Multiple functions of land

• Land is the basis for many life support systems, through the production of biomass that provides food, fodder, fibre, fuel, timber and other biotic materials for human use, either directly or through animal husbandry including aquaculture and inland and coastal fishery (the production function).
  

• Land is the basis of terrestrial biodiversity by providing the biological habitats and gene reserves for plants, animals and micro organisms, above and below the ground (the ecological, or biotic environmental function).
  

• Land and its use are a source and sink of greenhouse gases and form a co-determinant of the global energy balance, reflection, absorption and transformation of radiative energy from the sun and the global hydrological cycle (the climate regulation function).
  

• Land regulates the storage and flow of surface and groundwater resources, and influences their quality (the hydrological function).
  

• Land is a storehouse of raw materials and minerals for human use (the storage function).
  

• Land has a receptive, filtering, buffering and transforming function of hazardous compounds (the waste and pollution control function).
  

• Land provides the physical basis for human settlements, industrial plants and social activities such as sports and recreation (the living space and recreation function).
  

• Land is a medium to store and protect the evidence of the cultural history of mankind, and a source of information on past climatic conditions and past land uses (the archive or heritage function).
  

• Land provides space for the transport of people, inputs and produce and for the movement of plants and animals between discrete areas of natural ecosystems (the connective space function).

Depending on the socio-economic conditions of individual countries and provinces one or the other of these functions will have more weight in the land use planning process. In areas with high population densities, highly productive land, high costs of farm labour and pollution intensive land use practices, the ecological, pollution control and archival functions on the non-built up land areas will tend to be most important for the creation of set-aside lands, ecological corridors and peri-urban recreational landscapes in northwestern Europe. In developing countries with a strong increase in rural population, the maintenance and improvement of the biotic production function will usually predominate. In both cases, however, the long-term sustainability and safeguarding of all functions will have to be kept in mind.

next chapter: land evaluation

back to: land use planning

top