Land Use

Land use refers to the way humans utilize, manage, and organize land and its resources for different purposes such as agriculture, forestry, housing, industry, infrastructure, recreation, or conservation. It represents the functional and socio-economic role that land plays in human activity, reflecting both natural characteristics and deliberate human decisions.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), land use is “the totality of arrangements, activities, and inputs that people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce, change, or maintain it.” In simple terms, it describes how land is used and for what purpose — for example, whether a given area of forest is maintained for conservation, converted to farmland, or developed for housing.

It is important to distinguish land use from land cover. Land cover refers to the physical and biological surface of the Earth, such as forests, grasslands, croplands, or urban areas. Land use, on the other hand, indicates the human purpose associated with that surface — such as forestry, grazing, farming, or urban development. A single land cover type can have different land uses depending on how people manage it.

Common land use categories include:

Agricultural: crop cultivation, livestock grazing, orchards, aquaculture.

Forestry: managed forests, timber harvesting, or protected reserves.

Urban and built-up: residential, industrial, commercial areas.

Transportation: roads, ports, railways, airports.

Recreational and cultural: parks, heritage sites, tourism zones.

Conservation: natural reserves, reforestation, or ecosystem restoration.

In environmental policy, land use is a central concept because it shapes ecosystem health, water resources, carbon storage, and biodiversity. Changes in land use, particularly conversion of forest to agricultural or urban land, are among the main drivers of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.