Land-system (change)

The terrestrial component of the Earth system, encompassing all processes and activities related to the human use of land. These include socio-economic, technological and organisational inputs and arrangements, as well as the benefits gained from land and the unintended social and ecological outcomes of societal activities. The land-systems concept combines land-use (the activities, arrangements and inputs associated with land-use) with land cover (the ensemble of physical characteristics of land discernible by Earth Observation).