 Sustainable development requires understanding how human behavior and the environment interact across spatial scales. To do this effectively, it is important to incorporate mesoscale phenomena into models, which are difficult to model due to their complexity and computational challenges. This paper outlines five categories of models relevant to sustainability science, as well as seven directions for future research that will improve coverage of mesoscale effects. It also provides a specific worked example that illustrates the challenges present and potential solutions for modeling mesoscale phenomena in integrated earth economy models. This article was authored by Justin Andrew Johnson, Molly E. Brown, Owen Cuong, and others.