Ambiguous Geographies: Connecting Case Study Knowledge with Global Change Science

Abstract

Case studies have long been a gold standard for investigating causal mechanisms in human–environment interactions. Yet it remains a challenge to generalize across case studies to produce knowledge at broader regional and global scales even as the effort to do so, mostly using metastudy methods, has accelerated. One major obstacle is that the geographic context of case study knowledge is often presented in a vague and incomplete form, making it difficult to reuse and link with the regional and global contexts within which it was produced and is therefore most relevant. Here we assess the degree to which the quality of geographic description in published land change case studies limits their effective reuse in spatially explicit global and regional syntheses based on 437 spatially bounded cases derived from 261 case studies used in published land change metastudies. Common ambiguities in published representations of case geographic contexts were identified and scored using three indicators of geographic data quality for reuse in spatially explicit regional and global metastudy research. Statistically significant differences in the quality of case geographic descriptions were evident among the six major disciplinary categories examined, with the earth and planetary sciences evidencing greater clarity and conformance scores than other disciplines. The quality of case geography reporting showed no statistically significant improvement over the past fifty years. By following a few simple and readily implemented guidelines, case geographic context reporting could be radically improved, enabling more effective case study reuse in regional to global synthesis research, thereby yielding substantial benefits to both case study and synthesis researchers.

案例研究对于探讨人类—自然互动的因果机制而言, 长期作为黄金标准。但普遍化各个案例研究, 以在更广泛的区域及全球尺度中生产知识仍是个挑战, 尽管多半运用后设研究方法的努力已不断增加。其中一个主要的困难在于, 案例研究知识的地理脉络, 经常以模煳且不完整的形式呈现之, 使其难以被再利用, 并难以连结至其被生产、因此最为相关的区域及全球脉络。我们在此根据已出版的土地变迁后设研究所使用的二百六十一个案例研究中, 衍生而出的四百三十七个在空间上受限之案例, 评估在已出版的土地变迁案例研究中的地理描绘之质量, 限制它们在空间明确的全球及区域综合中有效再利用的程度。我们运用三项在空间明确的区域与全球后设研究中, 再利用的地理数据质量指标, 指认已出版的案例地理脉络再现中的普遍模煳性。在我们所检视的六大主要领域范畴中, 案例地理描绘质量中的显着统计差异相当明显, 其中地理与地球科学, 呈现出较其它领域更高的清晰度与一致性分数。案例地理学报告的质量显示, 过去五十年来在统计上并没有显着的进步。透过追踪数个简单且已实施的指导方针, 案例地理脉络报告可彻底改进, 并促成区域到全球综合研究中更有效的案例研究再利用, 因而同时对案例研究与综合研究者带来实质的益处。

Los estudios de caso han sido desde hace mucho tiempo el estándar dorado para investigar los mecanismos causales en las interacciones humano-ambientales. Sigue siendo un reto, sin embargo, generalizar de los estudios de caso para generar conocimiento a escalas más amplias regionales y globales, aun si el esfuerzo para lograrlo, principalmente usando métodos de metaestudio, ha sido incrementado. Un obstáculo mayor es que el contexto geográfico del conocimiento por estudio de casos a menudo se presenta de forma vaga e incompleta, haciendo difícil reusar y ligar con los contextos regionales y globales dentro de los cuales aquel fue producido, por lo que tiene mayor relevancia. En este artículo evaluamos el grado con el que la calidad de la descripción geográfica en estudios de casos publicados sobre cambios de la tierra restringe su reutilización efectiva en sínteis globales y regionales, espacialmente explícitas, basadas en 437 casos espacialmente demarcados, derivados de 261 estudios de caso publicados en metaestudios sobre cambios de la tierra. Las ambiguedades comunes en representaciones publicadas de casos de contexto geográfico fueron identificadas y calificadas usando tres indicadores de calidad de los datos geográficos para reutilización en investigación de metaestudios regionales y globales espacialmente explícitos. Diferencias estadísticamente significativas en la calidad de descripciones geográficas de caso fueron evidentes entre las seis mayores categorías disciplinarias examinadas, con las ciencias de la tierra y las planetarias evidenciando mucha mayor claridad y marcas de conformidad que otras disciplinas. La calidad de los informes sobre la geografía de casos no mostró una mejora estadísticamente significativa en los pasados cincuenta años. Siguiendo unas pocas instrucciones simples y de fácil implementación el reporte del contexto geográfico del caso podría ser mejorado radicalmente, posibilitando un reuso del estudio de caso más efectivo en la investigación de síntesis de lo regional a lo global, generando de ese modo beneficios sustanciales para los investigadores y para los estudios de casos y síntesis.

Key Words:

• geographic representation
• GIScience
• metastudy
• research synthesis
• scale

关键词：:

• 地理再现
• 地理信息科学
• 后设研究
• 研究综合
• 尺度。

Palabras clave:

• representación geográfica
• ciencia SIG
• metaestudio
• síntesis de investigación
• escala

Acknowledgments

The authors thank three anonymous reviewers and Mei-Po Kwan for their thoughtful comments and constructive suggestions on earlier revisions of the article. This research would have been impossible without the assistance and hard work of the GLOBE Cases Team at University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), including Gailynn Milligan, Joseph Milligan, Laureen Echiverri, Brandon Cottom, Michael Glassman, Matthew Gregory, Marissa Lenoce, and Anna Johnson. Lindsey Gordon and Christopher Zink of the Cases Team deserve particular mention for their long-term dedication to the project and insight on forms of geographic ambiguity in the studies reviewed here. Finally, we thank David Lansing at UMBC for his thoughts on geographical scale that were helpful during the early development of the article.

Funding

This material is based on work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant NSF #1125210 and cosponsored by the Global Land Project (www.globallandproject.org) and the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (www.chans-net.org). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes

1. Additional case scoring documentation is available at http://globe.umbc.edu/documentation-overview/cases-documentation/.

2. Maps and descriptions are reproductions of actual geographic descriptions encountered during research. To retain author and publication confidentiality, place names, land use classification types, coordinates, and locations on continent-scale maps (7b, 7c) were removed and replaced with generic placeholder text. All figures presented here demonstrate common forms of case geographic descriptions encountered during the review and reproduction of 437 cases. The descriptions selected and presented here were chosen for their clear depiction of these issues, not because they represented especially poor case geographic descriptions. Bibliographic information for figure sources is not included to protect the identities of the authors but is available on request from the first author.

3. Geoentity analysis excludes fifty-six studies from less common entity types: basin (n = 2), catchment (n = 5), city (n = 2), country (n = 4), district (n = 9), island (n = 3), municipality (n = 4), parcel (n = 1), park (n = 2), plot (n = 3), protected area (n = 5), quadrat (n = 2), river (n = 1), state (n = 3), and unknown (n = 10) geographic entities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jared D. Margulies

JARED D. MARGULIES is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include human–animal relations, political ecologies of conservation, and spatiotemporal contexts in geographical research.

Nicholas R. Magliocca

NICHOLAS R. MAGLIOCCA is an Assistant Research Professor at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland, Annapolis, MD 21401. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include meta-analysis methodology and agent-based modeling of coupled human–natural systems, particularly in the context of the causes and consequences of land-use change.

Matthew D. Schmill

MATTHEW D. SCHMILL is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250. E-mail: [email protected]. He is the system architect for the GLOBE Project (www.globe.umbc.edu). He currently studies scientific collaboration, geocomputation, data mining, and machine learning.

Erle C. Ellis

ERLE C. ELLIS is Professor of Geography & Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Visiting Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. E-mail: [email protected]. His research investigates human–environment interactions at local, regional, and global scales.