The distribution and re-distribution of people across the landscape has
signi cant implications for ecological, economic and social dynamics.
Movement of people to urban centres (mostly from rural landscapes,
especially in the developing world) is a major global phenomenon. This
can result in the de-population of rural landscapes. Conversely,
population growth and a changing demographic pro le have been id- ti ed
for particular rural landscapes with notable examples from North
America, Europe and Australia. Yet we know little of the factors that
drive demographic changes in rural landscapes and even less about the
implications of these changes. This book examines broad and local-scale
patterns of demographic change in rural landscapes, identi es some of
the drivers of these changes using Australian case studies or
comparisons between Australian and international contexts, and outlines
the implications of changes for society and the environment. This book
makes a valuable contribution to the literature because it adopts an
integrated and interdisciplinary approach by explicitly linking
demographic change with environmental, land-use, social and economic
factors. This integrated approach was achieved by encouraging
interaction among authors writing on similar topics to ensure coherency
and complementarity among chapters, and cross-pollination of ideas and
perspectives. Chapters are presented as interactive and re ective d-
cussions that address the ndings of other contributors; yet, each
chapter contains enough background to stand alone as a unique
contribution.
