LEGATO stands for 'Land-use intensity and Ecological Engineering - Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems' and aims to advance long-term sustainable development of irrigated rice landscapes against risks arising from multiple aspects of global change. The overall objective is the elaboration and testing of generally applicable principles within the frame of ecological engineering - an emerging discipline, concerned with design, monitoring and construction of ecosystems. Ecological engineering aims at developing strategies to maximize the ecosystem services through exploiting natural regulation mechanisms instead of suppressing them. A core component of this research project, which is part of the framework programme 'fona - Research for Sustainability', is to create the knowledge and decision-making base necessary for sustainable land managment and also to provide the corresponding action strategies, technologies and systems solutions.