Sound policy decisions concerning the complex interrelationships between sustainable agricultural production potential, resource use, technical change, and the environment, require much detailed information on the site-specific nature of resource inputs and alternative land-use practices over time. Realizing that these information requirements transcend geographic, economic, and potential boundaries, the Food and Agriculture program (FAP) of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria, has initiated a series of case studies directed at examining the relationships for the United States (Iowa), Hungary, U.S.S.R. (Stavropol Regions0), Czechoslovakia (Nitra Region), Italy (Tuscany Region), Northeastern Bulgaria, and Japan. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the objectives, methodological framework, and potential information available from this aspect of FAP's research, with emphasis on the Iowa Case Study.