Artificialised Land and Land Take: What Policies Will Limit Its Expansion and/or Reduce Its Impacts?

Abstract

The concepts of 'artificialised land' and 'land take' refer to specific land use and land use changes, respectively. Initially introduced by agronomists, who sought to identify the causes of agricultural land loss, the implementation of these concepts required the identification of various land uses and changes between them. 1 This has resulted in a distinction between four main types of use: agricultural uses, forestry uses, areas considered 'natural' and the rest, comprising 'artificialised land'. The This article is based primarily on the results of a collective scientific report (ESCo) conducted by IFSTTAR and INRA at the request of the ministries responsible for Environment (MTES) and Agriculture (MAA) and ADEME. For the complete results, refer to the full report and summary, respectively:-Béchet (coord.), Le Bissonnais (coord.), Ruas (coord.), et al. (2017a). Sols artificialisés et processus d'artificialisation des sols, Déterminants, impacts et leviers d'action. Rapport d'expertise scientifique collective réalisée à la demande du MTES, du MAA et de l'ADEME, IFSTTAR & INRA (France), 609 p.; -Béchet, Le Bissonnais, Ruas (coord.), Schmitt B., Savini I., Desrousseaux M., et al. (2017b). Artificialised land and land take processes: drivers, impacts and potential responses. Summary of the collective scientific report, IFSTTAR-INRA (France), 127 p AU3 . 1 Slak and Vidal (1995).

Land Consumption and Land Take: Enhancing Conceptual Clarity for Evaluating Spatial Governance in the EU Context

“…Thus, land consumption and land take often have the same meaning. The same is true for artificialization, a term that is used as an equivalent in some EU Member States [21], Table 1. Equating land consumption and land take seems legitimate and adequate in situations when exact and comparable quantifications for the respective phenomena are not the matter of discussion and an overall conceptual understanding is sufficient.…”

“…[44] (p. 287) Artificialised land is the variety of land use supporting all human activities other than agriculture and forestry [21] (p. 151)…”

“…It is essential for effectively exchanging knowledge on spatial governance nationally and internationally, and also for compatible monitoring and reporting, which in turn impacts the credibility of quantitative policy targets [19,20] (p. 45). A need for clarification and guidance has been highlighted repeatedly see, e.g., [19,21,22], and with regard to the EU policy context, it has been pointed out how: "to date, there is a lack of harmonised terminologies across [EU] M[ember] S[tates] to describe issues related to the development of artificial areas as well as a lack of consensus regarding how to assess their environmental and socio-economic impacts and how to define compensation" [20] (p. 56 and footnote 23). The following paragraphs outline the two internationally agreed indicators used in this context.…”

Law in the face of the problem of land take

“…In this context, land take is a negative construct, referring to the replacement of the first three types of use by the fourth one. 18 Hence land take is the process of transforming natural, forest and agricultural land into artificialised areas (for urbanisation, industry and infrastructure purposes). 19 The European Environment Agency (EEA) has adopted the following definition: "land take is the process in which urban areas and sealed surfaces occupy agricultural, forest or other semi-natural and natural areas."…”

“…Despite the terminological discrepancies indicated above, which make it difficult to define the concept of "land take" clearly, this term has started to appear in public debates and political discussions at various levels. 50 The objective of no net land take by 2050 fits into the formula of UN sustainable development goals (in particular the following targets: 15.3 neutrality of soil degradation. 2.4 food security, 3.9 reduction of soil pollution and contamination; 11.3 sustainable cities and communities, 15.2 sustainable agriculture and forestry).…”