This plan is centered on industrial decision-making, natural resource development, and environmental protection. The research component will compare four case studies of land-use/land-cover change within mineral exraction regions of the Americas. (Arizona US, Sonora Mexico, Orinoco Belt Venezuela, and southern Andes Peru) An analysis of the impact of mineral investment on land values, land-use, and land-cover over time will use data derived from interviews with local land users combined with information from local archival sources. This information will be used to construct a model of the socioeconomic mechnisms through which direct investment drives land-use/land-cover change. Both direct land-cover change (at the site of the extraction activity) and indirect land-cover change (land values change and supporting infrastructural development) will be researched.
The educational component will result in the development of two interdisciplinary courses to be team-taught with colleagues from Business, Economics, and the Institute for Energy Economics and Policy, and a program of K-12 outreach in partnership with the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education to develop curriculum materials which assist teachers in meeting the National Geography Standards.
