Land Use Policy

Land use is the human modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. More recent significant effects of land use include urban sprawl, soil erosion, soil degradation, salinisation, and desertification. Land use and land management practices have a major impact on natural resources including water, soil, nutrients, plants and animals. This book presents a global perspective on this issue and provides research on scientific databases developed using remote sensing and geospatial analysis of retrospective and prospective scenarios that have facilitated the development of land use planning and policies towards sustainable development. Research is also presented on how agricultural land use change has led to a lowering of the diurnal temperature range.