overview
- Dr. Michael Binford is a physical geographer specializing in the study of environmental systems, or human-environment interactions. He has published papers on the effects of climate variability on cultural rise and collapse, agroecosystem bases for sustainable agriculture, environmental systems as a basis for landscape planning and ecological restoration, and technical aspects of measuring lake sedimentation rates. The research requires spatial approaches, and uses Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing techniques extensively. The work also involves collaboration with anthropologists, archaeologists, geologists, economists, and planners. Recent NSF and NOAA-funded research investigated the long-term (3500 years) environmental history of the Tiwanaku civilization, hydrological control of Lake Titicaca and land-use in its drainage basin on the border between Bolivia and Peru, and biogeochemical processes that led to 600+ years of raised-field agriculture.