The pace of urbanization-linked land-use change is accelerating in many parts of the world, leading to rapidly changing environmental conditions along urban-rural interfaces. In turn, these changing conditions are creating new ecological and societal challenges and opportunities. In April 2007, a major conference on "Emerging Issues at the Urban-Rural Interface: Linking Land-Use Science and Society" will be held in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference will bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from around the globe to share current research results and to identify knowledge gaps regarding the interaction between urbanization and natural resources. Special attention will be focused on approaches that integrate socioeconomic and ecological research. Topics to be explored at the conference include (1) How ecosystems are being altered by human influences: direct and indirect stressors, (2) Restoring/rehabilitating terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems altered by urbanization, (3) Evaluating changes to ecosystem goods and services along urban/rural gradients, (4) How disturbance regimes are altered through human influences along urban/rural gradients and subsequent risks to human and natural communities, (5) Monitoring and predicting human influences on landscapes and ecosystems, (6) How urbanization alters the characteristics of natural disturbances, (7) The relationships between land-use policies and ecological processes/disturbances along wildland/urban interfaces , (8) Informing policy makers, natural resource professionals, and private citizens, and (9) Spatial aspects and models of land-use change. This award will provide funding to enable about five dozen graduate and undergraduate students to attend and participate in this conference.
Expected contributions of the conference include enhancement of communications among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. This award will provide about 60 graduate and undergraduate students with the opportunity to explore this topic and to interact with leading researchers in a scholarly setting..
