Integrated Modeling of Land Use and Cover Change

Local and regional land us and land cover change is an important ingredient in the larger problem of global environmental change. This article presents a conceptual scheme for applying an integration strategy to agricultural land use on the US great plains. The authors indicate that existing models should be linked and then modified with new algorithms for sociocultural behavior. The article evaluates the state of land use studies and models, offers a conceptual schematic for integrated analysis, and suggest ways to implement the conceptual models using existing simulation models. A regional context is provided by drawing on previous research into agricultural land use on the US Great Plains. 50 refs., 1 fig.