ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the motivation of the call for collaboration and to relate the level of sustainability analysis to the extent of cross-disciplinary collaboration and critical research issues. It describes the development of integrated physical and economic models as an example of cross-disciplinary efforts for addressing agricultural sustainability issues. Basic, disciplinary, research is very much an intermediate input into the real-world solutions demanded by the beneficiaries of research. A geographic information systems interface is an especially nice feature for cross-disciplinary efforts because it allows nonspecialists to use the model with comparatively little effort, and exponentially reduces the time to create an application. Disciplinary input is an essential input into sustainability research. However, quality management concepts have taken hold in public institutions and will likely facilitate the process by which cross-disciplinary efforts are implemented in the future.
