- 1 - Copyright © 1999 2nd International Conference on Multiple Objective Decision Support Systems for Land, Water and Environmental Management (MODSS '99) Correct format for citing this article: Laborte, A.G., Roetter, R and Hoanh, C.T. (2002) The land use planning and analysis system of the systems research network in Asia. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Multiple Objective Decision Support Systems for Land, Water and Environmental Management (MODSS’99), 1-6 August, 1999, Brisbane, Australia, P.A. Lawrence and J. Robinson (eds.) Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Australia 2002, Report QNRM02143, ISBN 0 7345 2668 7. THE LAND USE PLANNING AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM OF THE SYSTEMS RESEARCH NETWORK IN ASIA A.G. Laborte, R. Roetter and C.T. Hoanh International Rice Research Institute P.O. Box 3127 MCPO, 1271 Makati City, Philippines Fax: (63-2) 845-0606 Email : rroetter@irri.cgiar.org ABSTRACT Agricultural systems in South and Southeast Asia are being challenged by the requirements of increased productivity, more diversified products, and environmental protection. Optimizing future land use in such complex situations requires new partnerships between planners, scientists and decision makers and new methodologies and tools that can support decision-making on the most beneficial use of land and other natural resources. The Systems Research Network for Eco-regional Land Use Planning in Tropical Asia (SysNet) was established in late 1996 to develop methodologies for exploring alternative options for agricultural land use and rural development. The methods and tools that are needed to analyse various scenarios of future land use in order to guide policy changes are operationalized into a land use planning and analysis system (LUPAS) which has three main methodology components: (i) land evaluation; (ii) scenario construction; and (iii) multiple goal linear programming (MGLP). This paper describes LUPAS and illustrates the capability of this modeling framework by discussing a few examples from an on-going study for the province of Ilocos Norte, Philippines. The results imply that water availability is an important constraint to agricultural development and improving the irrigation systems would result in higher productivity and more income for the province. KEYWORDS: agricultural development; land use planning; linear programming; systems approach. 1 Introduction As population in Asian urban centers more than double in the next 25 years, rural population will remain stable. This means more mouths to feed with lesser people involved in food production. With the closing in of the cultivation frontier and the accelerating growth in urban population in many Asian countries, food production must be increased considerably to meet the needs of the growing population. However, there will be less arable land and less water available for agricultural production as a result of conflicting interests from industry, urban areas and