Workers harvesting bananas for export to the Chinese market, Luang Namtha Province, Laos, February 2018. Photo: Cecilie Friis
Workers harvesting bananas for export to the Chinese market, Luang Namtha Province, Laos, February 2018. Photo: Cecilie Friis

Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems

Short Description

The telecoupling concept has been proposed to describe socio-economic and environmental interactions, flows and feedbacks over distance and across scales that cause change in otherwise separated land systems. As an analytical framework, the telecoupling framework brings together a systemic perspective on land-use change with flow- and network-oriented analytical approaches. As such, it is a clear and concrete response to the scientific and applied need for interdisciplinary exchange to tackle the challenges of global interconnectivity and (un)sustainability in land-use change.

Yet, while methodological and conceptual advancements have been made, and an emerging body of empirical studies is examining telecoupling in land-use systems, more collaboratory research is urgently needed in order to 1) foster a better understanding of how global interconnectivity influences land-use change in particular places and at particular moments in time; 2) capture and account for distant, unexpected feedbacks and spillovers that challenge social and environmental sustainability and 3) enhance evidence-based decision- and policy-making through transformative land governance initiatives for the sustainable management of land.

Goals and Objectives

The specific objectives of this Working Group are:

  1. Provide a platform for the diverse group of Land System Scientists working on telecoupling related questions to foster better interdisciplinary exchange and the consolidation of knowledge on methodological, conceptual and empirical issues related to telecoupling of land use systems.
  2. Advance the understanding of challenges and opportunities presented by telecoupling to sustainable land-use change
  3. Identify potential best practices and methodologies for designing transformative interventions into telecoupled land use systems that fosters sustainable development.
  4. Bringing together early and advanced-stage researchers
  5. Communicating telecoupling research activities and advances to non-academic stakeholders

GLP Themes: Telecoupling of land use systems, Land governance

 

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Blog

The challenge of modelling telecoupled land-use change

In this blog post, the authors introduce two new models, the TeleABM and the FLUTE, that are designed to study telecoupled land-use change but using different modelling approaches. Both models use soybean, one of the most traded commodities in the world, as an exemplary case to illustrate the ways in which they tackle the challenges of cross-scalar dynamics. The post reports on a joint webinar hosted by the GLP Working Group on Telecoupling Research held in September 2020 and featuring presentations by the three first authors.   Read full post

Related Information

News

January 17, 2021

Telecoupling visualizations through a network lens: a systematic review

In this article, the researchers applied a network lens to reveal how visuals have been used in the scientific literature to portray telecoupling phenomena. Based on this, they critically reflect on current visualization practices in telecoupling research, as well as the underlying mental models that they represent. Finally, they provide practical recommendations for the development and use of visualizations to communicate knowledge on cross-scale socio-ecological interactions.

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Event

November 15, 2020

GLP Webinar: Governing telecouplings - Discussing evidence on company policies for reducing commodity-driven forest loss

Tuesday, December 8, 2020 - 2:30pm

The GLP Telecoupling Working Group will hold its fourth webinar to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to governing telecoupling from the perspective of company policies to reduce commodity-driven forest loss.

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News

November 15, 2020

Call for Abstracts: Archetypes of Sustainable Land Use and Governance

This Focus Issue of Environmental Research Letters consolidates archetypes of sustainable land use and governance in order to provide a state-of-the-art knowledge resource to transform land use systems towards sustainability across world regions. It will advance knowledge in four thematic priority areas of land use systems: telecoupled land systems; land governance; farming systems; and interactions between land, food, climate and biodiversity. Deadline: 11 December 2020

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Working Group Coordinators

 

Working Group Members