Unsustainable land cover and land use change is one of the major sources of GHG emissions and a multiplier of climate hazards (flood, drought). It compromises ecosystem integrity and the availability and quality of ecosystem services. Combined, land use change can have significant impacts on the progressing towards  economic growth These effects challenge the sustainable development .

Testing the impacts of development decision on land use change and its effects on society is an critical prerequisite to sustainable investment planning and development of appropriate and successful mitigation measures. A scenario-driven land use change model presents a unique opportunity to development planners to preview different development options in terms of their land and ecosystem service demand, and evaluate and compare their costs and benefits well before being implemented (for instance through the Strategic Environmental Assessment of sector strategies, plans and programs).

The CLUMondo model is one of the most frequently used land use change models globally, allowing the spatially-explicit preview of potential future land conversion in response to different land demand scenarios. At the same time, the use of the software requires a level of technical understanding that has limited its adoption in developing economies.

The Core Environment Program commissioned the development of a new version of the CLUMondo software with a particular focus on enhancing its functionality and usability for application in a developing country context. Key improvements include:

1. a completely new graphical user interface - to make the use more intuitive,
2. full integration of all model steps into the software - no more need for external, proprietary software,
3. integration of a new land/ecosystem services demand module - to better capture economic value of land and land function, and
4. ability to show results directly without the need to export to a GIS.

The model is provided free of charge. The package contains the model software and a set of self-teaching manuals in English and all six languages of the GMS.

Selected examples of the application of the CLUMondo land use change model in the Greater Mekong Subregion are found in the ADB publication Innovations in Land Use Planning in the Greater Mekong Subregion (hyperlink: https://www.adb.org/publications/innovations-land-use-planning-gms)

For correct citation, see ‘About’ section of the model software.