The Future Research Challenge: the Global Land Project

The Global Land Project (GLP) represents the joint, land-based research agenda of two major global change science programmes:

(i)

the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), which originally focused mainly on biophysical processes in the Earth System through its Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) core project, and

(ii)

the International Human Dimensions Programme through its core project on Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC). The focus of the new project includes people, biota, and other natural resources (air, water, and soil). The strategy presented here critically emphasizes changes in the coupled human and environmental system, which is an extension of the ecosystem concept to explicitly include human actions and decision-making. The research planning builds upon the extensive heritage of global change research including the research discussed in the other chapters in this volume. The Global Land Project is designed to promote greater integration of social and biophysical sciences to meet the current challenges to coping and adapting to global change impacts the world is facing today and the near future. The sustainability of the coupled human-environment system and of ecosystem services is highly vulnerable to global change impacts as we move toward Earth System dynamics not yet faced by our societies.