SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN EAST AFRICA IS ACUTELY RELATED TO LAND AND WATER RESOURCES - SOCIETIES ARE DENSELY POPULATED THROUGHOUT RURAL AREAS AND MANY ARE RELIANT ON SUBSISTENCE LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES. AS CIVIL SOCIETY WORKS TO ACHIEVE THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS) RELATED TO LAND AND WATER RESOURCES AND SDG#15 SPECIFICALLY ACTIVITIES AT DIFFERENT SCALES OF SPACE AND TIME MAY LEAD TO CROSS-SCALE INTERACTIONS AND FEEDBACKS. SDG#15 ADDRESSES LIFE ON LAND AND TARGETS 15.1 AND 15.2 AIM TO REVERSE FOREST LOSS AND LAND DEGRADATION AS WELL AS IMPROVE SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT. RECENT WORK BY THE PI HAS DEMONSTRATED A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT OF HUMAN LAND-USE CHANGE ON ATMOSPHERIC WATER RECYCLING - THE PROCESS OF WATER EVAPORATING FROM LAND TRAVELING THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERE THEN FALLING BACK TO EARTH AS PRECIPITATION. SPECIFICALLY LAND-USE CHANGE IN ONE PLACE CAN HAVE TELE-CONNECTED IMPACTS ON DOWNWIND PRECIPITATION VIA THE ATMOSPHERIC WATER CYCLE SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTING HUMAN SOCIETIES AND ECOSYSTEMS THAT ARE SPATIALLY DISTANT. THIS INSIGHT COMBINED WITH ADVANCES IN UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIORAL DRIVERS OF LAND-USE CHANGE IN EAST AFRICAN PASTORALIST SYSTEMS OFFERS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO EXAMINE HOW HUMAN BEHAVIOR LAND-USE AND ATMOSPHERIC WATER RECYCLING MAY COUPLE TO ENABLE OR HINDER ACHIEVEMENT OF THE FOREST AND LAND-RELATED TARGETS OF SDG#15. NOTABLY IN EAST AFRICA S FORESTS AND WOODY SAVANNAS FOREST MANAGEMENT OFTEN OVERLAPS DIRECTLY WITH RANGELAND MANAGEMENT AND WHEN CONSIDERING ECOLOGICAL CONSERVATION IT IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER THE SOCIETIES THAT DWELL IN THESE LANDSCAPES. FOR THIS WORK WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE ACHIEVEMENT OF SDG#15 SPECIFICALLY TARGET 15.1 AND 15.2 WITHIN KENYA. OUR FIRST OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP A FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND CROSS-SCALE COUPLED MODELING SYSTEM THAT CAPTURES HOUSEHOLD DECISIONS (DECUMA MODEL) ECOSYSTEM CHANGE (G-RANGE MODEL) AND ATMOSPHERIC WATER RECYCLING (WAM-2LAYER MODEL). THIS COUPLED MODELING SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED USING NASA REMOTE SENSING PRODUCTS (I.E. LANDSAT FOREST COVER CHANGE MODIS NORMALIZED DIFFERENCE VEGETATION INDEX (NDVI) AND ENHANCED VEGETATION INDEX (EVI) TRMM PRECIPITATION GPM PRECIPITATION) GRIDDED POPULATION AND POPULATION GROWTH SCENARIOS AND THE MOST RECENT NASA REANALYSIS (MERRA-2). OUR SECOND OBJECTIVE IS TO SIMULATE SCENARIOS OF HOW SDG#15 MAY BE ACHIEVED IN KENYA USING THIS MODELING FRAMEWORK WITH A PARTICULAR FOCUS ON THE ANALYSIS OF FEEDBACKS INTERACTIONS AND SYSTEM THRESHOLDS ACROSS SCALES. THE SCENARIOS OF ACHIEVEMENT OF SDG#15 WILL ALLOW US TO EXPLORE TARGETS 15.1 AND 15.2 EXPLICITLY AND WILL REFLECT DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS OF FOREST AREA COVERAGE (I.E. AREA) AND COMPOSITION (I.E. WILDLIFE HABITAT SUITABILITY). OUR THIRD OBJECTIVE IS TO LEVERAGE OUR COUPLED-MODELING RESEARCH AS A BASIS FOR STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT WITH OUR IN-COUNTRY PARTNERS. THIS RESEARCH ADVANCES THE KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY TO ADDRESS SDG#15 WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF ONGOING CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE BY ILLUSTRATING HOW CROSS-SCALE INTERACTIONS DIRECTLY DRIVEN BY SDG ACHIEVEMENT RELATE TO BIODIVERSITY WITHIN KENYA AND MORE GENERALLY IN EAST AFRICA. FURTHERMORE WE ANTICIPATE THAT OUR CROSS-SCALE APPROACH CAN ACT AS A FRAMEWORK FOR SIMILAR STUDIES IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. THE INTEGRATION OF NASA REMOTE-SENSING AND MODELING PRODUCTS INTO THE COUPLED FRAMEWORK PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF SDGORIENTED SCIENCE AND IS A SIGNIFICANT LEAP TOWARDS MORE INTEGRATED THINKING REGARDING LONG-TERM ACHIEVEMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY IN EAST AFRICA.