Working Groups

GLP’s Working Groups aim to advance specific research questions and / or synthesis activities in alignment with GLP’s science priorities and to generate actionable knowledge in support of sustainability transformations in land systems. GLP Working Groups are comprised of, and led by members of the GLP and can additionally serve as convening space for collaboration with related / adjacent science and knowledge communities. By collaborating and sharing  knowledge, resources, and other capabilities via the working group, members create collective value, advance land system science and support solutions to pressing global challenges.

 

The main goal of this Working Group is to understand better the patterns, underlying causes, and implications of land abandonment in the connection to sustainable land use. 

Archetypes depict representative patterns, i.e. similarities and differences, in socio-ecological interactions. With this generalisation, archetype analysis supports the scaling and transfer of knowledge from one place to another in a systematic way. The underlying assumption of this Working Group is that similarities in social-ecological conditions link to similarities in sustainability interventions.

This Working Group supports the development of the next generation of large-scale land-use models that are based on human behaviour, agency and decision-making processes. The purpose of this approach is to explore a wide range of key research and policy questions at the nexus of food, ecosystems, water, climate and energy.

Co-design is the joint formulation of research questions, objectives and methods involving science and society. This Working Group fosters the adoption and multiplication of co-production of social-ecological knowledge within the GLP community and beyond.

The purpose of this Working Group is to understand the dynamics, structure, functions and services of dryland SES, which is critical for addressing the vulnerability, resilience, livelihoods and sustainability of humans in the context of SDGs.

The majority of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Urbanization is a complex process that involves social and economic change with significant human-environment interactions. This Working Group brings together scientists with a research focus on urban and/or rural land systems, in order to further integrate urbanization into land system science.

This Working Group provides a platform and supports land system science by using latest findings in the land use/cover mapping field in the context of remotely sensed big data and to close the gap between land system science and remote sensing.

The primary goal of this Working Group is to gather together a critical mass of interested  land system scientists to examine the multiple facets of remittance dynamics and change in land  systems throughout the world.

Early research on shifting cultivation analysed how these systems function whereas recent research moved towards how rapid land use transitions in current and former shifting cultivation areas affect people and environment. Its impact on ecosystem services as well as human well-being are increasingly debated. The purpose of this working group is to bring together researchers and practitioners from all disciplines working with shifting cultivation and the land use systems that replace it.

Socio-Ecological Land Systems include different processes and contexts that enable integrating the socio-ecological aspects of territories with regional land-uses. The interdisciplinary members of this group integrate their expertise and territorial knowledge into understanding the intertwined relations between land-use patterns and their associated socio-ecological systems (and vice versa) of Latin America.

Telecoupling as framework supports a better understanding of how global interconnectivity – or telecoupling – shapes the pressure on land in various places, the spatially distributed trade-offs between different land uses and the implications for social and environmental sustainability is therefore a key challenge and priority area of investigation for Land System Science.