REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL FORCES: A PARADIGM FOR ASSESSMENT AND PREDICTION.

The sustainability of the development of the earth is tied to the impacts that the development produces over a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Since development of some sort will surely occur, it should be designed with attention to optimizing the development to impact relationship. Energy generation can be a significant forcing function in those impacts, as can other anthropogenic and natural activities and processes. Rather than examining the impacts of development one by one, it is preferable to look at the full spatial and temporal range of the ensemble of impacts produced by development of the biosphere over all regimes. The research reported here presents a paradigm for the assessment of the present influence of development activities on impacts, and for predictions of future influences.