PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Research priorities in land use and land-cover change for the Earth system and integrated assessment modelling

Article | 25-10-2010

This special issue has highlighted recent and innovative methods and results that integrate observations and modelling analyses of regional to global aspect of biophysical and biogeochemical interactions of land-cover change with the climate system. Both the Earth System and the Integrated Assessment modeling communities recognize the importance of an accurate representation of land use and land-cover change to understand and quantify the interactions and feedbacks with the climate and socio-economic systems, respectively.

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To date, cooperation between these communities has been limited. Based on common interests, this work discusses research priorities in representing land use and land-cover change for improved collaboration across modelling, observing and measurement communities. Major research topics in land use and land-cover change are those that help us better understand:

  1. the interaction of land use and land cover with the climate system (e.g. carbon cycle feedbacks),
  2. the provision of goods and ecosystem services by terrestrial (natural and anthropogenic) land-cover types (e.g. food production),
  3. land use and management decisions and
  4. opportunities and limitations for managing climate change (for both mitigation and adaptation strategies).
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Author(s)Hibbard, K., Janetos, A., van Vuuren, D. P., Pongratz, J., Rose, S. K., Betts, R., Herold, M. and Feddema, J. J.
Publication date25-10-2010
PublicationInternational Journal of Climatology, Volume 30, Issue 13, pages 2118–2128