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6 Globalization, Economic Flows, and Land-Use Transitions Peter J. Marcotullio Abstract This review examines contemporary globalization and economic flows and the impact of these forces on land-use transitions. It finds that the contemporary period of globalization is defined by an integrated global system and massive flows of trade, finance, and investments. The global conditions, including these flows, are both indirect and direct drivers of land-use and land-cover change. The resultant global land-use system dynamics have shifted in well-defined ways, including the speed, direction, location, and timing of land-use transitions. Studying the contemporary global system of land use and land cover requires new models capable of tracing the sources and effects of globalization and economic flows. Introduction This chapter has several goals. First, it reviews trends in globalization or the constellation of events, processes, and linkages that have created “transplanetary and supra-territorial connections between people” (Scholte 2005:8) resulting in a “widening, deepening and speeding up of cross-border interconnectedness in all aspects of contemporary social life” (Held et al. 1998:2). The outcome of this review suggests that while globalization has been growing over the past decades, if not centuries, the contemporary period is new and has resulted in a globally integrated system that operates differently than anything previously. Second, selected elements of globalization are highlighted to demonstrate the quantitative differences between the contemporary speeds, intensities, and extents of connectivities compared to previous times. In this case, a representative sample of economic trade, investments, and financial connections or “flows” (Ritzer 2009) delineate fundamental global linkages. Economic flows of trade, investments, finances, and remittances have never been higher (whether measured in absolute terms or with respect to global gross domestic 90 P. J. Marcotullio product, GDP), never reached more locations around the world, and never have been transmitted faster than those of today. These changes are indicative of a functionally altered global economic system. Contemporary economic flows are helping to create an integrated transnational economy, where local decisions and outcomes are embedded in regional and global processes. Third, an abstract framework is provided to understand how globalization and economic flows have influenced land-use and land-cover dynamics, both in terms of general mechanisms and outcomes. The focus includes connecting the bundle of processes that define globalization and the individual types of economic flows to dimensions of local decisions about land. Land use is characterized by the human arrangements, activities, and inputs for a certain land cover, or observed biophysical cover on Earth’s surface, to produce or maintain it (Choudhury and Jansen 1998). While numerous land-use and landcover dynamics exist (Geist et al. 2006), the focus here is on changes in landuse transitions. Transitions are inflections in long-term trends, including both the quantities and rates of change in quantities of interest (National Research Academy 1999). In the case of land-use and land-cover dynamics, transitions identify changes in the amount or intensity of a particular land use or land cover over time (see, e.g., Mather 2007; Mather and Needle 1998). The extent and intensity of globalization has increased over the past decades such that it has become a major primary (indirect) driver in global biophysical system change (MEA 2005). At the same time, over the past decades land-use and land-cover change has been unprecedented (for review, see Lambin and Meyfroidt, this volume) and subsequently has also significantly affected Earth system functioning (Foley et al. 2005). Scholars have identified the importance of globalization generally as a cause of land-use, land-cover change (Lambin and Meyfroidt 2011; DeFries et al. 2010), but more research is needed to detail the actors, mechanisms, and distal linkages involved (Ramankutty et al. 2006). This chapter posits that the influence of globalization and economic flows for land-use, land-cover change dynamics cannot be underestimated. A review of land-use transition case studies suggests that local land-use decisions are increasingly being influenced by events and activities in distal locations. While globalization acts to change the context of land-use dynamics, economic flows have become both direct and indirect drivers of change. These influences have altered previously well-defined land-use transitions in some general ways. The result of these changes suggests that the global land-use, land-cover system has been systemically altered. Further deciphering the details of how globalization and economic flows affect land-use change dynamics requires new models and tools. The concept of urban land teleconnections promises to...

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