ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the application of spatial analysis to environmental research and the study of environmental change. It pays special attention to human dimensions of global environmental change (an emergent interdisciplinary field), spatial analysis using remotely sensed data and geographic information systems, experimental methods, and the study of institutions within a spatially explicit context. Climate change and variability can lead to changes in the spatial occurrence of poverty and disease. Ecosystem research has historically presented challenges to multiscalar analyses because ecosystems can be conceptualized at any number of scales. Environmental social science is capable of contributing to these multiply scaled analyses, with its strength remaining at the local to regional scale. Remote sensing techniques have elicited interest among environmental anthropologists. In Nigeria, J. Guyer and E. Lambin used remote sensing combined with ethnographic research to study agricultural intensification, demonstrating the potential of remote sensing to address site-specific ethnographic issues within a larger land use perspective.
