Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T12:18:35.466Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Using Geographic Data in Environmental Sociology

from Part I - Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Rachel A. Rosenfeld  and
Katherine J. Curtis
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Get access

Summary

The goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of how environmental sociologists can use spatial data and analytical techniques to advance environmental sociology. This chapter begins with the premise that individuals are embedded within specific environmental contexts and, consequently, spatial data and analyses are tools that help identify environmental forces relevant to human society. We assert that the environment is inherently spatial, and that the explicit consideration of one location relative to another is a distinguishing feature of “spatial” studies. This chapter begins with an overview of general definitions, and foundational theoretical and methodological concepts. We then highlight compelling spatially-explicit work in the environmental sociology literature on migration, land use, environmental justice, sustainable livelihoods, and poverty. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of future possibilities to enhance theories on human–environment interactions by incorporating spatial data. Our overarching aim is to elucidate the relational nature between locations, the environment, and human-environment processes in order to encourage the use of spatial tools and to promote new ways of thinking spatially.

Keywords

Spatial thinkingspatial dataspatial autocorrelationsocial inequalityenvironmental justice
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 61 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, Martha, Beegle, Kathleen, and Nyamete, Andrew. 1996. “The Impact of Women’s Schooling on Fertility and Contraceptive Use: A Study of Fourteen Sub-Saharan African Countries.” The World Bank Economic Review 10(1): 85–122.Google Scholar
Akkan, Başak, Müderrisoglu, Serra, Uyan-Semerci, Pınar, and Erdogan, Emre. 2018. “How Do Children Contextualize Their Well-Being? Methodological Insights from a Neighborhood Based Qualitative Study in Istanbul.” Child Indicators Research 12: 443–460.Google Scholar
Ard, Kerry. 2015. “Trends in Exposure to Industrial Air Toxins for Different Racial and Socioeconomic Groups: A Spatial and Temporal Examination of Environmental Inequality in the U.S. from 1995 to 2004.” Social Science Research 53(September): 375–390.Google Scholar
Balk, Deborah L., and Montgomery, Mark R.. 2015. “Guest Editorial: ‘Spatializing Demography for the Urban Future.’” Spatial Demography 3(2): 59–62.Google Scholar
Bell, Michael M. 2012. An Invitation to Environmental Sociology. Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Costanza, Robert. 1989. “What Is Ecological Economics?” Ecological Economics 1(1): 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cressie, Noel A.C. 1993. Statistics for Spatial Data: Revised Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Curtis, Katherine J., and Schneider, Annemarie. 2011. “Understanding the Demographic Implications of Climate Change: Estimates of Localized Population Predictions under Future Scenarios of Sea-Level Rise.” Population and Environment 33(1): 28–54.Google Scholar
Curtis, Katherine J., Fussell, Elizabeth, and DeWaard., Jack 2015. “Recovery Migration After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Spatial Concentration and Intensification in the Migration System.” Demography 52(4): 1269–1293.Google Scholar
Curtis, Katherine J., Voss, Paul R., and Long, David D.. 2012. “Spatial Variation in Poverty-Generating Processes: Child Poverty in the United States.” Social Science Research 41(1): 146–159.Google Scholar
Cutter, Susan L. 1995. “Race, Class and Environmental Justice.” Progress in Human Geography 19(1): 111–122.Google Scholar
de Castro, Marcia Caldas. 2007. “Spatial Demography: An Opportunity to Improve Policy Making at Diverse Decision Levels.” Population Research and Policy Review 26(5/6): 477–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Sherbinin, Alex, Carr, David, Cassels, Susan, and Jiang, Leiwen. 2007. “Population and Environment.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 32: 345–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeWaard, Jack, Curtis, Katherine J., and Fussell, Elizabeth. 2016. “Population Recovery in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: Exploring the Potential Role of Stage Migration in Migration Systems.” Population and Environment 37(4): 449–463.Google Scholar
Dorélien, Audrey, Balk, Deborah, and Todd, Megan. 2013. “What Is Urban? Comparing a Satellite View with the Demographic and Health Surveys.” Population and Development Review 39(3): 413–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downey, Liam. 2003. “Spatial Measurement, Geography, and Urban Racial Inequality.” Social Forces 81(3): 937–952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlap, Riley E. and Michelson, William, eds. 2002. Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Entwisle, Barbara. 2007. “Putting People into Place.” Demography 44(4): 687–703.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS). 2016. “Famine Early Warning Systems Network.” Accessed February 25, 2018. www.fews.net.Google Scholar
Feliciano, Cynthia. 2005. “Educational Selectivity in U.S. Immigration: How Do Immigrants Compare to Those Left Behind?” Demography 42(1): 131–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foody, Giles M., Cutler, Mark E., McMorrow, Julia et al. 2001. “Mapping the Biomass of Bornean Tropical Rain Forest from Remotely Sensed Data.” Global Ecology and Biogeography 10(4): 379–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funk, Chris, Peterson, Pete, Landsfeld, Martin et al. 2015. “The Climate Hazards Infrared Precipitation with Stations – a New Environmental Record for Monitoring Extremes.” Scientific Data 2(December): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fussell, Elizabeth, Curtis, Katherine J., and DeWaard, Jack. 2014. “Recovery Migration to the City of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: A Migration Systems Approach.” Population and Environment 35(3): 305–322.Google Scholar
Fussell, Elizabeth, Hunter, Lori M., and Gray, Clark L.. 2014. “Measuring the Environmental Dimensions of Human Migration: The Demographer’s Toolkit.” Global Environmental Change 28(September): 182–191.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Angela, and Chakraborty, Jayajit. 2011. “Using Geographically Weighted Regression for Environmental Justice Analysis: Cumulative Cancer Risks from Air Toxics in Florida.” Social Science Research 40(1): 273–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GitHub. 2018. “GitHub.” Accessed February 27, 2018. https://github.com.Google Scholar
Goodchild, Michael F. 2010. “The Role of Volunteered Geographic Information in a Postmodern GIS World.” ArcUser. 20–21. Accessed November 14, 2018. www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0410/vgi.html.Google Scholar
Goodchild, Michael F. 2007. “Citizens as Sensors: The World of Volunteered Geography.” Santa Barbara, CA: National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, UC Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Gray, Clark L. 2009. “Environment, Land, and Rural Out-Migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes.” World Development 37(2): 457–468.Google Scholar
Gray, Clark L., and Mueller, Valerie. 2012. “Natural Disasters and Population Mobility in Bangladesh.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(16): 6000–6005.Google Scholar
Haining, Robert. 1990. Spatial Data Analysis in the Social and Environmental Sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansman, Heather. 2015. “The EPA Has a New Tool for Mapping Where Pollution and Poverty Intersect.” Smithsonian. Accessed February 27, 2018. www.smithsonianmag.com.Google Scholar
Hawley, Amos H. 1950. Human Ecology: A Theory of Community Structure. New York: The Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, Robyn, Arriola, Aline, Martínez-Gómez, Margarita, and Distel, Hans. 2006. “Effect of Air Pollution on Olfactory Function in Residents of Mexico City.” Chemical Senses 31(1): 79–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunter, Lori M., Luna, Jessie K., and Norton, Rachel M.. 2015. “Environmental Dimensions of Migration.” Annual Review of Sociology 41(1): 377–397.Google Scholar
Hunter, Lori M., Nawrotzki, Raphael, Leyk, Stefan et al. 2014. “Rural Outmigration, Natural Capital, and Livelihoods in South Africa.” Population, Space and Place 20(5): 402–420.Google Scholar
Hunter, Lori M., Murray, Sheena, and Riosmena, Fernando. 2013. “Rainfall Patterns and U.S. Migration from Rural Mexico.” International Migration Review 47(4): 874–909.Google Scholar
Irwin, Michael D. 2007. “Territories of Inequality.” In The Sociology of Spatial Inequality, edited by Lobao, Linda M., Hooks, Gregory, and Tickamyer, Ann R., 85–109. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Malia, and Pebley, Anne R.. 2014. “Redefining Neighborhoods Using Common Destinations: Social Characteristics of Activity Spaces and Home Census Tracts Compared.” Demography 51(3): 727–752.Google Scholar
Kim, Annette M. 2015. “Critical Cartography 2.0: From ‘Participatory Mapping’ to Authored Visualizations of Power and People.” Landscape and Urban Planning 142: 215–225.Google Scholar
Lee, Barrett A., and Sharp, Gregory. 2017. “Ethnoracial Diversity across the Rural-Urban Continuum.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 672(1): 26–45.Google Scholar
LeSage, James P. and Pace, Robert Kelley, 2009. Introduction to Spatial Econometrics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyk, Stefan, Maclaurin, Galen J., Hunter, Lori M. et al. 2012. “Spatially and Temporally Varying Associations between Temporary Outmigration and Natural Resource Availability in Resource-Dependent Rural Communities in South Africa: A Modeling Framework.” Applied Geography 34(May): 559–568.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lichter, Daniel T., and Ziliak, James P.. 2017. “The Rural-Urban Interface: New Patterns of Spatial Interdependence and Inequality in America.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 672(1): 6–25.Google Scholar
Lobao, Linda M., Hooks, Gregory, and Tickamyer, Ann R., eds. 2007. The Sociology of Spatial Inequality. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
López-Carr, David, Mwenda, Kevin M., Pricope, Narcisa G. et al. 2016. “Climate-Related Child Undernutrition in the Lake Victoria Basin: An Integrated Spatial Analysis of Health Surveys, NDVI, and Precipitation Data.” IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 9(6): 2830–2835.Google Scholar
Malley, Christopher S., Henze, Daven K., Kuylenstierna, Johan C.I. et al. 2017. “Environmental Health Perspectives – Updated Global Estimates of Respiratory Mortality in Adults ≥30 Years of Age Attributable to Long-Term Ozone Exposure.” Environmental Health Perspectives 125(8): 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, Doreen. 1994. Space, Place, and Gender. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., Arango, Joaquin, Hugo, Graeme et al. 1998. Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mena, Carlos F., Walsh, Stephen J., Frizzelle, Brian G., Xiaozheng, Yao, and Malanson, George P.. 2011. “Land Use Change on Household Farms in the Ecuadorian Amazon: Design and Implementation of an Agent-Based Model.” Applied Geography 31(1): 210–222.Google Scholar
Minnesota Population Center. 2020. “IPUMS Terra: Integrated Population and Environmental Data.” Accessed March 5, 2020. https://terra.ipums.org/.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Mark R., and Balk, Deborah. 2011. “The Urban Transition in Developing Countries: Demography Meets Geography.” In Global Urbanization, edited by Birch, Eugenie L. and Wachter, Susan M., 89–106. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Neumann, Kathleen, and Hilderink, Henk. 2015. “Opportunities and Challenges for Investigating the Environment-Migration Nexus.” Human Ecology 43(2): 309–322.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nobles, Jenna, Frankenberg, Elizabeth, and Thomas, Duncan. 2015. “The Effects of Mortality on Fertility: Population Dynamics After a Natural Disaster.” Demography 52(1): 15–38.Google Scholar
Pellow, David N., and Brehm, Hollie Nyseth. 2013. “An Environmental Sociology for the Twenty-First Century.” Annual Review of Sociology 39(1): 229–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Jeremy R., and Howell, Frank M.. 2012. Geographical Sociology: Theoretical Foundations and Methodological Applications in the Sociology of Location. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.Google Scholar
R Project. 2018. “R: The R Project for Statistical Computing.” Accessed February 27, 2018. www.r-project.org.Google Scholar
Randell, Heather and Gray, Clark. 2016. “Climate Variability and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia.” Global Environmental Change 41(November): 111–123.Google Scholar
Redman, Charles L. and Foster, David R., eds. 2008. Agrarian Landscapes in Transition: Comparisons of Long-Term Ecological and Cultural Change. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reid, Alice. 1997. “Locality or Class? Spatial and Social Differences in Infant and Child Mortality in England and Wales, 1895–1911.” In The Decline of Infant and Child Mortality. The European Experience: 1750–1990, edited by Corsini, C.A. and Viazzo, P.P., 129–154. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Riesch, Hauke. 2015. “Citizen Science.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), edited by Wright, James D., 631–636. Oxford: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rindfuss, Ronald R., Walsh, Stephen J., Turner, B. L., Fox, Jefferson, and Mishra, Vinod. 2004. “Developing a Science of Land Change: Challenges and Methodological Issues.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101(39):13,976–13,981.Google Scholar
Schlosberg, David. 2009. Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movements and Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Laurie J. 2001. “From the Dust Bowl to the Sahel: Feature Articles.” National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Accessed February 26, 2018. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/DustBowl.Google Scholar
Sharp, Gregory, Denney, Justin T., and Kimbro, Rachel T.. 2015. “Multiple Contexts of Exposure: Activity Spaces, Residential Neighborhoods, and Self-Rated Health.” Social Science & Medicine 146(December): 204–213.Google Scholar
Shlomo, Natalie, Tudor, Caroline, and Groom, Paul. 2010. “Data Swapping for Protecting Census Tables.” In Privacy in Statistical Databases, edited by Domingo-Ferrer, Josep and Magkos, Emmanouil, 41–51. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). 2018. “Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP), v1 | SEDAC.” Accessed January 17, 2018. http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/grump-v1.Google Scholar
Tian, Hanqin, Banger, Kamaljit, Tao, Bo, and Dadhwal, Vinay K.. 2014. “History of Land Use in India during 1880–2010: Large-Scale Land Transformations Reconstructed from Satellite Data and Historical Archives.” Global and Planetary Change 121(October): 78–88.Google Scholar
Tobler, Waldo R. 2002. “Global Spatial Analysis.” Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 26(6): 493–500.Google Scholar
Tobler, Waldo R. 1970. “A Computer Movie Simulating Urban Growth in the Detroit Region.” Economic Geography 26: 234–240.Google Scholar
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2014. “Understanding EJSCREEN Results – Data and Tools.” Accessed March 4, 2018. www.epa.gov/ejscreen/understanding-ejscreen-results.Google Scholar
United Nations. “Sustainable Development Goals – United Nations.” 2015. United Nations Sustainable Development (blog). Accessed February 25, 2018. www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/.Google Scholar
VanWey, Leah K., Rindfuss, Ronald R., Gutmann, Myron P., Entwisle, Barbara, and Balk, Deborah L.. 2005. “Confidentiality and Spatially Explicit Data: Concerns and Challenges.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102(43): 15,–15,342.Google Scholar
Verner, Dorte. 2010. Reducing Poverty, Protecting Livelihoods, and Building Assets in a Changing Climate: Social Implications of Climate Change in Latin America and the Caribbean. Herndon, VA: World Bank Publications.Google Scholar
Vittek, Marian, Brink, Andreas, Donnay, Francois, Simonetti, Dario, and Desclée., Baudouin 2014. “Land Cover Change Monitoring Using Landsat MSS/TM Satellite Image Data over West Africa between 1975 and 1990.” Remote Sensing 6(1): 658–676.Google Scholar
Voss, Paul R. 2007. “Demography as a Spatial Social Science.” Population Research and Policy Review 26 (5/6): 457–476.Google Scholar
Wachter, Kenneth W. 2005. “Spatial Demography.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102(43): 15,299–15,300.Google Scholar
Ward, Catherine D., and Shackleton, Charlie M.. 2016. “Natural Resource Use, Incomes, and Poverty Along the Rural–Urban Continuum of Two Medium-Sized, South African Towns.” World Development 78(February): 80–93.Google Scholar
Ward, Michael Don, and Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede. 2008. Spatial Regression Models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Weeks, John R. 2004. “Role of Spatial Analysis in Demographic Research.” In Spatially Integrated Social Science, edited by Goodchild, Michael F. and Janelle, Donald G., 381–399. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Winkler, Richelle L., and Johnson, Kenneth M.. 2016. “Moving Toward Integration? Effects of Migration on Ethnoracial Segregation Across the Rural-Urban Continuum.” Demography 53(4): 1027–1049.Google Scholar
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M. 2013. Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach. Fifth edition. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Zhang, Junfeng, Mauzerall, Denise L., Zhu, Tong et al. 2010. “Environmental Health in China: Progress towards Clean Air and Safe Water.” The Lancet 375(9720): 1110–1119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×