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Chapter 7: Strategic Considerations for Implementation of the Research Program

The research community recognizes that how the program is implemented will have implications both for the research that is undertaken and for the overall success of the program.

Interagency Coordination

The science community recognizes the importance of a coordination mechanism to develop a more holistic approach to land use research. A coordinated program should give balance to the various components of the research program encouraging different agencies to support those aspects of the research that fall within their mandate. To facilitate coordination, it is recommended that a point of contact for land use research be developed within each of the agencies that participate in the LUIWG and that each of the agencies develop one or more research focus areas around their contribution to the CCSP land use element goals.   From the priority research areas identified above it is clear that NSF has a critical role to play in this interagency program, strengthening the exploratory aspects of land use science, supporting the social science aspects of the program and the associated survey data collection and strengthening the model development activities.

It is recommended that the LUIWG establish a Program Officer to facilitate the interagency coordination, help engage additional federal agencies within the program and facilitate coordination between the land use element and other elements of CCSP. The Program Officer would also help strengthen involvement of the stakeholder community in the program and help with broad program outreach to the public.

LULCC Steering Group

It is recommended that a Science Steering Committee be established consisting of leaders in the field and representative stakeholders. Amongst other tasks this group would support and advise the program on scientific issues as related to the LULCC science questions, priorities, needed experiments, measurements and observations and would undertake an annual review of progress of the program and the agency contributions with respect to meeting program goals and deliverables.

Strategic Components

Stakeholders

Stakeholders will be integral to supporting and developing the research, and will play an important role in helping to develop additional programmatic components.   It is necessary that stakeholders be identified and involved in developing the program.   Agencies need to develop a strategy for stakeholder participation, and agencies and scientists should ensure that stakeholders are full participants on teams conducting research focused on the goals and objectives described in this Science Strategy.

Observations

The LUIWG and LSG will need to play a proactive role in ensuring that the infrastructure is put in place to provide the satellite and in-situ observations needed for LULCC research. The science requirements will need to be fully developed and included in the priorities for the CCSP Observation Group. Particular, attention will need to be given to ground-based and socioeconomic observations and international coordination of the required global observations. A data policy allowing free and open data exchange will be critical to the success of the science program. Opportunities should be sought for securing the necessary LULCC observations in the framework of broader programs, for example LULCC observations have a central role to play in the emerging strategy of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO).

Computing Infrastructure

The program described in this document requires the provision and management of large volume high spatial resolution data and computer intensive models. An initiative is needed to ensure that there is sufficient computing capacity and infrastructure within the research community to analyze and share large volumes of data and to run models at the spatial and temporal resolutions needed to capture land use and land cover changes and processes.

Education

There is a need for investment by the program in basic education to ensure there are sufficient scientists coming into the program during the next ten years that understand land use science and have the necessary skills to undertake interdisciplinary research combining social and physical science. A strategy needs to be developed early in the program to strengthen this underpinning to the research encouraging land use education at undergraduate and graduate levels.

International Cooperation and Coordination

Additional progress in the near-term will be achieved by participation in International research programs focused on land use and land cover change, such as the international Land Use and Land Cover Change (LUCC), LAND and iLEAPS programs, The Global Terrestrial Observing Sysytem (GTOS) Global Observation of Forest Cover / Global Observation of Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC/GOLD) program and the emerging Integrated Global Observations of Land (IGOL) program will be important mechanisms for international observation and coordination for land cover. Regional science initiatives such as North American Carbon and Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative will have strong land use/land cover components. Many US scientists are already active in these and related programs and greater involvement of stakeholders and agencies would be beneficial.

CCSP Inter-Element Coordination

The need for strong linkages between the Land Use and Land Cover element and the other CCSP elements is recognized. A series of joint workshops should be held early in the program to develop the interface between these elements and to determine the product requirements.   Development of a Community Land Use and Land Cover Change Model will be a critical component and will not only cut across the different elements of the Land Use and Land Cover science strategy, but will link with many other elements of the CCSP.

Suggested Near- term Priority Activities

Within the next 12 months, the highest priority should be given to three, early Integrative Interagency Pilot Projects (IIPP). These strategic projects should be developed jointly between the agencies to demonstrate that the agencies can work together effectively, and to provide a contribution to the CCSP Assessments and Synthesis products. The IIPP would help the agencies focus on some of the generic obstacles to progress, such as how to develop multi-agency support, data sets and access and consensus models. Examples of such IIPP initiatives include

IIPP 1

IIPP 2 

A National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences-sponsored review of land use models, best practices, scientific readiness, obstacles, and agency roles would be extremely helpful to the land use and land cover change program and would help the agencies identify ways to strengthen this crucial part of the research agenda.   Funding should be sought from participating agencies to enable this review to take place as soon as possible.

IIPP 3

The model would draw on elements from all the research goals presented in Chapters 2-6, and would also provide a test bed for interagency cooperation.   The model would be a community effort involving scientists, stakeholders, agencies, and the science steering committee, as well as participants from other elements of the CCSP.   The goal of the CLUCM and the model development process would be for the land use community to synthesize its knowledge and understanding to develop a land use model that both projects land use into the future and is capable of linkage with other elements of the CCSP.

IIPP Timelines and Costs

The pilot projects are part of the overall research agenda and should be initiated immediately and completed as soon as possible. The cross element workshops with the Carbon group would cost c. 50K each, including the publication of the meeting reports and associated white papers. The costs of the NRC sponsored study are to be determined but could cost c.100-200K. The costs of the community model would include two or three workshops and funding for modeling group participation and common data set generation over a 3 year period. Estimated costs for 3 years would be c.$1.7M. Total costs over 3 years for the three IIPP’s would be c. $2 M