Within this overall aim, VOLANTE has the following objectives that make up the core research foci of the project:  
   
 1. to better understand the PROCESSES that underpin land use change in Europe, by   
        a. investigating the decision making processes of land users,  
        b. analysing the linkages between different policy fields and governance structures,  
        c. identifying hotspots and syndromes of recent land use change,   
        d. exploring historic, long-term land system dynamics;  
   
2. to improve land system ASSESSMENT tools for a range of environmental and management regimes, by   
         a. linking bottom-up and top-down land change models,  
         b. developing human behavioural models,  
         c. establishing the (global scale) boundary conditions for European land systems,   
         d. developing methods of ecosystem service assessment;    
   
3. to develop future VISIONS of the role of land management and policy decisions on the sustainability of European land systems, by   
         a. extending foresight methods to incorporate stakeholder visions,   
         b. analysing trade-offs and synergies in ecosystem service provision,   
         c. identifying critical pathways to reach desired futures,  
         d. developing a roadmap of future land resource management in Europe.   
   
The research on PROCESSES will analyse the empirical, evidence-base of land use change in Europe and the geographic variability of the processes that cause 
these changes. Research on ASSESSMENT will use modelling tools to explore dynamics and feedbacks across spatial and temporal scales in the identification 
of critical pathways for land management. The research on VISIONS will narrow down the infinite spectrum of possible policy decisions to a bandwidth of relevant 
and sustainable land management options, expressed in the Roadmap.