Associate Professor Yu Le of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University has recently been elected Member of the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) of the Global Land Programme (GLP) upon deliberation and selection by the GLP Scientific Steering Committee, and his term of office will begin in June 2023. The GLP Scientific Steering Committee, consisting of 16 scientists from all continents in the world, is committed to formulating and implementing GLP scientific plans, guiding GLP activities (including research work groups, node offices, and open science conferences, etc.), and promoting the global layout and implementation of GLP scientific plans. Researcher Liu Jiyuan and Researcher Zhen Lin from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have served as Member of the first and second terms, and Researcher Dong Jinwei of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has served as a member since June 2017. Associate Professor Yu Le is the fourth Chinese scholar to serve as Member of the GLP Scientific Steering Committee.

Screenshot of GLP website (https://glp.earth/)

The GLP, one of the core research projects of Future Earth, is a successor of the previous Land Use and Land Cover Change project (LUCC; 1994–2005) and the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project (GCTE; 1992–2003). GLP aims at promoting the development of land science by integrating the research of land systems of different scales, and further understanding the feedback relationship between natural environment and human society, between urban and rural areas and between different regions.

Associate Professor Yu Le has long been engaged in monitoring, simulation and applied research on global land use and land cover change, and devoted to improving the ability of the land system to cope with climate change, maintain biodiversity and provide ecosystem services. He serves as editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief and editorial board member of several international journals in the field of land remote sensing.

Written by Yu Le

Edited by Wang Jiayin

Reviewed by Zhang Qiang