1	Stuart Gage & David Skole Pattern to Process : Development of a Signature Program in Land Use and Land Cover Change
2	Goal: Assist MSU to develop a Research Enterprise on Land Use and Land Cover Change Establish a nationally recognized research program in LUCC as a central, contributory element of MSU’s environmental research initiative Create an interdisciplinary focus for a campus-wide activity to enhance and expand MSU externally funded research Develop new opportunities for excellence in teaching and service coupled to an active research program Stimulate new modes of entrepreneurial activities through expansion and enhancement of existing environmental research Incubate new technologies and improve campus and public assess to information about the state of local, regional, and global environment
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4	Enabling a Signature Program on Land Use and Land Cover Change Enterprise Development Enterprise Zone Design & Development Outreach to MSU LUCC Initiatives New Initiatives Research and Development Research Proposals
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7	Creating a Research Enterprise on Land Use and Cover Change: Science Plan Background Participants Part 1:Justification Environmental Research Agenda; Scales that Matter; Significant Issues of our Time Part 2: Research Priorities and Elements Part 3: Approach to Implementation Vision; Principles; Emphasis Research Enterprise Concept; projects; underpinning units- institutes; positions Part 4: Strategic Position within National Environmental Priorities Part 5: Next Steps
8	Research Enterprise Science Plan Background: Synopsis “This Science Plan synthesizes the results of a process culminating in the faculty-MSU wide workshop, providing a Science Plan with some general recommendations for implementation. “It is not the aim of this report to be overly prescriptive. Rather it aims to reflect an agenda open to contributions and initiatives from individual colleges and units in ways that best fit their individual needs, but at the same time contributes to a cohesive program.” It is our hope that significant collaborative initiatives will emerge to support the research foci laid out in this report. We believe this report will aid the university administration in setting investment priorities, and lead to highly successful and visible outcomes.” David Skole and Stuart Gage, February 2001
9	Research Enterprise Science Plan Justification and Rationale The program: aims to be truly interdisciplinary and integrative, drawing from the physical, biological and social sciences focuses on the global and local scales, thereby transcending the various issues of LUCC although firmly grounded in externally-funded, high profile fundamental research, it will also address applied issues relevant to the state, region and nation will be broadly international, and will utilize new tools for spatial analysis which are emerging in remote sensing, geographic information sciences, landscape ecology and other similar fields
10	Research Enterprise Science Plan Significant Issues This report presents a design for a major campus-wide LUCC research initiative that will address some of the major intellectual and technological challenges of our time. It is centered on research excellence in the tradition of the land grant university yet forged in a way consistent with new demands on research presented by a rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent global environment and economy of the 21^st century. The focus is on building a research program that addresses significant problems of sustainability science, linking research to socially relevant problems at scales that matter.
11	Research Enterprise Science Plan Understanding fundamental causes and drivers Institutional policy contexts and constraints Interactions with climate, ecosystems, atmospheric chemistry and water Global Biosphere and Earth System International Dimensions Urban and Metropolitan Environments Disease in Human Populations Ecological Risk and Vulnerability
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13	LUCC Research Priorities Workshop Outcomes Understanding fundamental causes and drivers (1^st of 8): How will LUCC evolve over the next 50 years in the face of multiple stresses of global change and economic globalization? Institutional policy contexts and constraints (1^st of 7): What are the policy responses to global and local environmental change that specifically relate to LUCC regulatory and local zoning practices? How have these changed over time? Interactions with climate, ecosystems, atmospheric chemistry and water (1^st of 6): What is the effect of climate change on LUCC change and land productivity? Global Biosphere and Earth System (1^st of 5): How might LUCC alter global carbon and nitrogen budgets in natural and manages systems?
14	LUCC Research Priorities (Cont.) Workshop Outcomes International Dimensions (1^st of 7): How has/will globalization and the emergence of new trading blocks impact LUCC? What linkages among nations impact LUCC? Urban and Metropolitan Environments (1^st of 6): What are the major trends affecting metropolitan areas today? How to cities and counties in Michigan reflect these trends? Disease in Human Populations (1^st of 8): How will climate change influence the incidence and distribution of human disease? Ecological Risk and Vulnerability (1^st of 5): What are the ecological stressors of the future and what is their relationship to LUCC?
15	Research Enterprise Science Plan Emphasis These topics, and the questions associated with them, make our program different than anything that currently exists on campus, or generally around the country at other institutions: Integrative research, drawing from the social, biological and physical sciences in a truly interdisciplinary program. Global scale phenomena that have causal and impact processes at regional or local scales; linking the global to the local. Spatial attributes and dynamics of patterns and processes, and the use of multi- scale geospatial information systems models and earth observations.
16	Research Enterprise Science Plan Land Use and Cover Change Research Enterprise The LUCC Science Plan calls for new administrative structures which would be centralized in a specific new facility or units, and the program would be open to all faculty. The stimulation of an enterprise could largely come through strategic initiatives from at the OVPRGS level, such as targeting relevant themes from this report in the IRGP calls for proposals. These targeted solicitations could routinely use seed money or facilities to create the campus involvement. We argue that the themes address in this plan provide a basis for the prioritization and allocation of funds. It would be useful to target some fraction of the Strategic Partnership funds, or the Intramural Grants Program funds on an annual or rotating basis. It would also be useful for the OVPRGS to make some kind of center-of-excellence designation for the program.
17	Research Enterprise Science Plan An expert on the urban and metropolitan issues of sprawl and decentralization, with skills in modeling and quantitative analysis, such as regional science. An expert on the urban and metropolitan issues with respect to social and economic issues, with skills in policy analysis and assessments. A climatologist/atmospheric transport modeler at the meso and macro scales. An atmospheric chemist with skills in tropospheric chemistry to work on problems of aerosol production, region air pollution, and radiative balance. A land use change modeler with skills in geospatial modeling, remote sensing and spatial econometrics. A geographic information systems specialist with skills in distributed, open geospatial software environments. A policy specialist with skills in integrative assessments, regional analysis and environmental impact, nationally and internationally. A specialist in economic development and/or international economics or foreign development. A specialist in medical geography or epidemiology with skills on disease and environment. A systems ecologist with skills in global biosphere, carbon cycle, and climate. A specialist in large-scale hydrology.
18	Research Enterprise Science Plan National Priorities In response to a request from NSF to the National Research Council to identify Environmental Science Priorities, the NRC identified eight “Grand Challenges” of which four are recommended for immediate research investments. One of these is Land Use Dynamics. Here is a summary from the NRC report : “The challenge is to develop a systematic understanding of changes in land uses and covers that are critical to ecosystem functioning and services and human welfare. Important areas for research include developing long term, regional databases for land uses, land covers, and related social information; developing spatially explicit and multisectoral land-change theory; linking land-change theory to space-based imagery; and developing innovative applications of dynamic spatial simulation techniques.”
19	Research Enterprise Science Plan Next Steps Provide a FORUM for the participating community of LUCC scholars to react to this Science Plan and to propose next implementation steps for LUCC research that can be adopted by the Administration. The objectives of the follow up workshop are to: · Showcase current LUCC research and outreach by MSU LUCC scholars through presentations, posters and demonstrations; · Provide a forum to present LUCC research ideas by MSU faculty; and · Identify existing resources to facilitate the preparation of these LUCC research proposals for submission to organizations that fund LUCC research. We should move forward to capitalize on the national and local potential for LUCC research. MSU has an unprecedented opportunity to continue as a recognized leader in LUCC research and outreach.
20	We have some copies of the LUCC Research Enterprise Science Plan Others can obtain one at: http://landuse.msu.edu We encourage you to examine it and provide feedback