TY - JOUR
T1 - Looking for the future in the past
T2 - Long-term change in socioecological systems
AU - Barton, C Michael
AU - Ullah, Isaac I T
AU - Bergin, Sean M.
AU - Mitasova, Helena
AU - Sarjoughian, Hessam
N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Biocomplexity in the Environment Program , grant BCS-410269 , and by the American Schools of Oriental Research, Arizona State University , and the Universitat de València . Copyright: Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/8/24
Y1 - 2012/8/24
N2 - The archaeological record has been described as a key to the long-term consequences of human action that can help guide our decisions today. Yet the sparse and incomplete nature of this record often makes it impossible to inferentially reconstruct past societies in sufficient detail for them to serve as more than very general cautionary tales of coupled socio-ecological systems. However, when formal and computational modeling is used to experimentally simulate human socioecological dynamics, the empirical archaeological record can be used to validate and improve dynamic models of long term change. In this way, knowledge generated by archaeology can play a unique and valuable role in developing the tools to make more informed decisions that will shape our future. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project offers an example of using the past to develop and test computational models of interactions between land-use and landscape evolution that ultimately may help guide decision-making.
AB - The archaeological record has been described as a key to the long-term consequences of human action that can help guide our decisions today. Yet the sparse and incomplete nature of this record often makes it impossible to inferentially reconstruct past societies in sufficient detail for them to serve as more than very general cautionary tales of coupled socio-ecological systems. However, when formal and computational modeling is used to experimentally simulate human socioecological dynamics, the empirical archaeological record can be used to validate and improve dynamic models of long term change. In this way, knowledge generated by archaeology can play a unique and valuable role in developing the tools to make more informed decisions that will shape our future. The Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project offers an example of using the past to develop and test computational models of interactions between land-use and landscape evolution that ultimately may help guide decision-making.
KW - Agent-based modeling
KW - Agricultural land-use
KW - Archaeology
KW - Coupled modeling
KW - Prehistoric Mediterranean
KW - Simulation
KW - Socio-ecological systems
KW - Surface process modeling
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.02.010
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.02.010
M3 - Article
SN - 0304-3800
VL - 241
SP - 42
EP - 53
JO - Ecological Modelling
JF - Ecological Modelling
ER -