Evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural adaptation to climate change in preindustrial society

Qing PEI, David D. ZHANG, Harry F. LEE

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The effectiveness of agricultural adaptation determines the vulnerability of this sector to climate change, particularly during the preindustrial era. However, this effectiveness has rarely been quantitatively evaluated, specifically at a large spatial and long-term scale. The present study covers this case of preindustrial society in AD 1500–1800. Given the absence of technological innovations in this time frame, agricultural production was chiefly augmented by cultivating more land (land input) and increasing labor input per land unit (labor input). Accordingly, these two methods are quantitatively examined. Statistical results show that within the study scale, land input is a more effective approach of mitigating climatic impact than labor input. Nonetheless, these observations collectively improve Boserup's theory from the perspective of a large spatial and long-term scale. Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)85-98
JournalAsian Geographer
Volume32
Issue number2
Early online date20 Apr 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Citation

Pei, Q., Zhang, D. D., & Lee, H. F. (2015). Evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural adaptation to climate change in preindustrial society. Asian Geographer, 32(2), 85-98. doi: 10.1080/10225706.2015.1034735.

Keywords

  • Adaptation
  • Climate change
  • Labor input
  • Land input
  • Preindustrial society

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural adaptation to climate change in preindustrial society'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.