4. Land Use Planning
4.0 Introduction
Land Use Planning (LUPg) is of prime importance for land protection in any area.
It is specially required in cases where the developmental activities damage the
previous LUP completely. e.g. mining. Because of these facts most of the developed
countries have adopted some LUPg system in one way or other. Further in many cases
it is seen that implementation of proper LUPg brings the land to a condition better
than it had before the developmental activity, e.g. the OC lignite mining area
near Kolu in Germany has been brought to a shape and uses better than it had before.
It has been infered (Rhind & Hudson, 1980) that there cannot be any global LU
system. LUPg is a case-specific site-specific and time-specific activity. Some
of the foreign countries have their own LUPg system.
4.1 Outline of some land-use planning systems
In US they follow the LUPg process detailed in Fig. 4.1 (USGS circular of 1976,
in Coates, 1981, pp 573) that shows the steps involved. It needs preparation of
a LULC map for pre-development condition of the area. It aims at the best suitable
use of land which is to be identified through "Land capability analysis". Such
land capability analysis involves 5 steps as listed below (Coates op. ct, pp.
579):
1. Identify the type of Land-Use for which "land capability" is to be determined
2. Assess which natural factors have a significant effect on the capability of
the land to accommodate each use.
3. Develop a scale of values for rating each natural factor in relation to its
effect on land capability.
4. Assign a weightage to each natural factor that indicates its importance in
a hierarchy with other factors.
5. Establish land unit determinants that reflect the weighted aggregates for each
land use factor.
In Belgium a group of scientists (Sys.et.al.1991) considers land suitability as
the main criteria for selecting the type of crop which should be put on a specific
piece of land.
In India State LU boards were set in 1974 with a number of objectives aiming mainly
towards meeting food requirements of the region, of course, with a concept of
development to improve the QoL of the people in the region, but did not have any
provision to consider the mining degraded lands.
4.2 Land use planning system in India
Presently in India, the National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land-Use Planning (NBSS-LUP)
is taking active interest in LUPg and hence is playing a leading role in the matter.
It follows a two-step system (Sarkar 1995, Sarkar 2001).
a) They classify the land as per "soil survey and land capability classification"
(Dhruba, et.al.,1990) originally suggested by Indian Council for Agricultural
Research (ICAR) to have an assessment about, to which of the eight classes of
ICAR classification the land under consideration fits.
b) Thus by knowing the lands capability to support cultivation or any other use,
they proceed to step 2 if the above activity shows its capability for cultivation.
Next they apply the classification of Sys. et al.(1991) to decide the land's suitability
for any specific type of crop.
4.2.1 The NBSS-LUP system
The LUPg system being followed by NBSS-LUP (Sarkar, 1995) is being detailed next.
Information on site characteristics, kind and distribution of soils, their descriptions
are collected from the soil maps and accompanying reports prepared out of soil
survey and interpretations of those are made for further use. The details on the
maps however, vary according to:
* the kind of soil survey
* intensity of observations
* the scale of base map
Soil survey interpretation and land evaluation precede land use planning. Standard
soil survey information can be interpreted for several purposes like analysing
the land's suitability for agriculture through technical classification of soils,
forestry, hydrological groupings. Even suitability for sewage disposal, trafficability,
building construction, etc. are also evaluated.
Soil survey interpretation and land evaluation being made by NBSS-LUP uses the
following definitions:
Soil: Soil is a collection of natural bodies occupying
the upper most portion of the earth's crust that supports plants and have the
properties due to interaction of climate and organisms upon the parent material
as conditioned by relief over a period of time.
Land: Land is defined geographically as tract of
land with a specific area on the earth's surface. It includes atmosphere, soil,
geology, hydrology, plant and animal populations and the results of past and present
human activity. It excludes socio-economic attributes of the environment.
Land use: Land use is a kind of permanent and cyclic
human inter-vention with land to satisfy human needs. It is a geographic concept
e.g. rainfed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, forestry, recreation.
Land suitability: It is the fitness of the given
tract of land for a defined use. Land suitability is of two kinds:
i) Actual suitability, which relates the suitability of land units for a specific
use under present condition and,
ii) potential suitability which relates to the suitability of the land units after
major improvements.
Land mapping unit: It is the mapped area of land
with specific characteristics. These units differ with the level of generalisation.
These units can be single plot of land, soil family, soil association, a physiographic
unit or agroclimatic zone. These units form a basis for land evaluation.