Land-use Decision-making and Landscape Degradation

This study examines the role of land-use decision-making of different actor groups, including land developers, politicians, residents, NGOs and city planners, in contributing to land degradation in the American Southwest. Perceptions of different actor groups of the desert landscape are first explored, and motivations and priorities of actor groups to make land-use decisions are then investigated. By taking a political ecology approach, this study investigates the complex relationships between human land-use decisions and environmental changes and between different actor groups.