New challenges for a multi-scale approach to land use system modelling

This manuscript presents a multi-scale method enabling assessment of multipurpose natural resource management options. Three examples of analyses that it allows are presented for Ilocos Norte province in the Philippines: 1. interactions between achievement of objectives at provincial and municipal scales; 2. effects of farm structure, infrastructure and markets for agricultural goods on natural resource use options at municipal scale, and 3. differences across farm types in possible technology adoption and the effect of technology adoption. Finally, the multi-scale method and results from the analyses for Ilocos Norte are discussed, in the wider context of important opportunities and shortcomings of today’s multi-scale assessment of natural resource management.