Sustainable Landscapes (MSSI)

Landscapes connect communities to the natural capital needed for the sustainable provision of ecosystem services like food, energy, clean water, and regulation of key processes like floods and climate. In an interconnected world, where the socioeconomic and biophysical drivers of landscape change are increasingly linked to regional and global processes, decision-making at the landscape scale necessitates an integrated view that recognizes connectivity at different scales.

We are developing methods and tools to assess landscape sustainability that consider issues of scale and cross-landscape connections. The theme is building a community of researchers from across the social and natural sciences around landscape sustainability, training the next generation of student researchers, and engaging stakeholders locally and nationally through a knowledge-to-action approach to better link science, engineering, and decision-making.