PSTC Research:
Population and environmentPopulation and Environment has been a growing area of focus for researchers at the PSTC in recent years. A centerpiece of the research at the PSTC is the recognition that inference about the interrelationship between environmental and population processes requires a detailed understanding of the scales at which these processes operate. Currently active research projects employ the individual as the unit of analysis and the region as the scale of analysis. Other projects emphasize the household as well as inter-household processes. Still others focus on a shared resource, such as the watershed or air. PSTC research on population and environment is interdisciplinary and innovative, yet informed by the best of discipline-specific theories and methods.
Projects in the Population and Environment thematic area include:
Project Title: The Effects of Health and Demographic Change on Economic Growth: Integrating Micro and Macro Perspectives
Principal Investigators: Andrew Foster, David Weil
Funding: Hewlett/PRB
Other Thematic Areas: Social Behavior and Health, Families and Households, African Demography
Description: This project will augment and promote the integration of five on-going projects based in the Department of Economics and the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown. The focus will be on the long term effects of early child health and nutrition on adult productivity, the role of effective disease management in increasing the economic activity of diseased adults, the role of health and demographic change in the sustainable use of environmental resources, and the effects of changes in health and demographic structure on the level and distribution of economic activity.Project Title: Population and Economic Recovery in Coastal Aceh: Aid and Village Institutions
Principal Investigators: Vernon Henderson (PI), Andrew Foster
Funding: NIH
Other Thematic Areas: Social Behavior and Health, Spatial Inquiry
Description: This project will develop and test a series of inter-connected theories about the economic, social, and political processes that influence the recovery from large-scale losses of population and economic assets following a natural disaster. A key element is to evaluate the impact of external aid and the form of aid delivery on local behaviors, networks and institutions, as well as long term growth and inequality. The analysis focuses on coastal villages in Aceh, Indonesia, that were differentially affected by the 2004 tsunami, and will make use of a panel data set (initiated in 2005) of 111 villages and 550 fishing boat owners that contains rich detail on local economic and political institutions, interaction of villages with external institutions, population change, and trauma suffered. A subsequent round of the survey using previously committed resources is now being collected, which adds another 100 villages and 200 new boat owners. We propose two additional rounds of the survey, creating a panel from 2005 to 2013. The project brings together USA and Indonesian experts on issues of community development, health, the environment, political economy, and inequality.Project Title: AOC: Disaster, Resilience, and the Built Environment
PSTC Investigators: John Logan
Funding: NSF
Other Thematic Areas: Families and Households, Spatial Inquiry
Description: This project studies the resilience of the built environment in coastal communities that are subject to chronic wind and water damage from hurricanes. It continues and extends well beyond the scope of a current research project on the impacts of Hurricane Katrina, which has identified the places that were most affected, including urban neighborhoods and rural counties, and has begun to trace the process of recovery. This part of the study will include the four-year period 2005-2009 to determine 1) the extent of recovery in New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast, 2) the national pattern of displacement of residents and their assimilation into other places, 3) the redistribution of population by race and class within the New Orleans metropolitan region, and 4) the nature and effectiveness of neighborhood participation in redevelopment decisions.Project Title: National Children's Study
PSTC Investigators: John Logan, Susan Short (Stephen Buka, PI)
Funding: NIH
Other Thematic Areas: Social Behavior and Health, Spatial Inquiry
Description: This project will examine the effects of environmental influences on health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The goal of the study is to improve the health and well-being of children. This contract is for the Providence County, RI study center. Learn more at the project website.Project Title: Land Use Change: Designing and Implementing New Global Curricula
PSTC Investigators: Michael White (Steven Hamburg, PI)
Funding: Henry Luce Foundation
Description: This project supports development of an innovative interdisciplinary environmental training program for imporoving research and policy in the developing world. The focus is on land use change at multiple geographic scales, and the effort is designed to foster faculty, student, and practitioner collaborations.Project Title: Urbanization, Health and Environmental Quality in Coastal Ghana
PSTC Investigators: Michael White (PI), Stephen McGarvey
Funding: NIH
Other Thematic Areas: Spatial Inquiry, Social Behavior and Health,
African Demography
Description: This project draws upon existing links among three currently collaborating institutions to examine the social and demographic processes that are closely linked to health and environmental health risks and how these in turn influence local thinking about environmental issues.
Learn more at the Project Website.