Land Use and Evaluation

LAND USE AND

EVALUATION
2

Definition of Land

▪ Land is a delineable area of the earth's terrestrial

surface, encompassing all attributes of the
biosphere immediately above or below the surface,
▪ including those of the near surface climate, the soil
and terrain forms, the surface hydrology (including
shallow lakes, rivers, marshes, and swamps).
• Near-surface sedimentary layers and associated groundwater reserve, the
plant and animal populations, the human settlement pattern and physical
results of past and present human activity (terracing, water storage or
drainage structures, roads, buildings, etc.).
• “Land use” is the term used to describe the human use of land. It
represents the economic and cultural activities (e.g., agricultural,
residential, industrial, mining, and recreational uses) that are practiced at a
given place.
The Concept of Land Evaluation
• Land evaluation is a process for matching the characteristics of land

resources for certain uses using a scientifically standardized technique.
• The results can be used as a guide by land users and planners to identify
alternative land uses.
• Land evaluation is concerned with the assessment of land
performance when used for specified purposes.
• It involves the execution and interpretation of basic surveys of climate,
soils, vegetation and other aspects of land in terms of the requirements
of alternative forms of land use.
The aims of land evaluation
▪ Land evaluation may be concerned with present land performance. Thus

land evaluation should answer the following questions:
✓ How is the land currently managed, and what will happen if present
practices remain unchanged?
✓ What improvements in management practices, within the present use,
are possible?
✓ What other uses of land are physically possible and economically and
socially relevant?
✓ Which of these uses offer possibilities of sustained production or other
benefits?
Con..
✓ What adverse effects, physical, economic or social, are associated with

each use?
✓ What recurrent input is necessary to bring about the desired production
and minimize the adverse effects?
✓ What are the benefits of each form of use?
The Framework for Land Evaluation
✓ The Framework for Land Evaluation (FLE) is a set of principles and

concepts, on the basis of which local, national or regional land suitability
evaluation systems can be constructed.
✓ The framework consists of the concepts of land use, land utilization

types, land use requirements, land quality and land characteristics.
1. Major Kind of Land Use: "A major subdivision of rural land use, such as
rain fed agriculture, irrigated agriculture, grassland, forestry,
recreation".
❖The framework add 'annual crops, perennial crops, swamp rice
cultivation, forest plantation, natural forests' which seems to be more
specific.
2. Land Utilization Type (LUT): "A kind of land use described or defined in a
degree of detail greater than that of a major kind of land use.”
✓ In the context of irrigated agriculture, a land utilization type refers to a

crop, crop combination or cropping system with specified irrigation and
management methods in a defined technical and socio-economic
setting.“
3. Land Use Requirements (LUR): A Land Use Requirement (LUR) is a
condition of the land necessary for successful and sustained
implementation of a specific Land Utilization Type.
▪ Each LUT is defined by a set of LURs. They are the 'demand' side of the
land in land use equation: what the use requires of the land.
4. Land Qualities (LQ): manner distinct from the actions of other land
qualities in its influence on the suitability of land for a specified kind of
use."
✓ "A land quality is the ability of the land to fulfill specific requirements"
for the LUT for each LUR there is a corresponding LQ.
✓ Land qualities are the 'supply' side of the land in land use equation: what
the land can offer to the use. In some sense, this is just a semantic
difference, or a different point of view, from the Land Use Requirements.
✓ For example, the land can supply a certain amount of water to the crop;
this might be called the 'moisture availability' Land Quality.
▪ On the other hand, the crop has a requirement for water; this 'moisture
requirement' Land Use Requirement corresponds to the 'moisture
availability' Land Quality.
5. Land Characteristics (LC): are simple attributes of the land that can be
directly measured or estimated in routine survey in any operational sense,
including by remote sensing and census as well as by natural resource
inventory.
✓ Examples: surface soil texture and organic matter, current land cover,
distance to the nearest road.
Principles of land evaluation
Certain principles are fundamental to the approach and methods employed
in land evaluation. These basic principles are as follows:
1. Land suitability is assessed and classified with respect to specified kinds
of use.
▪ This principle embodies recognition of the fact that different kinds of
land use have different requirements.
▪ As an example, an alluvial flood plain with impeded drainage might be
highly suitable for rice cultivation but not suitable for many forms of
agriculture or for forestry.
2. Evaluation requires a comparison of the benefits obtained and the inputs
needed on different types of land in itself, without input, rarely if ever
possesses productive potential.
3. A multidisciplinary approach is required: The evaluation process requires
contributions from the fields of natural science, the technology of land use,
economics and sociology.
4. Evaluation is made in terms relevant to the physical economic and social
context of the area concerned.
✓ Such factors as the regional climate, levels of living of the population,
availability and cost of labour, need for employment, the local or export
markets, systems of land tenure which are socially and politically
acceptable, and availability of capital, form the context within which
evaluation takes place.
5. Suitability refers to use on a sustained basis. The aspect of environmental
degradation is taken into account when assessing suitability.
✓ There might, for example, be forms of land use which appeared to be
highly profitable in the short run but were likely to lead to soil erosion,
progressive pasture degradation, or adverse changes in river regimes
downstream.
6. Evaluation involves comparison of more than a single kind of use. This
comparison could be, for example, between agriculture and forestry,
between two or more different farming systems, or between individual
crops.
The need for land utilization types
There are several reasons for paying attention to land utilization types in
land evaluation.
✓ In the first place, the users of land evaluation data demand more, precise
information about land behavior and land use performance.
✓ A second reason for paying more attention to land utilization types is that
land use planners increasingly face the problem of having to reconcile a
multitude of social, technical and environmental criteria and constraints.
✓ There is a third reason: in the past, different land classification systems
were created for different types of land use.
Land Suitability
✓ Land Suitability is the degree of appropriateness of land for a certain use.
✓ Land suitability could be assessed for present condition (Actual Land
Suitability) or after improvement (Potential Land Suitability).
❑Actual Land suitability is a land suitability that is based on current soil

and land conditions, i.e. without applying any input.
❑Potential Land Suitability is the suitability that could be reached after
the land is improved.
Structure of the suitability classification
The framework has the same structure, i.e. recognizes the same categories,
in all of the kinds of interpretative classification.
1. Land Suitability Orders: Reflecting kinds of suitability.
2. Land Suitability Classes: Reflecting degrees of suitability within Orders.
3. Land Suitability Reflecting kinds of limitation or main kinds of
Subclasses: improvement measures required, within Classes.
4. Land Suitability Units: Reflecting minor differences in required
management within Subclasses.
Land Suitability Orders
Land suitability Orders indicate whether land is assessed as suitable or not

suitable for the use under consideration. There are two orders represented
in maps, tables, etc. by the symbols S and N respectively.
Order S Suitable: Land on which sustained use of the kind under

consideration is expected to yield benefits which justify
the inputs, without unacceptable risk of damage to land
resources.
Order N Not Suitable: Land which has qualities that appear to preclude
sustained use of the kind under consideration.
Land Suitability Classes
✓ Land suitability Classes reflect degrees of suitability.

✓ The classes are numbered consecutively, by Arabic numbers, in sequence
of decreasing degrees of suitability within the Order.
✓ Within the Order Suitable the number of classes is not specified.
Land having no significant limitations to sustained

application of a given use, or only minor limitations
Class S1 Highly
that will not significantly reduce productivity or
Suitable:
benefits and will not raise inputs above an
acceptable level.
Land having limitations which in aggregate are moderately
severe for sustained application of a given use; the limitations
Class S2 Moderately will reduce productivity or benefits and increase required inputs
Suitable: to the extent that the overall advantage to be gained from the
use, although still attractive, will be appreciably inferior to that
expected on Class S1 land.
Land having limitations which in aggregate are severe for
sustained application of a given use and will so reduce
Class S3 Marginally Suitable:
productivity or benefits, or increase required inputs, that this
expenditure will be only marginally justified.
• Within the Order Not Suitable, there are normally two Classes
Class N1 Currently Not Land having limitations which may be surmountable in time but
Suitable: which cannot be corrected with existing knowledge at currently
acceptable cost; the limitations are so severe as to preclude
successful sustained use of the land in the given manner.
Class N2 Permanently Land having limitations which appear so severe as to preclude

Not Suitable: any possibilities of successful sustained use of the land in the
given manner.
3. Land Suitability Subclasses
• Land Suitability Subclasses reflect kinds of limitations, e.g. moisture

deficiency, erosion hazard.
• Subclasses are indicated by lower case letters with reminder
significance, e.g. S2m, S2e, S3me.
• The number of Subclasses recognized and the limitations chosen to
distinguish them will differ in classifications for different purposes.
4. Land Suitability Units
• Land suitability units are subdivisions of a subclass.

• All the units within a subclass have the same degree of suitability at the
class level and similar kinds of limitations at the subclass level.
• The units differ from each other in their production characteristics or in
minor aspects of their management requirement.
• Suitability units are distinguished by arabic numbers following a hyphen,
e.g. S2e-1, S2e-2.
• There is no limit to the number of units recognized within a subclass.

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LAND USE AND

▪ Land is a delineable area of the earth's terrestrial

• Land evaluation is a process for matching the characteristics of land

▪ Land evaluation may be concerned with present land performance. Thus

✓ What adverse effects, physical, economic or social, are associated with

✓ The Framework for Land Evaluation (FLE) is a set of principles and

✓ The framework consists of the concepts of land use, land utilization

✓ In the context of irrigated agriculture, a land utilization type refers to a

❑Actual Land suitability is a land suitability that is based on current soil

Land suitability Orders indicate whether land is assessed as suitable or not

Order S Suitable: Land on which sustained use of the kind under

✓ Land suitability Classes reflect degrees of suitability.

Land having no significant limitations to sustained

Class N2 Permanently Land having limitations which appear so severe as to preclude

• Land Suitability Subclasses reflect kinds of limitations, e.g. moisture

• Land suitability units are subdivisions of a subclass.

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