Journal of Land Use Science 

About: Journal of Land Use Science is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Land use & Land use, land-use change and forestry. It has an ISSN identifier of 1747-423X. Over the lifetime, 427 publications have been published receiving 9531 citations. The journal is also known as: Land use science.

Comparison of empirical methods for building agent-based models in land use science

Abstract: The use of agent-based models (ABMs) for investigating land-use science questions has been increasing dramatically over the last decade. Modelers have moved from ‘proofs of existence’ toy models to case-specific, multi-scaled, multi-actor, and data-intensive models of land-use and land-cover change. An international workshop, titled ‘Multi-Agent Modeling and Collaborative Planning—Method2Method Workshop’, was held in Bonn in 2005 in order to bring together researchers using different data collection approaches to informing agent-based models. Participants identified a typology of five approaches to empirically inform ABMs for land use science: sample surveys, participant observation, field and laboratory experiments, companion modeling, and GIS and remotely sensed data. This paper reviews these five approaches to informing ABMs, provides a corresponding case study describing the model usage of these approaches, the types of data each approach produces, the types of questions those data can answer, and an ...

A comprehensive global 5 min resolution land-use data set for the year 2000 consistent with national census data

Abstract: This article presents a medium resolution land use data set (5 arc min, c. 10 × 10 km) for the year 2000 that reproduces national land use statistics for cropland and forestry at the country level. We distinguish five land use classes displayed as percent-per-gridcell layers: cropland, grazing, forestry, urban and infrastructure areas, and areas without land use. For each gridcell, the sum of these five layers is 100%; that is, the Earth's total land area is allocated to these five classes. Spatial patterns are derived from available thematic maps and reconciled with national extents from census data. Statistical comparisons of the resulting maps with MODIS and CORINE data demonstrate the reliability of our data set; remaining discrepancies can be largely explained by the conceptual difference between land use and land cover. The data set presented here is aimed to support the systematic integration of socio-economic and ecological data in integrated analyses of the coupled global land system. The data se...

Approaches and terminology for causal analysis in land systems science

Abstract: Research into land and social-ecological systems science could benefit from improved clarity in the terminology used for causal analysis and a structured way to make causal inferences. Here I identify two aspects of causality, i.e. causal effects and causal mechanisms, and discuss explanation in historical sciences. I then propose definitions for the major terms used for causal relations, including driver, (spatial) determinant, location and contextual factor, proximate and underlying factors. Finally, I discuss the contribution of various operational approaches, including time series and counterfactual approaches for assessing causal effects and process-tracing approaches for establishing causal mechanisms. Having a coherent concept of causality, agreeing on a precise vocabulary and harnessing our tools with the clear purpose of establishing both causal effects and causal mechanisms should strengthen causal explanations for single cases, for drawing policy-relevant lessons and for theoretical dev...

Lost in transition: determinants of post-socialist cropland abandonment in Romania

Abstract: The transition from command to market-oriented economies drastically affected land ownership and land management in Eastern Europe and resulted in widespread cropland abandonment. To examine these phenomena, we analysed the causes of post-socialist cropland abandonment in Arges County in southern Romania between 1990 and 2005. Based on Landsat-derived maps of cropland use and a suite of environmental and socioeconomic variables hypothesized to drive cropland abandonment, we estimated spatially explicit logistic regression models for two periods (1990–1995 and 1995–2005) and three elevation groups. Our results showed that isolated cropland patches were more likely to become abandoned than more homogenous cropland areas. Unfavorable topography was an important determinant of abandonment in the plain and, to a lesser extent, hilly areas, but not in the mountains where locations with adverse market access and higher farm fragmentation exhibited higher likelihoods of cropland abandonment.

From teleconnection to telecoupling: taking stock of an emerging framework in land system science

Abstract: Land use change is influenced by a complexity of drivers that transcend spatial, institutional and temporal scales. The analytical framework of telecoupling has recently been proposed in land system science to address this complexity, particularly the increasing importance of distal connections, flows and feedbacks characterising change in land systems. This framework holds important potential for advancing the analysis of land system change. In this article, we review the state of the art of the telecoupling framework in the land system science literature. The article traces the development of the framework from teleconnection to telecoupling and presents two approaches to telecoupling analysis currently proposed in the literature. Subsequently, we discuss a number of analytical challenges related to categorisation of systems, system boundaries, hierarchy and scale. Finally, we propose approaches to address these challenges by looking beyond land system science to theoretical perspectives from economic g...