Land Change Science/Land System Science

Land change science (LCS), now internationally relabeled land system science (LSS), is a transdisciplinary field of study that seeks to observe, monitor, explain, and model land covers and uses and their changes. Spawned by research on global environmental change, LCS/LSS has morphed into international research efforts addressing sustainability. Land cover refers to the biophysical condition (e.g., forest, grassland, and paved surface) of some portion of the terrestrial surface of the Earth, and land use is the human intent or activity associated with that condition (e.g., reserve, pasture, and settlement). Detecting and monitoring changes in land cover, largely from satellite information, LCS/LSS examines the societal structures and individual behavior that determine land uses, the impacts of those uses on the structure and function of the biophysical subsystem, and the environment feedbacks, foremost environmental (or ecosystem) services, from that subsystem to land uses and the human subsystem. It treats land uses and covers individually or in aggregation (land mosaics) as social–environmental (or –ecological) systems in order to provide insights about processes and outcomes of the interactions between the two subsystems, including questions about their resilience, vulnerability, and sustainability. LCS/LSS integrates the spatial and human–environmental sciences within and beyond geography.