A Review of Methodological Integration in Land-Use Change Models

Abstract

Global change research communities are paying increasing attention to answering critical questions related to land-use change, questions which are at the root of many pressing socio-economic and environmental issues. In this regard, a huge number of models have been developed to support future land-use planning and environmental impact assessments of land-use change activities. Within land-use change models, methodological integration is recognized as an essential feature for a complete model, which can help to combine the strength of single modelling methods/techniques without inherent weaknesses. Despite the potential and remarkable growth of methodological integration in land-use change models, limited attention has been paid to this aspect of integration. In response to this, the authors' paper summarizes the current major land-use modelling methods/techniques, and explains the co-integration of these methods/techniques. In addition, they summarize the achievements, limitations and future trends in the use of the methodological integration approach in land-use change models.