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February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 5, NUMBER 5, MAY 1992

REPORTS...
HUMAN DIMENSIONS PROGRAM

The following have been produced by the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Programme, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the International Social Science Council. This program is parallel to, but independent of, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. For information contact Evelyne Blamont, Deputy Secretary General, ISSC, UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, 75015 Paris, France (tel: 45.68.25.58).

Item #d92may85

Dynamics of Societal Learning about Global Environmental Change (ISSC/UNESCO Ser. 4), R.M. Worcester (City Univ., London, England), S.H. Barnes, 157 pp., 1991.

A report for the Working Group on Survey Research Data, one of six working groups that are collecting data for the program, which gives a preliminary inventory of available information and makes several suggestions about the focus of future research. Data from over 1000 studies in over a dozen countries is available on diskette from the HDGEC Secretariat in Barcelona.

Item #d92may86

A Framework for Research on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (ISSC/UNESCO Ser. No. 3), H.K. Jacobsen, M.F. Price (for the ISSC Standing Comm. on the Human Dimensions of Global Change), 61 pp., 1991. Available from Intl. Social Sci. Council, 1 rue Miollis, 75015 Paris, France (tel: 33-1-45682558).

Developed by the international ISSC committee over the last few years, this plan proposes studies that will require conceptual, theoretical and methodological development in the social sciences, and collaboration between social and natural scientists. Research involves seven topics: (1) social dimensions of resource use; (2) perception and assessment of global environmental conditions and change; (3) impacts of local, national, and international social, economic, and political structures and institutions; (4) land use; (5) energy production and consumption; (6) industrial growth; (7) environmental security and sustainable development.

Item #d92may87

Report of the International Social Science Council Scientific Symposium on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Nov. 26-27, 1990) (Occasional Paper 1), M.F. Price, Rapporteur, 38 pp., 1991.

Coverage included the ISSC Framework for Research; the land use/land cover element of the 1991-1992 work program; data and methods; national and regional programs.

Item #d92may88

Reports on: A Workshop on Concepts, Models and Data for the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (Moscow; Mar. 2-4, 1990) and A Workshop on Methodological Issues in Global Modelling: Micro-Global Links (Mexico City; Nov. 5-8, 1990) (Occasional Paper 3), 23 pp., 1991.

The Moscow workshop reaffirmed the premise that data acquisition and modeling must be an integral part of the program if it is to effectively understand how human activities are altering the global natural environment. However, data and modeling cannot be divorced from several larger issues, such as values and cultural diversity. Several specific recommendations are made regarding projects to be undertaken, the relationship with the IGBP, and policy relevance of the program.

The Mexico City workshop was intended to address several methodological issues for social scientific study. Recommended were research programs on: geographical information systems for the study of social organization and land use; case studies of successful sustainable development; historical view of cumulative change; how the medium used to present information affects perceptions of global change.