Seminar Announcement A History of Human-Water Interactions in the Northeast United States: Dynamics in a Water-Rich Environment
Thayer Hotel West Point, New York July 25 to 27, 2009 http://www.cuahsi.org/capstone.html Hosted by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) and the City University of New York (CUNY) Water is a critical factor to human dynamics in arid environments and thus the relationship between water and human systems in these regions has been well-studied as a limitation to economic and social systems. Water issues in the arid West are front-and-center in the popular media. Human-water interactions in the more humid environments of the Nation, however, have not received such attention. What then is the role of water in societies in our more humid environments? Although water is not considered as critical of a factor in humid regions, water has played a vital role in how human systems have developed historically. Human activities, in turn, have impacted hydrologic form and function. Understanding the historical relationships between water and humans and how these relationships have changed over time is important as we forecast socio-political and economic dynamics in the Northeast. Over the past 2 years, research guided by the CUAHSI hydrologic synthesis project hosted at CUNY has studied how human-water relationships have changed in the Northeast U.S. over the 300 years from 1600 to 1900. This seminar is an opportunity for the CUNY project to present new ideas that have arisen from this effort and to continue building a dialog with the broader academic community on human-water interactions in humid environments. The seminar will be a forum to share ideas and discuss future research needs to better understand the changing role of water in the Northeast. Limited funding to attend the seminar is available for early career individuals (post-docs and assistant professors). To join us for the seminar or for further inquiries, please contact Mark Green ([email protected]). Space is limited.
