Addresses the character of land-change dynamics, principally tropical deforestation, and agricultural expansion. Reports on the first phase of a large, integrated, multi-institutional, and team-based study. Links the project's findings to satellite imagery through GIS.
1. Introduction:Three Frontiers of the Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region and SYPR Project; I:HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONSHIPS, 1000 BC - AD 1900; 2. The Long View: Human-Environment Relationships 1000 BC - AD 1900; 3. Forest Extraction to Theme Parks: The Modern History of Land Change; II:LAND-COVER CHARACTERISTICS AND CHANGE; 4. Forest Types and their Implications; 5. Recovery of Nutrient Cycling and Ecosystem Properties following Swidden Cultivation: Regional and Stand-Level Constraints; 6. Land Cover and Land Use: Classification and Change Analysis; III: AGENTS AND INSTITUTIONS OF LAND CHANGE: HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY AND CULTIVATION; 7. Institutions, Organizations, and Policy Affecting Land Change: Complexity Within and Beyond the Ejido; 8. The Ejido Household: The Current Agent of Change; 9. Subsistence Sustained: Swidden or Milpa Cultivation; 10. Jalapeno Pepper Cultivation: Emergent Commercial Land Use; 11. The Semi-Market and Semi-Subsistence Household: The Evidence and Test of Smallholder Behavior; IV: SPATIAL MODELING OF LAND CHANGE: EMPIRICAL APPROACHES IN DATA-SPARSE ENVIRONMENTS; 12. Spatially Explicit, Statistical Land-Change Models in Data-Sparse Conditions; 13. The SYPR Integrative Assessment Model: Complexity in Development; RETROSPECTIVE: THE THREE FRONTIERS REVISITED; GLOSSARY AND ACRONYMS; INDEX