EXPECTATION

A. Content Standards
The learners demonstrate an understanding of the key concepts and approaches in the
Social Sciences.

B. Performance Standards
The learners shall be able to:
 Interpret personal and social experiences using relevant approaches in the Social
Sciences and;
 Evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the approach

C. Most Essential Learning Competency

 Analyze the basic concepts and principles of human-environment systems
 Apply the idea of human-environment systems and its importance in examining
socio-cultural, economic, and political conditions.
1. Learning Objectives:
At the end of the module, the students will be able to:
 Define human-environment systems
 Relate the Nash Equilibrium Rational Choice theory
 Discuss the importance of human-environment systems to humans and
society.

PRE-TEST

A. Write “True” if the statement is true and write “False” if the statement is false.
______________1. Drivers art the part of DPSIR model that pertains to the needs that drives
human activities
______________2. The DPSIR Model is a chain of causal links from what drives humans to
act that alters the environment up to making responses in order to solve
the problems brought by human actions.
______________3. Adaptive human-environment system believes that humans are
influenced by environment and vice versa.
______________4. One reason why societies collapse is because even when problems are
identified people still do not succeed.
______________5. Creeping normalcy refers to such fast trends concealed within silent
fluctuations.

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______________6. Loss of natural water systems and the problem of gradual growth of illegal
settling around Metro Manila is an example of landscape amnesia.
______________7. Climate change and global warming took a form of slow trend concealed
by wide up-and-down fluctuations.
______________8. Coupled or nonlinear human-environment system is capable of exhibiting
complex dynamic relationships.
______________9. Response in the DPSIR Model only targets the impacts.

______________10. Societies collapse due to the failures of group decision-making on the

part of whole societies or certain groups” which is related to the “problem
of failures of individual decision-making”.

LOOKING BACK

A. What is the difference and similarities between phenomenology and hermeneutic

phenomenology?

Hermeneutic
Phenomenology
Phenomenology

INTRODUCTION OF THE LESSON

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS

Introduction

Human-Environment Systems is the combination of both human and natural

components that show interactions and reactions between them. The DPSIR model (drivers,
pressures, state, impact, response) is the internationally accepted causal framework for
describing the interactions between the society and the environment. This framework
recognizes that human activities places pressure on the environment and how these pressures
modify the current state of the physical environment which eventually leads to impacts on the
environment including the impacts on the social and economic systems. In response, human
society tries to solve the problems in order to remove, reduce or prevent the drivers and
pressures to restore the environment and reduce the impacts.

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 Table 1
DPSIR Model
Meaning
Driving force is basically a need
Drivers categorized as socio-economic and socio-
cultural forces that drives human activities,
These are the pressures or changes to the
Pressures environment caused by the drivers or
human activities.
The existing condition of the environment
State
during or after humans apply the pressures
The effect of physical, chemical or
biological state of the environment to nature
Impact
itself, and the social and economic
systems.
The actions of humans to reduce, remove
or prevent the drivers and pressures,
Response
restore the healthy state of the environment
and mitigate the impacts.
Examples
economic growth, tourism,
agriculture, industries, transport,
urbanization, etc.
Excessive use of environmental
resources; changes in land use;
emissions to air water and soil.
These includes production of waste,
noise, radiation, vibration and risks
The quality of water, soil, air, habitat,
vegetation, ecosystem and health of
humans.
Public health, habitat destruction,
economic crisis, biodiversity loss
Taxes, environmental laws, clean
energy, information

The DPSIR framework is a chain of causal links starting with driving forces to satisfy
human needs which creates pressures on environment that eventually determine its state.
Such state impacts the ecosystems, human health and functions, eventually leading to political
response/s to provide a solution by creating policies focusing on each stage within this human-
environment interaction.
Figure 1: The DPSIR framework

Source: European Environment Agency

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Coupled or Nonlinear (Complex) Human-Environment Systems

The health of both humans and natural systems is dependent on the two-way interaction
between human actions and the environment: while environment is being influenced by what
humans do, our perceptions and behavior is influenced by the environment as well. This
condition forms a single, coupled nonlinear system. This system introduces that studying
humans should be coupled with the environment, and studying environment has to include its
coupling with humans primarily because humans impact the environment, and the environment
impacts humans.

Since these systems are coupled and nonlinear, they are capable of exhibiting complex
dynamics. The impacts happen in many different forms of interactions between humans and the
environment. To help us keep track of all these interactions, so to learn from them, it is
necessary to use a systems perspective. It means treating humans and the environment as
systems: the human system and the environmental system. More so, it is also possible to even
treat them as one combined human-environment system.

A system is a collection of components that interact with each other to form some
aggregated whole. For example, the Local Government Unit is a system because it has many
parts like the engineering office, office for the urban poor, health and sanitation, territory, and its
people to name a few. All these components interact with each other to form the local
governance unit. The coupled human-environment as a system assumes that the two is
interdependent.

Adaptive Human-Environment Systems

Aside from the complex and coupled human-environment systems, humans have the
ability to respond to environmental challenges in order to help restore its sustainability and this
is known as adaptive human-environment systems. This requires sustainable and equitable
solutions to address the interconnected challenges of protecting the health of the environment
and that of humans. The trade-offs between short-term and long-term solutions for resource
consumption and sustainability requires the analysis of the interconnections of environmental,
social, epidemiological, and political systems.

Why Societies Collapse?

The failure to address the challenges poses by coupled human-environment systems

may lead to the collapse of the existing society. According to Diamond (2005), the phenomenon
that causes societies’ collapse is attributed to the “failures of group decision-making on the part
of whole societies or certain groups”. This problem is related to the “problem of failures of
individual decision-making”.

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 The factors contributing to failures of group decision-making happens at this sequence
of four categories: First of all, a group may fail to anticipate a problem before the problem
actually arrives; second, the problem does arrived but the group failed to perceive it; then, after
they perceive it, they may even fail to try to solve it; and finally, they may try to solve it but may
not succeed.

Reasons:
A. Why a group may fail to anticipate a problem before the problem actually arrives?
 There is no prior experience of such problems, therefore unaware of the possibility.
 There is prior experience but the experience happened so long ago and already
forgotten. This is a common problem for non-literate societies as they tend to have less
capacity to preserve written details of the past. However, modern literate societies tend
to forget things as well.
 Another is the reasoning by false analogy. When we are in an unfamiliar situation, we
fall back on drawing analogies with old familiar situations.

B. The problem arrived but the group failed to perceive it.

(This is most common in business world and in academia).
 First, the origins of some problems are literally unnoticeable.
For example, an asymptomatic person showing no signs of infection but is
already a disease carrier.
 Second is distant managers, a potential issue in any large society or business.
This means that the company executives who are making decisions may not
realize the problem because they are too far from the area they manage.
 Perhaps the most common reason is when the problem takes the form of a slow trend
concealed by wide up-and-down fluctuations.
One example is global warming or climate change. It is now proven that
temperatures around the world have been slowly rising in the past few decades.
However, the degree of warming of climate each year has not been exactly at
0.01 degree. Instead, as we all know, climate fluctuates up and down erratically
from year to year. With such large and unpredictable fluctuations, it has taken a
long time to determine the average upwards trend of 0.01 degree per year within
that noisy signal.
 "Creeping normalcy" refers to such slow trends concealed within noisy
fluctuations. The slow deterioration makes it difficult to recognize that each
successive year is on the average slightly worse than the year before, so
one's baseline standard for what constitutes "normalcy" shifts gradually and
imperceptibly.

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  Another term related to creeping normalcy is "landscape amnesia". That is
forgetting how different the surrounding landscape looked 50 years ago,
because the change from year to year has been minimal, and gradual.

C. After they perceive the problem, societies often fail even to attempt to solve it.
 Many failures were caused by the clashes of interest between people or what the
economists says “rational behavior”.
Some people may reason correctly to advance their interests but results harms to
others. One example is selling overpriced health equipment because there might
be no law yet prohibiting such or the law is not strictly enforced.
 The perpetrators feel safe because they can reap big, certain and immediate profits,
while the losses are spread over large numbers of individuals.
The losers are less motivated to fight back because the losses are too small. For
example: NGO’s are lobbying for funding for their ghost projects while the
citizens do not care because the loss from every citizen is very minimal like a few
pesos or cents.

D. Even after a society has anticipated, perceived, or tried to solve a problem, they may not
even succeed.
 The problem may be beyond the present capacities of the society to solve it.
 A solution may exist but is prohibitively expensive
 Our efforts may be too little and too late.

ACTIVITY

A. Identification
1. Refers to such slow trends concealed within noisy fluctuations.
2. That is forgetting how different the surrounding landscape looked 50 years ago,
because the change from year to year has been minimal, and gradual.
3. Treating humans and the environment as systems to help us keep track all of the
interactions between the two.
4. It is the combination of both human and natural components that show interactions
and reactions between them.
5. This system introduces that studying humans should be coupled with the environment,
and studying environment has to include its coupling with humans.

B. Using the actual situation of your community, give one example per each part of the
DPSIR Model. The answers must be a continuation of the previous answer.

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 For example, the housing project near the river (driver), has caused polluted water
(pressures), its water is totally black, pungent, and lifeless (State). This state caused
health risks (impact) so the LGU launched the “save the ilog program” (response).

DPSIR Model
Framework Answers
Drivers Use the Answer Sheet
Pressures Use the Answer Sheet
State Use the Answer Sheet
Impact Use the Answer Sheet
Response Use the Answer Sheet

C. Each student should analyze each question and write the answer on a piece of paper.
After that, the teacher will then group the class into 5 groups. The students shall share
his/her answer to the rest of the group mates to make the best answer. 1 representative
per group shall be the group speaker.

1. What is the importance of adaptive human-environment systems in policy making?

2. Why there are instances of bad decisions being done over and over again?

D. Cite real examples or actual situations in the past that support the factors that
contributes to the failure of group decision-making. You may use different events for
each factor.
1. A group may fail to anticipate a problem before the problem actually arrives.
2. The problem arrived but the group failed to perceive it.
3. After they perceive the problem, they may fail even to try to solve it.
4. They may try to solve the problem but may not succeed.

REMEMBER

Human-Environment Systems is the interactions and reactions between human and

natural components. These interactions are best described by the internationally accepted
framework, the DPSIR model. The coupled or nonlinear human environment systems considers
that humans and environment interactions belongs to a single system which affect one another
and is capable of exhibiting complex dynamics. Adaptive human-environment systems on the
hand believe that humans have the capacity to restore the health of the environment by means
of analyzing consumption and sustainable plans. Failure to maintain the health of environment
may lead to the collapse of society which can be caused by not anticipating the problem before
it arrives, by not perceiving the problem that has already arrived, by not solving what has been
perceived, or may not succeed of solving it at all.

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 CHECKING YOUR UNDERSTANDING

1. How important is the DPSIR model in addressing specific problems before it could pose
harm to humans?
2. What is the significance of Human-Environment Systems in the economy and national
development?

POST TEST

A. Write the letter of the correct answer on the answer sheet provided at the end of this module
1. It is the actions of human to reduce, remove or prevent the destruction of environment
a. drivers b. Pressures c. Impact d. Response
2. It is the treating of humans and environment as a system
a. Adaptive Human-Environment Systems c. Coupled Human-Environment Systems
b. Human-Environment systems d. Systems Perspective
3. Which one is example of a Driver in DPSIR model?
a. Biodiversity b. Industrialization c. Legislation d. Pollution
4. Which among the statements is a reason why a group may fail to anticipate a problem
before it actually arrives?
a. Chinese in Philippine waters is a threat but we need to let them so we could loan.
b. Legislators create laws but they have no direct experience on the existing problems.
c. Philippines is a tropical country so viruses like the previous ones can’t survive in here
d. We have the scientists to solve CoViD19 but we lack the financial support to fund them.
5. It is the analysis of the interconnections of environmental, social, epidemiological, and
political systems for resource sustainability and consumption.
a. Adaptive Human-Environment Systems c. Coupled Human-Environment Systems
b. Human-Environment systems d. Systems Perspective
6. Which one is an example of inability of a society to succeed even when the problem was
already anticipated, perceived or tried with solutions?
a. The country has not experienced pandemic before so its policies are all messed up.
b. We reason that throwing garbage everywhere is alright so long as it is biodegradable.
c. We warned the public about a pandemic, but still let foreigners come and roam around.
d. A government project was overpriced because the public is unaware of the transactions.
7. “The problem may be beyond the present capacities of the society to solve it” is an
example of which reason why society did collapse?
a. A group may fail to anticipate a problem before the problem actually arrives
b. The problem does arrived but the group failed to perceive it
c. The problem is perceived, but they fail to try to solve it

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 d. They may try to solve it but may not succeed.
8. What is the internationally accepted causal framework for describing the interactions
between the society and the environment?
a. Adaptive Human-Environment Systems b. Coupled Human-Environment Model
b. DPSIR model d. Non-linear Human-Environment Framework
9. Which one is the best example of pressure to environment?
a. Agriculture b. Emissions c. Extinction d. Taxes
10. Which among the choices is an example of impact to environment?
a. Air pollution b. ecological imbalance c. housing projects d. Laws

REFERENCES

Anand, M., Bauch, C.T., Galvani, A.P., Levin S.A., & Singer, B.H. (2016), Human–environment
interactions in population and ecosystem health. PNAS. Volume 113, No.51.
doi/10.1073/pnas.1618138113

Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York, Penguin
Group. ISBN: 0-670-03337-5

GeogSpace. (2013). Environment and Society in a Changing World. Education Services

Australia. Retrieved from https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog30/node/325

EEA. (1997). Air Pollution in Europe 1997. European Environment Agency. Copenhagen. ISBN:
92-9167-059-6

Kristensen, P. (2004). The DPSIR Framework. Nairobi. EEA.

Waterloo. Coupled Human-Environment Systems Theory. Retrieved from

https://uwaterloo.ca/complexity-innovation/research-groups-and-tools/coupled-human-
environment-systems-theory

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ANSWER SHEET FOR DISS Q2 Week 5
Name: __________________________________
Grade & Section: __________________________________
A. Identification
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B. DPSIR Model

Framework Answers:

Drivers

Pressures

State

Impact

Response

C. Group Activity
1. What is the importance of adaptive human-environment systems in policy making?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2. Why there are instances of bad decisions being done over and over again?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

D. Real examples or actual situations in the past about the following: (may be different events)
1. A group may fail to anticipate a problem before the problem actually arrives.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

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 ______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
2. The problem arrived but the group failed to perceive it.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
3. After they perceive the problem, they may fail even to try to solve it.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. They may try to solve the problem but may not succeed.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

Checking Your Understanding

A. How important is the DPSIR model in addressing specific problems before it could pose
harm to humans?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
What is the significance of Human-Environment Systems in the economy and national
development?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

Post Test
1. 6.
2. 7.
3. 8.
4. 9.
5. 10.

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