Developing Tools for Interdisciplinary Research: Physical and Social Science Perspectives on the Use of Rural Catchments

• Start date: 01 October 2004
• End date: 31 March 2005

This research aims to develop an interdisciplinary framework to support understanding of the link between human behaviour and the natural environment. This will be done using the River Esk in Yorkshire as a case study. The research will investigate the attitudes of different groups of people involved in the river and its surrounds.  The rights, use and management practices of different groups will be explored together with the ways in which information is communicated between different groups. The points at which these different human activities are related to the physical landscape will be recorded. The aim is to produce a much more detailed understanding of the relationships between human beings and the rural environment and to develop better research methods for exploring these links.  In this way it is hoped to develop a more solid foundation on which to build rural policy.