This special issue focuses on land science studies, which have been promoted actively by the scientific community involved in the Global Land Project (GLP), an international research core project under the International Geosphere –Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP). Land use and land cover changes (LUCC) are constantly occurring across the globe. They show great variation both spatially and temporally, so the GLP community encounters wave after wave of new agendas. Accordingly, continuous research addressing land science issues has been needed in the past and will be needed in future as well.

One of the great characteristics of GLP studies is their wide range of disciplinary coverage. GLP-related topics have been studied by both natural and social scientists dating back even before the GLP was launched in 2006 to the launching of its predecessors, Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE; 1992–2003) and Land Use and Cover Change (LUCC; 1994–2005). The number of GLP-related publications has been rapidly increasing, as members of the GLP Sapporo Nodal Office describe in this issue.

Many GLP-related studies are strongly solution-oriented, which is another characteristic of GLP studies. Because this special issue was designed by the GLP Sapporo Nodal Office, the articles it carries relate to the office’s major the thematic topics (resilience, sustainability and vulnerability). Therefore, articles associated with the thematic topics of the other three nodal offices (Beijing, Taipei and Europe) have been excluded.

Land science covers everything from coastal areas to high mountain regions, and from small settlements/communities to mega-cities. In fact, the Asian region comprises maritime nations as well as those of the Himalayan region, and hundreds of thousands of communities, ranging from small settlements to mega-cities. The tasks of the GLP Sapporo Nodal Office are not limited to national or regional concerns, but this special issue focuses on Asian issues. As readers can easily tell from the articles in this issue, Asia is extremely important to study because of its rapidly expanding population. According to the United Nations, the world’s population reached 7.2 billion in 2013, among which 4.3 billion (about 60%) reside in Asia.

This special issue carries 11 articles. The first article, by the members of the GLP Sapporo Nodal Office (Watanabe et al.), gives an overview of the roles and activities of both the GLP and the nodal office, emphasizing the importance of addressing Asian issues. The GLP has an endorsement system for research projects, and it lists some 60 endorsed research projects on its website (http://www.globallandproject.org/endorsement/projects.php). Among those, six research groups have contributed to this issue, based either on endorsed research itself, or on related research, or on research developed beyond the scope of endorsed research. These include the groups led by Noriyuki Tanaka (Osaki in this issue), Takayuki Shiraiwa, Norio Yamamura (Ishii et al. in this issue), Jefferson Fox, Kaushalya Ramachandran, and Kang-tsung ‘Karl’ Chang . This issue also carries four other important articles. Shrestha et al. examine the dynamics of mountain agriculture and land change in Lamjung District, Nepal; and K. Kimoto discusses forest management as part of regional governance in India. J.C. Postigo deals with the subject of land grabbing by Japanese companies, one of the hottest subjects in land science. Finally, Himiyama et al. discuss how natural disasters affect land use.

The GLP is undergoing a phase of synthesis and transition to Future Earth (http://www.futureearth.org/), which will take a vital role in research discipline in the next decade. We do hope that this special issue will help provide not only a better understanding of land science in Asia but also promote research programs in land science towards Future Earth.

This article introduces a brief history, the objectives and structure of the Global Land Project (GLP), a joint core project for facilitating land change sciences under the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and International Human Dimension Programme (IHDP). The major activities of the GLP Sapporo Nodal Office, one of the four nodal offices worldwide, are also introduced. The article goes on to characterize land system studies on Asia and Asian countries/areas, viewing them through temporal trends in published academic articles. The results suggest that more studies on issues related to resilience and ecosystem services may be needed in Asia and Asian countries/areas. Finally, the future roles and prospects of land science in Asia are discussed.

‘Satoyama’ is a Japanese term meaning ‘farm forest’ (Mori, 2001), and the satoyama represents a buffer area between the ‘sato’ (society or [society-humans]) and ‘yama’ (nature) (Iinuma, 2010). As used in the ‘SATOYAMA Initiative’ of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), however, it is said to mean ‘socio-ecological production landscapes.’ To differentiate the ‘satoyama’ here from the original ‘satoyama’ and UNESCO’s ‘SATOYAMA initiative’, the ‘satoyama’ discussed in this paper is part of the ‘Satoyama System,’ which embodies a form of stratification using universally available low-intensity solar energy effectively, based on the idea of a society with nature-human coexistence. A representative example of the Satoyama System discussed in this paper exists in the ‘Asian Crescent,’ comprising stratification and a complex three-dimensional structure and including different levels of a Satoyama System, from limited regions to the entire geographical area (the extremely wide area encompassing the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau, through Borneo, to the Japanese archipelago).

The Satoyama System in the Asian Crescent as described in this paper is a sustainable organic farming system that has been established over a uniquely long span of years. The driving force for this system is universally available low-intensity solar energy, specifically featured in the water circulation system.

The Amur-Okhotsk Project introduced a new global environmental concept referred to as the “giant-fish breeding forest (GFBF)” by expanding the traditional Japanese idea of uotsuki-rin (fish-breeding forest), which associates upstream forests with the related coastal ecosystem. The project found that primary production in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio open water region depended on dissolved iron transported from the Amur River and its watershed. Therefore, the Amur River basin could be recognized as a GFBF of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Oyashio region. The dissolved iron originates from natural wetlands in the middle and lower reaches of the Amur River, where land-use and land-cover change rapidly. Therefore, the impact of land-use changes on iron discharge is considered to be significant. In fact, nearly half of the wetlands in the Sanjiang plain were reclaimed in the latter part of the 20th century, resulting in a significant decrease in the concentration of iron in tributary river waters. A numerical simulation suggests further changes in land-use and land-cover in the Amur River basin may decrease the dissolved iron supply to the oceans. We therefore propose to establish an epistemic community for further discussion of ways the GFBF could be used sustaina bly by various stakeholders in the multilateral countries involved.

Most ecosystems on the planet have become seriously degraded as a result of human activities. To understand and find ways of mitigating the problems arising from such degradation, we conducted a project called “Collapse and Restoration of Ecosystem Networks under Human Activity.” In this project we introduced the concept of an “Ecosystem Network” to cope with the complexity of ecosystems, human societies and the interactions between them. For our case studies, we addressed two environmental problems under contrasting ecological settings: degradation of pastures in the Central Asian nation of Mongolia, and loss of tropical rainforests in the Southeast Asian region of Sarawak, Malaysia. By comparing these case studies, we found that the relationship between enterprises and local people differed between the Ecosystem Networks of grass lands and tropical forests. We then correlated the ecological characteristics of the ecosystems or ecological resources with the structure of the Ecosystem Network and the associated environmental problems. The analysis also revealed clear differences in how the network should be restored for mitigation of the problems. Ecosystem degradation is ubiquitous today, and a solution is needed urgently. The concept of the Ecosystem Network employed in this project can be applied to other problems associated with managing ecological resources.

Farmers in montane mainland Southeast Asia (MMSEA) have long practiced shifting cultivation with plots of land cultivated temporarily and then allowed to revert to secondary forest for a fallow period. In recent years, shifting cultivation has given way to more intensified forms of mono-cropped agriculture, including cultivated crops, orchards and, of increasing importance, rubber tree plantations. Today, more than one million hectares have been converted to rubber plantations. By 2050, the area under rubber trees in MMSEA is predicted to increase fourfold (Fox et al. 2012). This massive conversion of primary or secondary forests to rubber mono-cropping could threaten the resilience of both ecosystems and livelihoods. Despite environmental concerns and market fluctuations, both local farmers and outside entrepreneurs are likely to continue expanding rubber plantations because of their high economic returns. We argue that more diversified agroforestry systems that provide an optimal balance between economic returns and environmental sustainability are needed to improve the long-term outlook for the region in the face of climate change.

Mountain agriculture in Lamjung has changed over the last six decades from a subsistence agro pastoralism to a mixed-farming system. This transition is significant from the perspective of land-use and land-cover dynamics, as it has resulted in alterations in forest coverage, livelihoods and overall ecosystem ser vices. This transition is also emblematic of the long-term environmental, economic and socio-cultural changes occurring in the Nepal Himalaya. Using multi-temporal spatial data (1976 to 2010) in combination with socio-economic data, this study has detected, quantified and analyzed the land-cover trajectories in Lamjung District during the last four decades, matching the time period of a highly contested debate on the Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation. The results of this study reveal two significant patterns of change: (a) trade-offs and dynamic transitions occurring among forest, agricultural land and shrubland categories, showing more complex patterns than the common story that massive, irreversible deforestation has occurred in the Himalayan region due to increased population pressure, and (b) land-use intensification significantly increasing in the irrigated lands of the lower valleys, accelerating the competition for prime lands, but disintensification and, in some cases, increasing land abandonment of the upper ridges and remote lands, emerging in recent years. Finally, using a spatiotemporal, place-based analysis of landscape level transitions, this study strove to develop a better understanding of environmental change in the Nepal Himalaya – widely considered one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world, where we lack sufficient knowledge of the extent to which agricultural land-use modifications are contributing to land-cover change and vice versa.

The satellite data-based Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was used to assess the state of agriculture and crop vigour on a temporal basis to study agricultural vulnerability to climate change on a regional scale in a semi-arid red and black mixed soil region in Telangana, in the southern part of the Indian peninsula often referred to as the Deccan Plateau extend across 11.48 million hectares (mha) with 6.98 mha under rainfed agriculture. It provides a source of livelihood for 3.3 million farmers with small land holdings and 4.3 million farm labour and their dependants. The annual rainfall ranges from 600–1100 mm, of which 71% is received during the southwest monsoon period. Rainfed agriculture is the major land-use activity and increased climatic variability in recent decades has resulted in frequent losses, forcing governments to find suitable solutions. In order to understand factors that contribute to increasing agricultural variability in Telengana, and to understand trends in climatic variability and extreme weather events and their impact on agricultural production, time-series AVHRR NDVI data products were analysed and corroborated with the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI). The length of crop-growing period (LGP) was estimated from NDVI and studied as a Sensitivity Indicator for agricultural vulnerability, as it indicates crop health and vigour, which determine agricultural yield.

The results indicate which crops can be cultivated, which are vulnerable and the possible spatial extent of agricultural vulnerability based on an analysis on a regional scale, viz., the agro-ecological sub-region (AESR) delineated on the basis of agro-climatic parameters. This study belongs to the spatial vulnerability assessment category, and a lack of best practices in this field has been addressed using NDVI, SPI and LGP to test and verify their utility for assessing agricultural vulnerability. A methodology was developed to determine LGP from NDVI. The study’s results indicate that the northern and southern parts of Telangana registered a significant increasing trend in LGP, while major centrally located districts cultivating high-value crops like paddy, maize, sugarcane and cotton were vulnerable to reduction in LGP. Implementation of natural resource management interventions in harvesting of rainwater and supplementing irrigation to minimize crop losses would help reduce hardship and improve farmers’ adaptive capacity.

Large-scale land deals are new drivers of socio-ecological change. This paper explores Japanese participation in land grabbing. Data from the Land Matrix are used to show that Japanese capital has been involved in land purchases in Asia, Africa and South America. The main goals of these land deals are to pro duce agro-commodities for energy generation and industrial production, and to develop forestry plantations. These productive activities, founded on the land rights formally transferred through these deals, generate mas sive changes in land use and land cover. This paper also discusses the potential transformations in local tenure and economic systems, and the increased dependency of national economies on foreign direct investment stemming from biomass energy production and forestry. The findings of this study confirm that investment in non-food agro-commodities and biofuels is one of the drivers of large-scale land deals. Finally, this research suggests that a comprehensive approach combining land use and land cover change with social-ecological systems approaches viewed through the lens of political economy/ecology is needed for an understanding of the complex drivers and effects of the global land rush.

Since the 1980s, many types of community-based forest management (CBFM) systems have spread throughout the world. In India, joint forest management (JFM) was launched in the 1990s in several states as a form of CBFM. Under this program, ‘jointness’ is crucial to success. Many studies have investigated the relationship between the local people and authorities such as the Forest Department, NGOs and urban citizens; and researchers have studied village social structure such as how committees are constituted and the balance of genders and generations. Regions, including forests, however, are not static entities and were developed historically. They were settled not only at the village scale, but also at the scale of multiple villages. Nagarahole National Park (NNP) was part of a dense forest. Since the 19th century, the forest has been developed and various migrant peoples have come to settle the forest region. After NNP was established, it was expected that the forest would be maintained under suitable management as a protected area for its biodiversity and rich flora. What happened, though, was a donut-shaped region around NNP came to be settled with diverse communities. We have to pay attention to the regional structure when pursuing feasibility of forest management systems.

Recent studies have reported that urban land expansion rates are higher than population growth rates in many parts of the world, thus raising concerns about a variety of resource and environmental issues. Urban land expansion is characterized by its intensity as well as the area of its extent. Previous studies of urban sprawl have focused on the spatial patterns of urban expansion. This study takes a different approach by combining urban expansion intensity and the urban land ratio into a new index—the area-weighted urban expansion rate. The index was used for analyzing urban land expansion in the Taipei metropolitan region and for correlating the two elements of the index with population growth and density. The results showed that the index was able to distinguish between different stages of urban expansion in areas surrounding the core of the metropolitan region and that the correlations were capable of distinguishing older, more established urban areas along railways from younger, more dynamic urban areas along highways. The index provides a simple, yet useful tool for future studies of urban land expansion.

The gigantic earthquake of M 9.0 on March 11, 2011 and the huge tsunami that followed it inflicted enormous direct and indirect damage on the people, society, industries and land use/cover of the Tohoku District’s Pacific coastal area. This paper is about the impact of the tsunami, called the Great East Japan Tsunami of 2011, on land use in a broader sense. It reviews the current state of land use/cover in the disaster area, examines studies carried out on this topic, and discusses achievements and remaining gaps.

Challenges in the management of a transboundary fish stock, with time variant and asymmetric distribution of biomass caused by ocean climate variability, lie in waiting the implementation of cooperative management and the incurring of impact due to such waits. This is particularly true for Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax), which has exhibited extreme decadal variability corresponding to warm and cold regime shifts of the California Current Ecosystem (CCE). Pacific sardine is exclusively fished by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico without any cooperative agreements in place. Our study applied a three-agent bioeconomic framework that incorporated environmental effects on sardine abundance and biomass distribution to estimate the impact of waiting cooperative management of this fishery. Our results showed that the impact of waiting cooperative management is significant for a country having a dominant share, while countries that have minor shares gain economic benefits from waiting cooperative management.