ABSTRACT
Land use change occurs within a space-time domain. Frameworks for assessing appropriate land use and priorities for change must capture the complexity, reduce
dimensionality, summarize a hierarchy of main effects, transfer signals and patterns, and transform information into the language of the political and economic domains,1 yet retain the key dynamics, interactions, and subtleties. Spatial interaction, temporal cycles, responses and trends, and changes in spatial patterns through time are important sources of information for condition, planning, and predictive assessments. Spatially applied multicriteria analysis2 enables diverse biophysical, economic, and social variables to be mapped into a standardized ranking array; used as individual indicators; combined to develop composite indexes based on objective and subjective reasoning; and used to contrast and compare hazards, risks, suitability, and new landscape compositions.3,4,5,6 The multicriteria framework allows the combination of multi-and interdisciplinarity.7 The system definition depends upon the purpose of the construct, scale of analysis, and set of dimensions, objectives, and criteria.7
