Land systems in Asia have been subject to significant perturbations from intensive human activities and climate change over the last several decades. To work toward integrating knowledge and identifying management strategies for the systems, an international workshop on “Vulnerability and Resilience of Land Systems in Asia” was held at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, from 15 to 17 June, 2009. The workshop was co-organized by Beijing Nodal Office and Sapporo Nodal Office of Global Land Project (GLP) and IGSNRR of CAS and co-chaired by the executive directors of the two nodal offices, Prof. He Qing Huang of IGSNNR and Prof. Ademola Braimoh of Hokkaido Universityof Japan.

There are about 100 experts and students coming from more than 20 countries attended the workshop and presentations made by experts cover studies on assessment of the responding mechanisms of Asian land systems to perturbations as well as the drivers behind the perturbations. Speakers at the workshop highlighted recent major research challenges such as model development, land use and hydrological process change, metrics and measures of the vulnerability and resilience of land systems, scales and vulnerability teleconnections, social systems and resilience, institutional change and vulnerability, vulnerability of ecosystem services and market-based mechanisms, urban ecosystems and vulnerability, vulnerability of dryland systems, and mitigation and adaptation mechanisms.

The workshop was made possible with financial support from Asia–Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Science and Technology Agency of Japan. The photos and presentations made during the workshop are available at www.glp-beijing.org.cn and www.glp.hokudai.ac.jp.

By Prof. HUANG Heqing