| Abstrakt: |
One of the conclusions from the previous chapters in this volume is that enormous progress has been made over the past decade in land-cover and land-use change research. The community has made great strides in implementing the original research agendas that have been described in international, national, and agency plans (Liverman et al., 1993; Turner et al., 1993; Turner et al., 1995; Janetos et al., 1996; IGBP 1999; Lambin et al., 1999). But one could also conclude that the original motivations for the rapid development of research into land-cover and land-use change have yet to be fully realized. The original vision was to understand the end-to-end sequence of land cover and land use changes, integrating changes that are driven by natural variability with those driven by human decisions, measuring the actual changes on the landscape, and evaluating both the ecological and socioeconomic consequences for humans (Janetos et al., 1996). Moreover, the international and national programs have emphasized the need to develop models of the various processes involved, with the ultimate goal of developing integrated models that can simulate the important processes and consequences for particular landscapes or societies (Liverman et al., 1993; Turner et al., 1993; Turner et al., 1995; Janetos et al., 1996; IGBP 1999; Lambin et al., 1999). The goal of this chapter is to present the major research challenges that have not yet been met, but that still will be required to achieve the ultimate goals. The chapter will address both theoretical and empirical issues, and will further address some of the methodological needs that future studies will have. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
