Issues and challenges in landscape models for agriculture: from the representation of agroecosystems to the design of management strategies

Context Agroecosystems produce food and many other services that are crucial for human well-being. Given the scales at which the processes underlying these services take place, agricultural landscapes appear as appropriate spatial units for their evaluation and management. The design of sustainable agricultural landscapes that value these services has thus become a pressing issue but faces major challenges stemming from the diversity of processes, their interactions and the number of scales at stake. Agricultural landscape modelling can provide a key contribution to this design but must still overcome several difficulties to offer reliable tools for decision makers. Objectives Our study aimed at shedding light on the main scientific and technical difficulties that make the building of landscape models that may efficiently inform decision-makers a complex task, as well as translating them in terms of challenges that can be further investigated and discussed. Methods We examine current issues and challenges and indicate future research needs to overcome the scientific and technical obstacles in the development of useful agricultural landscape models. Results We highlight research perspectives to better couple landscape patterns and process models and account for feedbacks, integrate the decisions of multiple stakeholders, consider the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of data and processes, explore alternative landscape organisations and assess multiobjective performance. Conclusion Coping with the issues and challenges discussed in this paper should improve our understanding of agroecosystems and give rise to new hypotheses, thereby informing future research.