title: The emergence of land change science for global environmental change and sustainability.
abstract: Land change science has emerged as a fundamental component of global environmental change and sustainability research. This interdisciplinary field seeks to understand the dynamics of land cover and land use as a coupled human-environment system to address theory, concepts, models, and applications relevant to environmental and societal problems, including the intersection of the two. The major components and advances in land change are addressed: observation and monitoring; understanding the coupled system-causes, impacts, and consequences; modeling; and synthesis issues. The six articles of the special feature are introduced and situated within these components of study.
authors: Graduate School of Geography and Marsh Institute, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610, USA. bturner@clarku.edu
authors: B L
authors: BL
authors: Turner
authors: Eric F
authors: EF
authors: Lambin
authors: Anette
authors: A
authors: Reenberg
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D004779:Environment Design; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012586:Science