Last Thursday,we tackled about Human-Environmental Interactions,interactions

between the human social system and the rest of ecosystem that are said to be
complex adaptive systems according to Marten,2001. Complex in a way not only
they have many parts but also have many connections between these parts. It is
also Adaptive as it have feedback structures that promote survival in a constantly
changing environment. Secondly,we talked about human social system wherein we
study its specific charateristics to be aware and analyze the human
environmental interactions. Here,the type of society strongly influences peoples
attitude towards nature, their behaviour and therefore their impact on ecosystems.
Important characteristics of human social systems are population size, social
organization, values, technology, wealth, education, knowledge and many more.
Especially values and knowledge strongly influence peoples view of life and
consequently define the way people
e act. The choice of possible actions is then limited by the available technology.
People modify the environment for their purposes and obtain benefits (Ecosystem
Services) from it. These Ecosystem Services are essential forhuman well-being and
include for example the provision of resources like water, timber, food, energy,
information, land for farming and many more. Obviously by using these resources
people affect the environment in a lot of ways. Furthermore people often reorganize
existing ecosystems to achieve new ones that seem to be more effective in serving their
needs.

The Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) analysed how Ecosystem Services and
constituents of human well-being are interlinked. The MA research programme was
launched with support from the United Nations in 2001.

Coevolution and Coadaptation

The terms coevolution and coadaptation describe the never-ending process of mutual
adjustment and change between human social systems and the environment. Peoples
actions have consequences on the environment. But also the environment influences
human activities. Human social systems have to adapt to their specific environment.
Natural phenomena like storms, earthquakes force people to react. These natural
phenomena can either be directly or not primarily caused by human actions and again
influence human behaviour as people have to respond to a new situation.

Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response
The Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model was originally
developed by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and is used to assess and
manage environmental problems. Many national and European institutions adopted this
conceptual framework. It identifies the various causal chains of links between human
activities and environmental degradation. The model distinguishes several categories of
indicators in order to explain how the state of the environment is changed due to human
activities. Human activities increase or mitigate pressure on the environment. The
driving forces which initiate human activities are mainly socio-economic and sociocultural forces.
The following graphic explains the DPSIR process:

Source: ISTAT, C. Costantino, F. Falcitelli, A. Femia, A. Tuolini, OECD-Workshop, Paris, May 1416, 2003)
by Alexandra Lill and Sarah Grber #8211; 2006
Ecology Centre Kiel Masters Programme Environmental Management