Land Use Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Land use refers to the way, if any, in which land is used. In many cases, the use to which land is put is directly related to the type of land cover or the “observed (bio)physical cover on the earth’s surface.” More than two-thirds of the world is covered by seawater and is therefore unsuitable for much use by humans other than fishing or extraction of underwater resources. Of the remainder, land use varies from agriculture, urban infrastructure and residential use, commercial development, and fallow ground.

In most developed or developing countries, governments enforce a set of zoning regulations to ensure a balance between agricultural, commercial, and industrial development of the land. Various legal agreements such as land trusts and covenants regulate these agreements. However, the degree to which these are policed around the world varies significantly.

One of the principal problems faced by the world’s poor is the difficulty they have registering their assets and leveraging them to borrow for future investment. The lack of clearly defined and policed regulations determining the ways in which land may be used has a direct influence on the ability of the poor (or anybody else) to take advantage of their assets. This reveals the importance of a coherent, transparent, and accountable government in promoting an environment in which people can obtain better economic and social opportunities.

Land use has been radically transformed over time due to the spread of humanity. The understanding of how to conduct intensive agricultural or industrial use has resulted in the homogenization of land use. For example, the colonization of Southeast Asia led to the large-scale change of land use from forest or jungle to rubber plantations or rice paddy field maintenance.

The ability of people to transform land use so that it produces some kind of surplus encourages urbanization and drives further alterations in land use to sustain growing populations. However, not all peoples follow the same pattern. Nomads and herders prefer to reserve land use for animal maintenance. In these cases, there has been conflict throughout history between nomadic and sedentary peoples. Previously the superior martial abilities of the migratory peoples dominated. but this is no longer the case.

Modern approaches to land use planning have tended to feature concepts relating to sustainability. Top-down approaches to land use have focused largely on the commercial benefits that can be obtained, irrespective of the impact upon local people. Community-based initiatives in many countries have challenged this, stressing the importance of traditional knowledge in maintaining and conserving the land and its fertility without inputs such as unnatural insecticides or fertilizers.

Bibliography:

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Land Cover Classification System (LCCS): Classification Concepts and User Manual, (FAO, 2000);
John Randolph, Environmental Land Use Planning and Management (Island Press, 2003);
Joe Silberstein and Chris Maser, Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development (CRC, 2000).