In the effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food, health, water, and climate, an increase in pressure on land is highly likely. To avoid further land degradation and promote land restoration, multifunctional use of land is needed within the boundaries of the soil-water system. In addition, awareness-raising, a change in stakeholders’ attitudes, and a change in economics are essential. The attainment of a balance between the economy, society, and the biosphere calls for a holistic approach. In this paper, we introduce four concepts that we consider to be conducive to realizing LDN in a more integrated way: systems thinking, connectivity, nature-based solutions, and regenerative economics. We illustrate the application of these concepts through three examples in agricultural settings. Systems thinking lies at the base of the three others, stressing feedback loops but also delayed responses. Their simultaneous use will result in more robust solutions, which are sustainable from an environmental, societal, and economic point of view. Solutions also need to take into account the level of scale (global, national, regional, local), stakeholders’ interests and culture, and the availability and boundaries of financial and natural capital. Furthermore, sustainable solutions need to embed short-term management in long-term landscape planning. In conclusion, paradigm shifts are needed. First, it is necessary to move from excessive exploitation in combination with environmental protection, to sustainable use and management of the soil-water system. To accomplish this, new business models in robust economic systems are needed based on environmental systems thinking; an approach that integrates environmental, social, and economic interests. Second, it is necessary to shift from a “system follows function” approach towards a “function follows system” one. Only by making the transition towards integrated solutions based on a socio-economical-ecological systems analysis, using concepts such as nature-based solutions, do we stand a chance to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030. To make these paradigm shifts, awareness-raising in relation to a different type of governance, economy and landscape and land-use planning and management is needed.
Changes in land systems generate many sustainability challenges. Identifying more sustainable land-use alternatives requires solid theoretical foundations on the causes of land-use/cover changes. Land system science is a maturing field that has produced a wealth of methodological innovations and empirical observations on land-cover and land-use change, from patterns and processes to causes. We take stock of this knowledge by reviewing and synthesizing the theories that explain the causal mechanisms of land-use change, including systemic linkages between distant land-use changes, with a focus on agriculture and forestry processes. We first review theories explaining changes in land-use extent, such as agricultural expansion, deforestation, frontier development, and land abandonment, and changes in land-use intensity, such as agricultural intensification and disintensification. We then synthesize theories of higher-level land system change processes, focusing on: (i) land-use spillovers, including land sparing and rebound effects with intensification, leakage, indirect land-use change, and land-use displacement, and (ii) land-use transitions, defined as structural non-linear changes in land systems, including forest transitions. Theories focusing on the causes of land system changes span theoretically and epistemologically disparate knowledge domains and build from deductive, abductive, and inductive approaches. A grand, integrated theory of land system change remains elusive. Yet, we show that middle-range theories – defined here as contextual generalizations that describe chains of causal mechanisms explaining a well-bounded range of phenomena, as well as the conditions that trigger, enable, or prevent these causal chains –, provide a path towards generalized knowledge of land systems. This knowledge can support progress towards sustainable social-ecological systems.
Urban agriculture offers an alternative land use for integrating multiple functions in densely populated areas. While urban agriculture has historically been an important element of cities in many developing countries, recent concerns about economic and food security have resulted in a growing movement to produce food in cities of developed countries including the United States. In these regions, urban agriculture offers a new frontier for land use planners and landscape designers to become involved in the development and transformation of cities to support community farms, allotment gardens, rooftop gardening, edible landscaping, urban forests, and other productive features of the urban environment. Despite the growing interest in urban agriculture, urban planners and landscape designers are often ill-equipped to integrate food-systems thinking into future plans for cities. The challenge (and opportunity) is to design urban agriculture spaces to be multifunctional, matching the specific needs and preferences of local residents, while also protecting the environment. This paper provides a review of the literature on urban agriculture as it applies to land use planning in the United States. The background includes a brief historical perspective of urban agriculture around the world, as well as more recent examples in the United States. Land use applications are considered for multiple scales, from efforts that consider an entire city, to those that impact a single building or garden. Barriers and constraints to urban agriculture are discussed, followed by research opportunities and methodological approaches that might be used to address them. This work has implications for urban planners, landscape designers, and extension agents, as opportunities to integrate urban agriculture into the fabric of our cities expand.
Este estudo analisa a produção de biodiesel em Mato Grosso entre 2006 e 2024, com foco nos fatores econômicos e produtivos que sustentam o monopólio da soja como principal matéria-prima. A pesquisa se se justifica pela relevância do estado como maior produtor de soja do Brasil e pela necessidade de diversificar a matriz agroenergética, mitigando riscos econômicos e ambientais associados à dependência de uma única fonte. O Trabalho adota uma abordagem mista, com análise quantitativa fundamentada em regressão linear múltipla e métodos econométricos, como testes de multicolinearidade, heterocedasticidade e autocorrelação, além de análise qualitativa para contextualizar os achados. Os resultados indicaram que o custo de produção da soja e o aumento dos percentuais de biodiesel têm correlação positiva e significativa com a produção de biodiesel, refletindo maior eficiência produtiva e políticas públicas favoráveis. Por outro lado, o preço da saca de soja apresentou correlação negativa, sugerindo que o aumento nos custos da matéria-prima o que desestimula sua utilização. Concluiu-se que a dependência da soja como matéria-prima está profundamente enraizada em fatores econômicos e estruturais, mas estratégias de diversificação e inovação são essenciais para aumentar a resiliência e sustentabilidade do setor de biodiesel em Mato Grosso.
Abstract. The effects of future land use and land cover change on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and air quality are largely unknown. To investigate the potential effects associated with future changes in vegetation driven by atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, climate, and anthropogenic land use over the 21st century, we performed a series of model experiments combining a general circulation model with a dynamic global vegetation model and an atmospheric chemical-transport model. Our results indicate that climate- and CO 2 -induced changes in vegetation composition and density between 2100 and 2000 could lead to decreases in summer afternoon surface ozone of up to 10 ppb over large areas of the northern mid-latitudes. This is largely driven by the substantial increases in ozone dry deposition associated with increases in vegetation density in a warmer climate with higher atmospheric CO 2 abundance. Climate-driven vegetation changes over the period 2000–2100 lead to general increases in isoprene emissions, globally by 15% in 2050 and 36% in 2100. These increases in isoprene emissions result in decreases in surface ozone concentrations where the NO x levels are low, such as in remote tropical rainforests. However, over polluted regions, such as the northeastern United States, ozone concentrations are calculated to increase with higher isoprene emissions in the future. Increases in biogenic emissions also lead to higher concentrations of secondary organic aerosols, which increase globally by 10% in 2050 and 20% in 2100. Summertime surface concentrations of secondary organic aerosols are calculated to increase by up to 1 μg m −3 and double for large areas in Eurasia over the period of 2000–2100. When we use a scenario of future anthropogenic land use change, we find less increase in global isoprene emissions due to replacement of higher-emitting forests by lower-emitting cropland. The global atmospheric burden of secondary organic aerosols changes little by 2100 when we account for future land use change, but both secondary organic aerosols and ozone show large regional changes at the surface.
Groundwater recharge in mountain-front areas is a critical yet poorly constrained component of the water cycle in semiarid regions, particularly where traditional irrigation practices dominate. This study investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of recharge induced by gravity-fed irrigation in the mountain-front of the Moroccan High Atlas, a key recharge zone for the Haouz aquifer. A simplified water balance approach, corrected for groundwater-based evapotranspiration, was applied to a 20-year dataset of irrigation diversions and remotely sensed evapotranspiration (MOD16A2), and validated against recharge estimates from the water table fluctuation (WTF) method. Results show strong spatial disparities, with upstream zones receiving disproportionately higher water allocations due to ancestral water rights, sustaining potential recharge in ∼90 % of months, while midstream and downstream zones consistently faced deficits. Despite local recharge events linked to flood years, statistically significant declining trends in recharge were observed across all zones, reflecting both reduced streamflow and intensified groundwater abstraction. Sensitivity tests revealed that neglecting rainfall and ΔS introduces only modest biases (≤12 % in upstream, ≤24 % in midstream zones), confirming the dominance of irrigation as the primary recharge driver. Potential recharge estimates aligned closely with WTF-derived values (differences of 5–14 %), further attesting to the reliability of the approach. These findings highlight the vulnerability of traditional irrigation systems under climate and human pressures and emphasize the urgent need for integrated water management strategies that safeguard ancestral irrigation practices while promoting adaptive measures such as managed aquifer recharge and climate-smart agriculture.
Cassia B. Caballero, Trent W. Biggs, Noemi Vergopolan
et al.
Abstract The Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, experienced unusual drying in 2000–2021, but the causes are poorly understood. Combining remotely sensed data of wetland extent and land cover with observed water level discharge and meteorological data, we quantify the relative contributions of climate and land use to changes in Pantanal wetland extent. Climate variability drove 96% of the runoff changes over four major hydroclimate regimes, including two wet (1951–1964; 1976–2000) and two dry (1965–1975; 2001–2021) periods. Reduced precipitation, runoff, and wetland shrinkage observed in 2001–2021 resembled the previous dry period (1965–1975), indicating decadal climatic variability. However, the higher aridity index in the recent period exacerbated the duration of the drought, and the rainfall-runoff relationship shifted over time, with more runoff for a given rainfall amount in recent periods. Wetland area is highly sensitive to climate variability, contracting to 25% of the maximum during dry years. Future warming and reduced rainfall will likely continue the recent drying trend, further reducing runoff, wetland area, and the Pantanal biodiversity.
Junhao Wu, Aboagye-Ntow Stephen, Chuyuan Wang
et al.
Ultra-high Spatial Resolution (UHSR) Land Cover Classification is increasingly important for urban analysis, enabling fine-scale planning, ecological monitoring, and infrastructure management. It identifies land cover types on sub-meter remote sensing imagery, capturing details such as building outlines, road networks, and distinct boundaries. However, most existing methods focus on 1 m imagery and rely heavily on large-scale annotations, while UHSR data remain scarce and difficult to annotate, limiting practical applicability. To address these challenges, we introduce Baltimore Atlas, a UHSR land cover classification framework that reduces reliance on large-scale training data and delivers high-accuracy results. Baltimore Atlas builds on three key ideas: (1) Baltimore Atlas Dataset, a 0.3 m resolution dataset based on aerial imagery of Baltimore City; (2) FreqWeaver Adapter, a parameter-efficient adapter that transfers SAM2 to this domain, leveraging foundation model knowledge to reduce training data needs while enabling fine-grained detail and structural modeling; (3) Uncertainty-Aware Teacher Student Framework, a semi-supervised framework that exploits unlabeled data to further reduce training dependence and improve generalization across diverse scenes. Using only 5.96% of total model parameters, our approach achieves a 1.78% IoU improvement over existing parameter-efficient tuning strategies and a 3.44% IoU gain compared to state-of-the-art high-resolution remote sensing segmentation methods on the Baltimore Atlas Dataset.