Concerns about climate change and water quality make it necessary to have a better understanding of the cycling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) within landscapes. In New Zealand, pastoral farming on hill country is a major land use, and there is little information available at a landscape level on the cycling of C and N within these systems, particularly the impacts of land use intensification.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) manages one-fifth of the land in the United States, including public lands administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management. Federal agencies have included public input in decision-making since the Administrative Procedure Act in 1946, with varying degrees of effectiveness. Recently, policy and reporting directives have broadened to include possibilities for collaborative conservation. Many disciplines are identifying this rise in collaboration as a new era of governance.

Land degradation is a global issue on par with climate change and loss of biodiversity, but its extent and severity are only roughly known and there is little detail on the immediate processes – let alone the drivers. Earth-observation methods enable monitoring of land degradation in a consistent, physical way and on a global scale by making use of vegetation productivity and/or loss as proxies. Most recent studies indicate a general greening trend, but improved data sets and analysis also show a combination of greening and browning trends.