This will be discussed in four steps. The first step posits the North Water as a perceived oasis for explorers and whalers hailing from Europe or America in the nineteenth century. The second step concentrates on the diverse rhythms inherent in the ice conditions, as affected by trends that are set in motion elsewhere. The third step highlights the implications of the dynamics of the ice and sea currents for animal life in the region. The fourth step gives an overview of human settlement patterns around the North Water across the ages. The article shows how natural and social features are deeply implicated in each other, even if they are not directly co-variant.

Holocene Human Occupation of the Central Alaska Peninsula

ABSTRACTThe Alaska Peninsula is a landscape defined by volcanic, tectonic, and glacial processes, and life throughout is conditioned on the interactions among them. During the middle Holocene (ca. 4100–3600 yr ago), intense caldera-forming eruptions of the Aniakchak and Veniaminof volcanoes changed the shape of the central portion of the Peninsula dramatically, and had significant and perhaps devastating impacts on both terrestrial and marine biota. Here we evaluate the severity of these impacts by tracking human settlement patterns using 75 unique radiocarbon (14C) age determinations on buried cultural features from the central Alaska Peninsula. Coastal regions were re-colonized within a few hundred years while river systems most proximate to the volcanoes were uninhabited for up to 1500 years following the most severe eruptions. Patterns of human settlement may also document previously unrecorded landscape change throughout the region, and further contribute to our understanding of post-volcanic ecological succession.

Tree-ring evidence of changes in the subarctic forest cover linked to human disturbance in northern Labrador (Canada)

ABSTRACTWe combined dendroecological analyses with historical and ethnographic information to document connections between forest use patterns since the 18th century and stand composition and structure in the Nain region of Labrador, Canada. The highest recruitment periods for both eastern larch and spruce, pulses in growth releases, and decades with greatest harvesting evidence (cut stumps) all occurred primarily between 1910 and 1970. The strongest disturbance signal occurred after 1940, resulting in the absence of old trees and increased larch recruitment. The 1910–1970 period coincides with significant shifts in human settlement and land use patterns. Most notably, the increased demand for fur in the 1920s and 1930s changed Inuit land use: the Inuit spent more time inland where fur-bearing animals and wood resources were available. Moreover, population growth in Nain, which was accelerated by the relocation of Inuit communities in northern Labrador between 1950 and 1960, increased local harvesting intensity. We argue that long-term land use needs to be accounted for as a driver of forest dynamics in this subarctic forest landscape.