This document provides an overview of land use principles, approaches, and techniques. It discusses 5 principles of land use: finiteness of land, fixation of land relief, ecological balance, interdependence of land use, and perceived value of land. It then describes 3 descriptive approaches to land use study: plot-to-plot surveys, ecological approach, and quantitative techniques. Next, it outlines 8 cause-and-effect approaches including genetic, prescriptive, case study, and statistical. Finally, it discusses general steps for land use surveys including reconnaissance, field investigation, village surveys, and sampling techniques.

1. LAND USE:
An In-depth View
into Its Principles,
Approaches and
Techniques
PRESENTED BY
GROUP 4

2. 5 Principles of Land Use

3. First Principle: The Principle of Finity
•Supply of land is finite
•World population is increasing rapidly.
•Per capita land is decreasing day by day.
Thus, the first principle states there is an urgent need to be careful
about what use we are putting our finite land to.

4. For Example
Studies indicate that land available for agriculture is increasingly
declining:
Between 1976 and 2000, around 13,412 ha of agricultural land was lost.
In contrast, from 2000 to 2010 over 30,000 hectares of agricultural land
was lost.
Rapid urbanization with new roads and highways is occupying a vast tract
of agricultural land every year.

5. Second Principle: The Principle of
Fixation
The second principle states that the surface of the earth and its reliefs cannot
be altered by man.
At most, man can evaluate the inherent properties of land and put it to good
use based on that information
Despite some leeway, ultimately relief dictates the type of land use.
Thus, it is important to analyze and know what type of land-use goes best
with a particular piece of land

6. For example
Flat lands or plains are best at
supporting urban settlements.
Settlements in such areas usually
take ‘compact’ or ‘nucleated’ form
and cover extensive areas.

7. On the other hand, hills can
support terrace-farming of tea,
wheat, barley, etc.

8. Third Principle: Principle of Ecological
Balance
The third principle states that the ecological balance of any place governs the type of
land use.
For example,
Agricultural practice is not supported in the harsh landscape of deserts.
People in the Arctic cannot grow settlements owing to its extreme frigidity and
therefore there is no scope of agriculture, transportation lines or communication.
On the other hand, temperate climate supports a diversity of land uses.

9. Fourth Principle: Principle of
Interdependence
The fourth principle states that land use of a region is the product of its energic
system and production potential. To illustrate:
In China, India and Holland, intensive agriculture is the mainstay for livelihood.
USA is accompanied by extensive agriculture, the reason being less population
pressure on land.
Thus although each parcel of land has its own inherent capabilities but it’s use
depends both on the capabilities and man’s necessities.

10. Fifth Principle: Principle of Perceived
Value
The fifth principle states that land is not merely natural, instead the human
value of land manifests itself in the form of infrastructures such as residential
buildings and other forms of human settlements, industries, transport
networks and monuments, all of which add to the varied nature of the built
landscape.
Additionally, natural areas of Earth are turned into parks and sanctuaries so
that wildlife and nature can be preserved.
Thus, inherent quality of land that we have hitherto spoken does not have to be
natural but can be based on perception as well.

11. Shaheed Minar, Bangladesh
Even if the land on which Shahid
Minar is situated becomes a prime
spot for residential habituation, that
area will simply not be used for
residential land-use because of its
inherent cultural value to Bangladeshi
people.
Perceptive Value

12. Approaches to Land Use Study

13. 3 DESCRIPTIVE APPROACHES
There are three broad groups of descriptive approaches to land-use survey.
These primarily focus on describing the nature of a land-use, its pattern and
mixture, without focusing on the “why” a particular type of land-use is
occurring on a particular land-parcel.
1. Plot to Plot land use survey
2. Ecological Approach
3. Quantitative Techniques

14. 1. Plot to Plot
Approach
This is a type of “behavioural”
approach
It studies how the different
land use choices of different
farmers divides a region into
similar but different land use
types.
It tries to delineate ‘complex’

15. 2. Ecological Approach
Studies how the association of
environmental factors control a particular
land-use type on a particular piece of land.
These include, but are not limited to, soil
type, slope, vegetation, micro-climate, presence
of water-bodies, etc

16. 3. Quantitative Approach This method approaches land-use
studies from a ‘factor analysis’
perspective, which is necessary for
understanding the driving forces
behind land-use pattern and change.
Fig. 1 shows how various underlying
and proximate factors interact to cause
shape land use (and land cover change)
Kaimowitz and Angelsen (1998)
terms this ‘web of factors responsible
for land-use decisions’
Fig. 1: Factors Influencing LULC Decisions (Source: Ojima et
al., 1994)

17. CAUSE AND EFFECT APPROACHES
Cause and effect approaches focus on the ‘why’ and the driving forces behind
land-use decision, rather than describing what has already occurred, that
have been discovered till now.
Causes of land-use decisions are of types according to Mather (2006) that
influence land-use:
1. Proximate (or direct) causes a physical action on land cover and are
usually limited to a recurrent set of activities such as agricultural
expansion, wood extraction, and infrastructure construction
2. Underlying (or root, or indirect) causes are fundamental biophysical or
socio-political forces that underpin the proximate circumstances. They
operate more diffusely (i.e., from a distance), often by altering one or
more proximate cause

18. Causes (and effects) that
a researcher identifies on
both the type of land and
the type of research.
However, one of the
broadest set of causes
identified is given by
Geist and Lambin (2002)
in their seminal work.
Fig 2 Proximate causes and underlying driving forces for land-use in
forest regions Source: Geist and Lambin (2002), p. 144

19. CAUSE AND EFFECT APPROACHES
1. Genetic Approach
2. Prescriptive Approach
3. Remedial Approach
4. Case Study Approach
5. Regional Approach
6. Ecosystem Approach
7. Statistical Approach
8. Malthusian Approach
There are fundamentally 8 types of cause-and-effect approaches to land
use studies

20. 1. Genetic Approach
Study of the genesis of the land use pattern
This approach basically studies how the land-use of a
particular piece of land has changed over time and under
what circumstances.

21. 2. Prescriptive Approach
Ideas on how to make better use of land are prescribed
by experts such as use of fertilizers, reclamation of forest
land directive for judicious use.

22. 3. Remedial Approach
Search for alternative better use of land.
Say for example, turning marshy lands into agricultural
land.

23. 4. Case Study Approach
Detailed analysis of the use of every segment of land in a
village, upazila and district or part thereof.

24. 5. Regional Approach
Influence of regional factors on local land-use type, e.g.
on the distribution of crops.

25. 6. Eco-system Approach
Deals with the association of environmental factors which
affect the location of crops or any other agricultural
operations and vice versa.

26. 7. Statistical Approach
With the help of land utilization and agricultural
statistics some unseen inferences can be obtained.

27. 8. Principle Approach (von Thunen
Model)
This is essentially the von Thunen
model used to explain the types of land
use based on
1. distance from the Central Market and
2. transportation cost.

28. 9. Malthusian Approach
This approach studies the problems
associated with land-use, especially the
problem of not having enough land for
all the necessary types of land use
This is because food is produced at an
arithmetic rate whereas population rises
at a geometric rate.

29. Techniques of
Land Use Survey and Mapping

30. Importance of Land Use Mapping
City planners need to know which areas of a city are used for which
purpose. Therefore, they produce a map of "land use", that identifies
parts of a city and the major activities (land use) that happen there.
Remote sensing imagery is very useful for this purpose, since you
certainly don't want to spend many weeks or months walking or
driving around a city to map its land use.

31. General Steps of a Land
Use Survey

32. 1. Materials Required
a. Cadastral map (16=1 mile) of the area. A cadastral map is a map that shows
the boundaries and ownership of land parcels.
b. Tracing paper is necessary for preparing field maps from cadastral sheet.
c. Red, blue, black pencils and pen along with eraser, paper clip, adhesive paper,
steel pins, board, etc.
d. Varieties of graph papers, pantograph, ediographs are also necessary for
reduction and enlargement of maps and stereoscope etc. for reading the
aerial photographs of land use.

33. 2. Reconnaissance/ Preliminary Survey
This is done at the beginning of the survey for preparation purposes to find
potential problems and areas of interest.
For this purpose, the local people are contacted and referred to as ‘local guides’
Often, they are asked to accompany the researcher and cooperate in the field for
quick identification.
Among information collected by the preliminary survey are:
1. Type of crops grown
2. Amount of fertilizer
3. Change in geomorphologic features
4. Regions that are intensively used, etc

34. 3. Field Investigation
The goal of every field investigation is to create a field map.
A traced overlay map is made from the cadastral sheet which is known
as a field sheet. All mapping on the field is done on this and verified with
the help of local guide.
All though the micro-steps vary based on the researcher, the type of
research, and the place of research, the following slides present a
generalized approach:

35. (a)
All homestead areas are enclosed with
dotted lines, shaded by the black pencil.
Extensions of new housing sites are
clearly marked with black pencil

36. (b)
All public land and lines of
communications, e.g., temple
and mosque sites, cremation
ground, graveyard, road, rail
lines, school compound and
others should be marked by red
pencil.

37. (c)
All waterbodies, such as river, canal,
tank, ditch, tube-well, drinking well,
etc are represented with the blue
pencil

38. (d)
The general land use
pattern, which includes
home stead land,
horticulture, orchards,
plantation site crop land,
culturable waste land,
woodland, unproductive
and grazing lands etc.
should be shown by black
pencil.

39. (e)
On the margins of the field sheet or overlay
map the distribution of the soil type, slope,
drainage lines, electric and communication
lines, tube-well, drinking well, irrigated area,
area under principal crops, etc. may be
represented with small sketch maps.

40. (f)
Some information may also
be recorded in a tabular
form such as acreage under
different crops, soil type,
yield rate, etc.

41. (g)
Socio-economic data may also be gathered from the villagers after doing
household survey of population, caste structure, income group, literacy, etc.
so that the investigator may be able to judge the pressure of population on
land, socio-economic conditions and the other casual relationship for certain
land use pattern.

42. (h)
North line must be given on the margins of the
land use map besides the scale of the map, name
of the village, block development office,
neighboring villages in cardinal directions,
approach road, nearest market, railway station,
district, etc.

43. 4. Village Survey
The village survey is a larger-scaled survey
relative to the previously undertaken field
survey.
It is an essential part of land utilization
survey because it provides the relevant data
for analysing the various aspects of the village
relating to its spatial distributions and
external relations to a larger scale.
The village and its spatial relationships to
other factors are at the center of this survey.
Photograph: Village Surveyin the Rohingya
Population (CAREBangladesh)

44. Factors Considered in the Village Survey
a) Introduction: Location, origin, nomenclature, general, shape
and size, the different parts of the village with its cultural traits.
b) Physiography: General structure of the landscape; higher
ground, plain land and low land; slope, water-divide, process of
erosion, erosional surfaces, amount of silting and desilting, etc.
c) Surface and underground drainage: rivers, rivulets, permanent
channels, ditch, chars, tank, lakes, etc. Also includes water level
of wells, tube-wells, and surface.

45. d) Climate: seasonal variations in the direction of wind blow and
calm days, rainfall and its intensity and temperature conditions
during different seasons; information about storms, gales and
thunderstorms.
e) Vegetation: Kinds of vegetation (height, density, distribution
and use); orchards and groves (e.g., mango, guava, banana,
lemon, papaya and bamboo groves) and its relationship with
drainage channels.
f) Village Industries: blacksmith and goldsmith, basket weaving,
shoe-making, clay pottery, boat making, fishing industry, cotton
and blanket weaving, carpentry, etc. and its origin, locational
factors, out-turn disposal and present trend: with number of
workers and implements, etc. must be considered in any study
of village survey.

46. g) Population Characteristics: Growth of population, caste-wise
distribution of population in different parts of the village,
workers and non-workers, age and sex, structure, literacy and
religion-cultural relationship must be considered for study
under this heading
h) Arrangements of dwelling units and their outer shape: This
should be studied because they may be outcome of conscious
planning or natural growth in the shape of rectangular, square,
circular, hollow-square, and linear, etc.
i) External relations: It is essential to show the relationship with
the nearby shopping centre, thana H.Q., subdivisional H.Q.,
district H.Q., and Provincial Capital H.Q.

47. Sampling in Land Use

48. Sampling is the process of selecting a given number of units of
analysis from a population.

49. Although in social research these units are often individuals, they
do not need to be but could be households, firms, countries, etc
Sampling can save time and money.
A sample study is usually less expensive than a census study and
produces results at a relatively faster speed. Sampling may enable
more accurate measurements for a sample study is generally
conducted by trained and experienced investigators.

50. REFERENCES:
Brammer, H. (2002). Land use and land use planning in Bangladesh. University
Press Ltd..
Coleman, A. L. (1961). ‘The Second Land-use Survey, Progress and Prospect’.
Geographical Journal, 127: 168–186.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2002). Planning
for Sustainable Use of Land Resources. FAO Land and Water Bulletin 2. 472 pp.
Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Geist HJ, Lambin EF (2002) Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of
tropical deforestation. BioScience 52(2):143–150
Kabir, H. (2019). Natural resource appraisal in Bangladesh. In Geography in
Bangladesh (pp. 222-240). Routledge India.
Kaimowitz D, Angelsen A (1998) Economic models of tropical deforestation: A
review. Centre for International Forestry Research, Jakarta.
Mandal, R. B. (1990). Land utilization: Theory and practice. Concept Publishing
Company.

51. Mather AS (2006b) Driving forces. In: Geist HJ (ed) Our Earth’s changing land: An
encyclopedia of land-use and land-cover change, vol. 1 (A–K). Greenwood Press,
Westport, London, pp 179–185
Ojima DS, Galvin KA, Turner BL II (1994) The global impact of landuse change.
BioScience 44(5):300–304
Stamp, L. D. 1960. Applied Geography . Hardmondsworth: Penguin.
Vink, A.P.A. (1975). Land Use Surveys. In: Land Use in Advancing Agriculture.
Advanced Series in Agricultural Sciences, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-66049-8_2

52. MEMBERS OF
GROUP 4
ROLL NAME
49 SHAKIB HOSSAIN
50 RAISA BINTE HUDA
51 FARJANA FERDOUS
52 MANTAKA BINTE ASHRAF
53 MONUJ SINGHA
54 SHANTO LUKE GHAGRA
55 RIFAT BIN HOSSAIN
60 MD MOJAMMEL MONDOL
62 MST SHIRINA AKTER