Rural depopulation is emerging as one of the defining global transformations of the 21st century, with profound consequences for both ecosystems and human well‑being. The DEPOPLAND project aims to provide the first systematic, global‑scale analysis of ecological and social dynamics in depopulating rural landscapes, identifying trajectories of change and their underlying drivers. To do so, the project pioneers an integrated and data‑driven approach to analysing social‑ecological systems, combining diverse data sources and advanced computational methods to uncover long‑term dynamics of ecosystems and human well‑being.
DEPOPLAND is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together expertise from landscape ecology, physical and human geography, land system science, and computational linguistics. The project is carried out in collaboration with partners at ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich,...