Land Usage

Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements.

Land use and land management practices have a major impact on natural resources including water, soil, nutrients, plants and animals.

The basic principles and concepts is: balancing a growing economy, protection for the environment, and social responsibility, so they together lead to an improved quality of life for ourselves and future generations.

Some of these detrimental effects include mainly water and air pollution, but also the loss of wildlife, habitats and landscape features. Soil degradation and water depletion are also serious concerns in some areas.

Slash and burn agriculture is the process of cutting down the vegetation in a particular plot of land, setting fire to the remaining foliage, and using the ashes to provide nutrients to the soil for use of planting food crops.

Deforestation: When practiced by large populations, or when fields are not given sufficient time for vegetation to grow back, there is a temporary or permanent loss of forest cover.

Erosion: When fields are slashed, burned, and cultivated next to each other in rapid succession, roots and temporary water storages are lost and unable to prevent nutrients from leaving the area permanently.

Biodiversity Loss: When plots of land area cleared, the various plants and animals that lived there are swept away. If a particular area is the only one that holds a particular species, slashing and burning could result in extinction for that species.

Nutrient Loss: For the same reasons, fields may gradually lose the fertility they once had. The result may be desertification, a situation in which land is infertile and unable to support growth of any kind.

On the other hand, environmental benefits may in some circumstances include: contribution to water accumulation and flood control, nutrient recycling and fixation, soil formation, carbon sequestration by trees and soil, wildlife and biodiversity protection and the provision of recreational services and aesthetic value.