Total human ecosystem (THE) is an eco-centric concept initially proposed by

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

professors Zeev Naveh and Arthur S. Lieberman in 1994.Naveh, Z. & A.S. Lieberman, 1994. Landscape Ecology: Theory and Application (2nd ed). Springer-Verlag,New York, 360 p.

History of the concept

Naveh and Lieberman (1994) proposed the

holistic Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book '' Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED On ...

, eco-centric concept of the Total Human Ecosystem in order to study the

anthropocene The Anthropocene ( ) is a proposed geological epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth's geology and ecosystems, including, but not limited to, anthropogenic climate change. , neither the International Commissio ...

ecology and improve land use planning and environmental management, within an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. In Naveh's own words, the Total Human Ecosystem is "the highest co-evolutionary ecological entity on earth with landscapes as its concrete three-dimensional ‘Gestalt’ systems, forming the spatial and functional matrix for all organisms". This concept (or meta-concept) integrates human systems (the technosphere, but also in the conceptual space of human noosphere) and natural systems (the

geophysical Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' some ...

eco-space of the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

biosphere The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also ...

). Zev Naveh (1919-2011), the major contributor to this concept, was Professor in landscape ecology at the Technion,

Israel Institute of Technology Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

. Until 1965 he worked as a range and pasture specialist in Israel and Tanzania. His research at the Technion was devoted to human impacts on Mediterranean landscapes,

fire ecology Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with natural processes involving fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects, the interactions between fire and the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem, and the role as an ecosystem ...

and dynamic conservation management, and the introduction of

drought resistant Drought tolerance is the ability to which a plant maintains its biomass production during arid or drought conditions. Some plants are naturally adapted to dry conditions'','' surviving with protection mechanisms such as desiccation tolerance, deto ...

plants for multi-beneficial landscape restoration and beautification. Almo Farina, who also developed the concept from 2000 onwards, is also a Professor of Ecology at the

Urbino University The University of Urbino "Carlo Bo" ( it, Università degli Studi di Urbino "Carlo Bo", ''UniUrb'') is an Italian university located in Urbino, a walled hill-town in the region of Marche, located in the north-eastern part of central Italy. The ...

, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Concepts and epistemology

The interaction and co-evolution of the human and natural

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...

interactions are the driving forces for the current

Earth system Earth system science (ESS) is the application of systems science to the Earth. In particular, it considers interactions and 'feedbacks', through material and energy fluxes, between the Earth's sub-systems' cycles, processes and "spheres"— atmo ...

. The Total Human Ecosystem meta-conceptional approach aims to integrate the bio-and geo-centric approaches, derived from the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

, and the approaches derived from the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

and the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

in order to prevent further environmental degradation and drive natural and human systems towards a sustainable future. A natural ecosystem within this concept is solar energy powered,

self-organizing Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order and disorder, order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spon ...

and self-creating. The human ecosystem is fossil energy powered by high input and throughput, and can be divided into two sub-ecosystems: urban-industrial and agro-industrial. The ecosystem is realised in space as an

ecotope Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. As such, they represent relatively homogeneous, spatially explicit landscape functional units that are useful for stratifying la ...

and the system of ecotopes is the landscape: natural, semi-natural, urban-industrial are the tangible, three-dimensional physical systems. These form the Total Human Ecosystem. The THE also consists of the domain of information, perceptions (in landscape ecology this is the ecofield concept),Farina, A., and A. Belgrano, 2004. The eco-field: a new paradigm for landscape ecology. Ecol. Res. 19, 107–110. knowledge, feeling and consciousness, enabling human (but also biological) self-awareness. A special case of landscapes inside of the Total Human Ecosystem are the cultural landscapes in which the relationships between human activity (as an effective, ecology-based, land or sea stewardship) have created ecological, socioeconomic and cultural

patterns A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...

and feedback mechanisms that preserve biological and cultural diversity and maintain or even improve the ecosystem's resilience and resistance.

References

* Farina, A., 2006. Principles and Methods in Landscape Ecology: Towards a Science of the Landscape, Springer, Dordrecht, 412 p. {{Reflist Ecology Ecosystems

History of the concept

Concepts and epistemology

See also

References