Land use, invasive species, and climate change are all the results of human modifications of our planet. Humans directly and indirectly force ecosystem changes and we also respond to ecosystem modifications. The human effects on ecosystems can be seen primarily through modifications in land cover and land use. While remote sensing systems can monitor land cover, most human land use (e.g. fertilizer use, grazing intensity, irrigation rate) information require other types of data. NEON requires land use data on the local and continental scale. These data should extend back for decades or even centuries if possible because the legacies of past land use can have long-term effects on ecosystem performance. Present day and future land use regimes encompass human dynamics that involve historical, political, economic, social, behavioral, and psychological aspects of people and their institutions.

The NEON Land Use Analysis Package (LUAP) will provide integrated, interoperable information for use by ecological modelers and forecasters to extend their models to a continental scale. The LUAP will collate existing data, primarily through relevant federal agencies, on past and current land use practices as well as economic and social data that are useful for prediction of future land use processes. The LUAP will also compile and serve other data including basic continental scale data on ecosystem performance derived from satellite remote sensing, and soils and topographical data from national databases. The LUAP incorporates observations of both ecosystem forcings and responses and makes those available to the NEON user communities