title: Urban land teleconnections and sustainability.
abstract: This paper introduces urban land teleconnections as a conceptual framework that explicitly links land changes to underlying urbanization dynamics. We illustrate how three key themes that are currently addressed separately in the urban sustainability and land change literatures can lead to incorrect conclusions and misleading results when they are not examined jointly: the traditional system of land classification that is based on discrete categories and reinforces the false idea of a rural-urban dichotomy; the spatial quantification of land change that is based on place-based relationships, ignoring the connections between distant places, especially between urban functions and rural land uses; and the implicit assumptions about path dependency and sequential land changes that underlie current conceptualizations of land transitions. We then examine several environmental "grand challenges" and discuss how urban land teleconnections could help research communities frame scientific inquiries. Finally, we point to existing analytical approaches that can be used to advance development and application of the concept.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. karen.seto@yale.edu
authors.forename: Karen C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Anette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reenberg
authors.forename: Christopher G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Boone
authors.forename: Michail
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fragkias
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haase
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Langanke
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Marcotullio
authors.forename: Darla K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Munroe
authors.forename: Branislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olah
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simon
mesh_terms: D002980:Climate; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D014506:Urban Renewal / Q000379:methods*; D014507:Urbanization