Both research and policy recognize land systems as fundamental to human life and activities. However, these two perspectives approach land from different ends and it can be difficult to see how studied variables contribute to broader policy goals. In this paper, we argue that there is a need to better select variables to study land systems as social-ecological systems, and to align research more with those policy goals.

Cover crops are considered to be beneficial for multiple ecosystem services, and they have been widely promoted through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the EU and Farm Bill Conservation Title Programs, such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), in the USA. However, it can be difficult to decide whether the beneficial effects of cover crops on some ecosystem services are likely to outweigh their harmful effects on other services, and thus to decide whether they should be promoted by agricultural policy in specific situations.

One of the main causes of tropical forest loss is conversion to agriculture, which is constantly increasing as a dominant land cover in the tropics. The loss of forests greatly affects biodiversity and ecosystem services. This paper assesses the economic return from increasing tree cover in agricultural landscapes in two tropical locations, West Java, Indonesia and eastern Bangladesh. Agroforestry systems are compared with subsistence seasonal food-crop-based agricultural systems.

In recent years conflicts of land expropriation in China have received a lot of concern. Recent systematic reviews highlight causes, types and resolution of land conflicts, yet very few of these studies have considered the spatial-temporal characteristics of the issue. Utilizing spatial statistical analysis and statistical software, this paper aims to build a contextual overview on Chinese land expropriation conflicts and explore spatial and temporal distribution of it during 2006–2016. Correlations of land conflict intensity with per capita GDP and urbanization rate have been studied.

We analyze the impact of land fragmentation on production diversification in rural Albania. Albania represents a particularly interesting case for studying land fragmentation as the fragmentation is a direct outcome of land reforms. The results indicate that land fragmentation is an important driver of production diversification of farm households in Albania. We find that land fragmentation stimulates significantly more diversification for subsistence farm households than for market-oriented households.

The built environment as a part of society is facing fast and constant changes occurring in the surrounding environment. This is a challenging situation for real estates because their character does not inherently support fast changes and constant development. Nevertheless there are many reasons why it is essential that also commercial real estates are able to answer to development goals set to them by different market actors. This can be achieved by analyzing forces of change affecting the market at this moment.

In recent years, many attempts have been made in Poland to enable automatic data exchange between the system of the Cadastre, being the responsibility of local government units, and the system of Land and Mortgage Register, maintained by the judicial administration (supported by the state apparatus represented by the Ministry of Justice). Such exchange is necessary as it is dictated by the establishment of the Integrated Real Estate Information System.

In constantly changing complex social-ecological systems conservation organisations need to take steps toward adaptive co-management if they want to be effective in their conservation activities.

Goals concerning reduced car traffic are found in most European cities, indicating a potential change in local transport policy and land use planning, which have traditionally been very car-centric. This paper analyses goals and measures to reduce car traffic in Swedish municipalities’ long-term transport and land use plans. Theoretically, the paper is based on an understanding of policies as parts of ‘problem representations’ that create particular ways of understanding car traffic as a policy problem, which in turn influence the measures seen as appropriate or inappropriate.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) has evolved from near open enrollment, to competitive enrollment, and now to a mixture of competitive and targeted enrollment. This paper reviews the history of the CRP and the evolution of its enrollment mechanism. I discuss the use of bid caps and the Environmental Benefits Index bid ranking mechanism in the “general” CRP; and the use of highly targeted, but non-competitive, “continuous” CRP.

In this paper we assess the types of knowledge networks utilised by small-scale farmers in four case studies (located in Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom). We focus on knowledge acquired to inform three new activities being undertaken by study participants: agricultural production, subsidy access and regulatory compliance, and farm diversification (specifically agritourism).

Urbanization changes urban landscapes and results in ecological and environmental problems. To solve these problems, it is essential to quantify the dynamics of urban expansion and better understand the modes of urban sprawl. This study evaluated urbanization in metropolitan Guangzhou, China from 1990 to 2020 and explored its modes of urban growth using Landsat Thematic Mapper images and simulated landscape maps based on the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects (CLUE) modeling framework.