2.2 Land Use change
LULC change is a global phenomena. It is a matter of concern
to the people over the globe because the characteristics of LULC create impacts
on climate, biogeochemical and hydrological conditions, biodiversity etc. Understanding
the significance of change in LUP needs detailed knowledge about the LU practices,
LUP changes and its effect(s) on environmental processes and systems.
It needs no explanation that LUP in an area is determined by factors like soil
characteristics, climate, land characteristics, LULC etc., but these in turn are
determined mainly by geological and erosional history and geographical set-up
of the region.
While these control the nature-induced LUP in an area, the earth, throughout its
history of civilisation, since when the human population started agriculture,
housing etc., is going on getting disturbed by the human activities resulting
stripping-off the LC, digging the land surface etc. Thus LUP in an area is the
result of interaction of such human activities with the natural land quality and
landform.
The quality and quantity of above refered human interaction depends upon quality
and quantity of consumer demand. High population growth and hence increasing consumer
demand interact with varied combinations and arrangements of different land characteristics,
degrees of access to financial capital, shifts in national and even international
trading patterns and local inheritance laws and customs to produce LUP at different
places and times. Thus LUP is a site-specific, case-specific and time-specific
phenomenon but a matter of global interest.
Because of the well-established knowledge about the fact that impact of LUP change
results impacts on the total environment including climate, water resources and
biodiversity, evaluation of the causes and consequences of changes in LUP has
become a matter of urgent need to the users of land over the globe. At the 1992
UN conference on environment & development, two conventions were signed, these
were a "Framework Convention on climate change" and a "Convention on biodiversity"
as was a declaration on principles on forests. Even before this, in 1991, the
International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the Human Dimensions of
Global Environmental Change Programme (HDP) formed an ad-hoc working group to
investigate the possibilities of a joint effort by natural and social scientists
to develop the understanding of global environmental change and hence the causes
and impacts of LUP change. The highlights of the conclusions of the working group
are as follows:
1. Understanding the past and future impacts of changes in LC is central to the
study of global environmental change and its human driving forces and impacts.
2. LC modelling requires improved knowledge of LC and the factors that determine
LC and LC change.
3. The major determinants of LC are demographic factors such as population size
and density, technology, level of affluence, political structures, economic factors,
etc.
4. Additional basic research is required to understand how these factors interact
to drive LC change or how projections about them could be used to project future
LUP and states of LC.
5. Categorization of LC changes and associated socio-political-economic conditions
must be carried out to further the understanding of changes in LU and their implications.
6. The knowledge gained through this categorization and case studes for that will
be crucial to developing regional and global models of LULC change.
In the light of recommendations of the working group a Core Project Planning Committee
(CPPC) was established for developing a detailed scientific plan to investigate
on LUP changes. The report of CPPC, together with many other findings, identifies
the steps needed to address the human causes of global LUP change and to understand
its overall importance. It was planned to carry out selected case studies according
to a common protocol. It was decided that, in the final step of the plan, the
knowledge gained regarding the human determinants of LU and driving forces of
LC change will be used to develop a global LU&LC change model (Turner et al.,
1993).