WHILE THERE HAS BEEN A CONSIDERABLE REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF UNDERNOURISHED PEOPLE IN THE PAST TWO DECADES INDIA STILL HAS AMONG THE LARGEST MALNUTRITION RATES IN THE WORLD. INCREASING PRESSURES FROM POPULATION GROWTH AND URBANIZATION HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY AFFECTED LAND USE PATTERNS IN INDIA WITH AS MUCH AS 36.6% OF ALL LAND IN INDIA DEGRADED. CLIMATE CHANGE WILL LIKELY EXACERBATE THESE ISSUES THROUGH ADDITIONAL STRESSES ON FOOD PRODUCTION. REGIONALLY A RANGE OF SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS ALSO PLAY A ROLE SUCH AS: LACK OF AVAILABILITY OF AND ACCESS TO RESOURCES LAND DEGRADATION FOOD INSECURITY AND LANDLESSNESS. GEOGRAPHICALLY DIFFERENTIATED STRATEGIES ARE NEEDED TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES BUT CURRENT STRATEGIES ARE SEVERELY HAMPERED BY THE PAUCITY OF SPATIALLY-EXPLICIT INFORMATION ON FOOD SECURITY AND AGRICULTURE. THIS INFORMATION IS CRUCIAL FOR EARLY DETECTION OF TRENDS AND TO DISENTANGLE THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FOOD SECURITY AND LAND USE. OF CRITICAL NEED ARE SPATIALLY-EXPLICIT DATA ON THE FACTORS THAT DEFINE DIMENSIONS OF FOOD SECURITY AND METHODS THAT ALLOW THE COMBINATION OF THESE DATA INTO HOLISTIC SYNTHETIC INDICATORS THAT EXPLAIN CAUSAL FACTORS IN AN INTEGRATED MANNER. IDENTIFYING ESTIMATING AND MAPPING SPATIAL VARIATIONS IN THE PROPORTIONAL STRENGTHS OF THESE INTERRELATIONSHIPS WILL HELP IDENTIFY THE FACTORS INFLUENCING FOOD SECURITY AND EVENTUALLY LAND-USE AND LAND-COVER CHANGE IN RURAL AS WELL AS PERI-URBAN AREAS.THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THIS PROPOSAL ARE TO: 1) GENERATE SPATIALLY DOWNSCALED DATA OF KEY DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS THAT PUTATIVELY DEFINE DIMENSIONS OF FOOD SECURITY IN INDIA 2) USE A HYPOTHESIS-DRIVEN APPROACH TO INTEGRATE ECONOMIC SOCIAL POLICY INFRASTRUCTURAL AND BEHAVIORAL FACETS OF FOOD SECURITY INTO A HOLISTIC MODELING FRAMEWORK AND FINALLY TO 3) ASSESS LAND COVER CHANGE AS AN EMERGENT OUTCOME OF PATTERNS OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEMOGRAPHIC AND POLICY INSTRUMENTS AT LOCAL TO REGIONAL SCALES. TO DO THIS WE WILL USE SMALL AREA ESTIMATION TECHNIQUES TO SPATIALLY DISAGGREGATE HOUSEHOLD-SCALE DATA ON CRITICAL DEMOGRAPHIC SOCIOECONOMIC AND FOOD SECURITY INDICATORS TO THE VILLAGE SCALE. SUBSEQUENTLY USING A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING FRAMEWORK WE WILL INTEGRATE INDICATORS OF FOOD SECURITY WITH EXTANT SOCIOECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC PATTERNS INDICATORS OF CLIMATE ADAPTABILITY AND METRICS OF INFRASTRUCTURAL AND POLICY INSTRUMENTS. MAPS OF LATENT VECTORS OF THE SEM WILL ALLOW THE FIRST-EVER SPATIALIZED REPRESENTATION OF THE COMBINED EFFECTS OF INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT ACCESSIBILITY TO MARKETS AND EXTENSION SERVICES ON REGIONAL INDICATORS OF POVERTY AND MALNUTRITION. FURTHER WE WILL DEVELOP A GENERALIZED METHODOLOGY FOR MAPPING LAND COVER AND PRODUCING PROBABILISTIC PIXEL-WISE MAPS OF CLASSIFICATION UNCERTAINTIES. WE WILL EVENTUALLY COMBINE LAND COVER CHANGE PROBABILITIES WITH INDICATORS OF FOOD SECURITY DERIVED FROM STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELS TO ASSESS THE INFLUENCE OF FOOD SECURITY INDICATORS ON PATTERNS OF LAND COVER CHANGE. THESE ANALYSES WILL PROVIDE THE FIRST-EVER ASSESSMENTS OF THE RELATIVE STRENGTHS OF DRIVERS OF LAND COVER CHANGE IN THE STUDY REGIONS AT LOCAL TO REGIONAL SCALES.