Advances in Global Change Research

Global environmental change has, over the past two decades, attracted significant scientific and public attention. Issues such as climatic change, desertification or the loss of biodiversity are not only major media topics, they are also regulated by international conventions aimed at finding solutions to these problems, inter alia through choices related to policy, technology, economics, and social awareness.

The book series Advances in Global Change Research was initiated in 1999 with the aim of addressing some of the key issues facing the global environment through interdisciplinary approaches. Because of the close links between human activities and societal behaviour, and the pressures that they impose upon the global environment, it is important to view these problem areas in a holistic manner. When dealing with deforestation, land degradation or climatic change, for example, it is necessary to take into account driving forces such as energy use, land-use change, poverty, and the economic imbalance between developing and industrialized countries, to name but a few issues. The causes and consequences of global change thus take on a deeper significant if the human factor, and not just the physical or biological mechanisms of change in a particular sector of the environment, is considered.

Since the year 2000, over 50 volumes of Advances in Global Change Research have been published, on subjects as diverse as climate modelling and remote sensing, environmental refugees, biomass burning, or focused case studies in Africa or the Pacific zone. In order to maintain this momentum, Advances in Global Change Research aims at bringing together information that is based on new and rapidly-evolving research. The books that complement well the usual sector-by-sector approach favored by many scientific journals, can be either in the form of monographs or edited volumes. All material is subject to a journal-quality peer-review process.