B.L. Turner ll, Ph.D.
Research Professor

The George Perkins Marsh Institute
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610-1477
508.793.7325 phone
email: bturner@clarku.edu

Current Research Interests

LCLUC-SYPR Project
Land Cover and Land Use Change in the Southern Yucatán Peninsular Region--spatially explicit probability approaches for modeling and projecting deforestation and land cover linked to remotely sensed imagery: a project in cooperation with Harvard Forest and ECOSUR-Unidad Chetumal (Mexico). The project seeks to explain the dynamics of land-use/cover change in the region over the past 25 years and explores ways to wed remote sensing and social science-based models of this change. The project also has worked with Harvard Forest and currently has ties to Rutgers University.

Sustainability systems--a joint project with Harvard University, Stanford University, Stockholm Environmental Institute and others that seeks to develop a framework for the next decadal phase of global change research, moving from a largely earth systems focus towards one on a transition towards sustainability; Clark's role centers on advancing "vulnerability" science; funded by Washington agencies through the National Science Foundation.

HERO (Human-Environment Regional Observatories)--a joint project with Pennsylvania State University, University of Arizona, and Kansas State University that seeks to develop data protocols for long-term monitoring and assessments of land and environmental change. Clark's emphasis is central Massachusetts urban sprawl and brownfields; data will be used to examine the dynamics of land change and urban-suburban development.

For more information go to Active Learning and Research.

Selected Publications

Chowdhury, R. Roy and B. L. Turner II. 2006. Reconciling agency and structure in empirical analysis: Smallholder land use in Southern Yucatán, Mexico. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 96 no. 2: 302-322.

Turner, B.L. II, J. Geoghegan and D.R. Foster, eds. 2004. Integrated land-change science and tropical deforestation in the Southern Yucatán: Final frontiers. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press.

Turner, B.L. II. 2002. Contested identities: Human-environment geography and disciplinary implications in a restructuring academy. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 92 no. 1: 52-74.

Whitmore, T.M. and B.L. Turner II. 2001. Cultivated landscapes of native Middle America on the eve of conquest. Oxford Geographical and Environmental Studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Turner, B.L. II. 1996. Spirals, bridges, and tunnels: Engaging human-environment perspectives in geography? Ecumene 4 no. 2: 196-217.

Kasperson, J.X., R.E. Kasperson and B.L. Turner II, eds. 1995. Regions at risk: Comparisons of threatened environments. Tokyo: United Nations University.

Turner, B.L. II and A. M. S. Ali. 1995. Induced intensification: Agricultural change in Bangladesh with implications for Malthus and Boserup. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 93: 14984-14991.

Turner, B.L. II, G. Hyden and R.W. Kates, eds. 1993. Population growth and agricultural change in Africa. Carter Lecture Series, Center for African Studies, University of Florida. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

Turner, B.L. II and K.W. Butzer. 1992. The Columbian encounter and land-use change. Environment 43 no. 8: 16-20.

Clark, W.C., R.W. Kates, J.F. Richards, J.T. Mathews, W.B. Meyer and B.L. Turner II, eds. 1990. The earth as transformed by human action. New York: Cambridge University Press.