This book presents definitions, key concepts and projects in landscape research and related areas, such as landscape science and landscape ecology, addressing and characterising the international role, status, challenges, future and tools of landscape research in the globalised world of the 21st century.

The book brings together views on landscapes from leading international teams and emerging authors from different scientific disciplines and regions of the globe. It describes approaches for achieving sustainability and for handling the multifunctionality of landscapes and includes international case studies demonstrating the great potential of landscape research to provide partial sustainable solutions while developing cultural landscapes and protecting semi-natural landscapes.

It is intended for scientists from various disciplines as well as informed readers dealing with landscape policies, planning, evolvement, management, stewardship and conservation.

Lothar Mueller (Müller) is a retired scientist from the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Muencheberg, Germany.

He studied Agriculture at the Humboldt University in Berlin and graduated from the Academy of Agricultural Science of the GDR (Dr. agr.) in 1974. He has worked at the Research Centre of Soil Fertility (1974-1991), and the ZALF Institutes of Soil Landscape Research and Landscape Hydrology (1991-2014).

His main interest is in soil science and agriculture, and together with an international team he developed the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating, an acknowledged approach for assessing the quality of global soils for cropping and grazing. Over the past 5 years his scientific work has focused on the field of landscape monitoring and management.

Lothar Mueller has published more than 350 papers, amongst them more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. Since 2013he has been an Honorary Professor at the State Agricultural University of the Kuban in Krasnodar (Russian Federation). He was appointed as an Honorary Doctor of the Russian Research Institute of Rice in Krasnodar, of the Pryanishnikov Institute for Agrochemistry in Moscow and of the Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Frank Eulenstein is a scientist at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Muencheberg, Germany. He studied Agriculture at the Georg August University of Göttingen and graduated from the Institute for Soil Science there in 1992 (Dr. sc. agr.).

Since 1993 he has worked as a scientist at the ZALF Institute of Land Use Systems. His fields of interest are water, matter and energy fluxes in agricultural systems and the practical questions of cropping and fertilization. Currently, he works in the Research Area "Land Use and Governance", workgroup "Sustainable Grassland Systems"at ZALF.

Frank Eulenstein has published more than 300 scientific papers. He has more than 20 years experience as a manager (CEO) in the segments of the development of organic fertilizers and classical agricultural trade.

Since 2013 he has been an Honorary Professor at the State Agricultural University of the Kuban in Krasnodar (Russian Federation). He was appointed as an Honorary Doctor of the Russian Research Institute of Rice in Krasnodar, of the Pryanishnikov Institute for Agrochemistry in Moscow and of the Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Preface.- Part I The Essence and Mission of Landscape Research.- Part II Concepts for Landscape Assessment and Evolvement.- Part III Tools for Landscape Planning.- Part IV Landscape Characterization: International Case Studies.