Total human ecosystem (THE) is anecocentric concept initially proposed byecology professors Zeev Naveh and Arthur S. Lieberman in 1994.[1]
Naveh and Lieberman[1] proposed aholistic, ecocentric concept of the total human ecosystem in order to studyanthropocene ecology and improve land use planning and environmental management within an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. In Naveh's words, the total human ecosystem is "the highestco-evolutionary ecological entity on earth with landscapes as its concrete three-dimensional ‘Gestalt’ systems, forming the spatial and functional matrix for all organisms".[2] This concept (or meta-concept) integrates human systems (the technosphere, but also in the conceptual space of humannoosphere) and natural systems (thegeophysical eco-space of theEarthbiosphere).[2]
Zev Naveh (1919-2011), the major contributor to this concept, was a professor in landscape ecology at the Technion,Israel Institute of Technology,Haifa. 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 and dynamic conservation management, and the introduction ofdrought resistant plants for multi-beneficial landscape restoration and beautification.[3]
Almo Farina, who also developed the concept from 2000 onwards, is also a professor of ecology at theUrbino University, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, inItaly.
The interaction and co-evolution of the human and naturalecosystem interactions are the driving forces for the currentEarth system. The total human ecosystem meta-conceptional approach aims to integrate the bio-and geo-centric approaches, derived from thenatural sciences, and the approaches derived from thesocial sciences and thehumanities in order to prevent furtherenvironmental degradation and drive natural and human systems towards a sustainable future.
A natural ecosystem within this concept issolar energy powered,self-organizing andself-creating. The human ecosystem isfossil 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 anecotope and the system of ecotopes is thelandscape: natural, semi-natural, urban-industrial are the tangible, three-dimensional physical systems. These form the total human ecosystem. The total human ecosystem also consists of the domain of information, perceptions (in landscape ecology this is the ecofield concept),[4][5] 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[4] in which the relationships between human activity (as an effective, ecology-based, land or sea stewardship) have created ecological, socioeconomic and culturalpatterns andfeedback mechanisms that preserve biological and cultural diversity and maintain or even improve the ecosystem'sresilience andresistance.