Rotmans J ,
Asselt MBA van ,
Bruin AJ de ,
Elzen MGJ den ,
Greef J de ,
Hilderink HBM ,
Hoekstra AY ,
Janssen MA ,
Koster HW ,
Martens WJM ,
Niesen LW ,
Vries HJM de
English Abstract In this study the totality of changes on planet Earth,
including all human interventions and alterations, is considered as
constituting global change, a concept which is therefore broader than the
concept of global environmental change. The latter only refers to the
human-induced biophysical changes in the dynamics of the Earth system, while
global change refers to changes in both the biophysical and the human
system. In practice, the concept of global environmental change is a
general umbrella term for a whole range of mutually dependent global
environmental problems. Within the context of this research programme
global change is, in contrast to earlier studies, considered from an
integrated perspective. In this study the starting point is to consider the
common causes, mechanisms and impacts of a number of coherent themes,
functions and scales, and to translate this in terms of Pressure, State,
Impact and Response (P-S-I-R approach). This is more in line with the
universal principle of approaching environmentally related problems, which
assumes that many of those problems are generic in
nature.