‘Danish Network for Land System Science’ (LaSyS) is a multidisciplinary research network addressing the challenge of bringing together leading Danish research groups who work with human dimensions of global change, specifically issues related to the use of land.

The network has its roots in research performed by the ‘The Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystem’ and ‘Land Use Land Cover Change’ (GCTE-LUCC) communities under the IGBP and IHDP programme over the past ten years, and which is currently under transition into international programmes on ‘Land Systems Science’ and ‘Sustainability Science’.

LaSyS aims at positioning acknowledged, but currently not very well coordinated, Danish research groups to become part of these international efforts. It will do so by bringing together natural science (geo-science as well as biology), agricultural science, social science and humanities with interest and research experience in key aspects of ‘land system science’. LaSyS will seek to combine existing strongholds in Danish research as a point of departure for further development of Land Systems Science in Denmark. The ambition is to identify optimal future directions of research for existing research groups, to broaden the research and obtain a high degree of interdisciplinary interaction and integration in the research of human dimensions of global change.

The network will take stock of current Danish research positions and facilitate the discussion of the way in which Danish research environments can best combine efforts and expertise in order to contribute to the international development of an integrated and interdisciplinary analysis of global land system change processes.