Sustainable land use planning based on geoecological potentials

Geotope models as a new planning tool in landscape transformations

Abstract

We here investigate how improved information about the spatial distribution of land resources can form the basis for reforming and refining rural land use planning in Denmark. The article is introduced with a literature review identifying challenges and potentials for spatial planning in rural Denmark, in the context of land use reform initiatives.

Based on the development of a new land resource model – the geotope model – a new approach to spatial planning is introduced and discussed. The new approach to planning divides the landscape into functional units that share biophysical characteristics and behave similarly under comparable land use. In this way the model segments the landscape into ecologically meaningful spatial units for land management, delineated along vectors of maximum variation in conditions for land use. The model makes it possible to assess and compare the land use potential of rural land units across a range of discrete land uses, including agriculture, forestry, conservation, nature management, water extraction, etc.

Using a new tailormade planning tool (LandAllocate), we tested how knowledge about the potential use of land resources can be incorporated into transparent, data-driven and locally anchored decision-making processes, as an example of a new approach to planning for sustainable land use based on the potential of land resources. This was tested in two case studies in the Zealand region of Denmark. On this basis we discuss how the introduction of geotope land units may contribute to sustainable land use planning, by providing a spatial framework of ecologically meaningful planning units and through the creation of a common frame of reference for cooperation between land holders, land users, authorities, and civil society organizations. It is argued that high resolution modeling of functional land resources may hold the potential to act as a platform for data-driven land reforms, where land transformations can be planned, initiated and evaluated based on the permanent characteristics of the landscape and its long-term capacity to support land use.