Land-Use Change in Portugal, 1990–2006: Main Processes and Underlying Factors

Abstract

This article studies the processes of land-use change in Portugal between 1990 and 2006 and analyses the effects of different driving forces in shaping land-use patterns during that period. While urbanization and the abandonment of agricultural land were the most prevalent processes between 1990 and 2000, concurrent processes of land abandonment and agriculture intensification seem to have predominated in recent years. Nevertheless, annual rates of change for all land-use change processes appear to be increasing overall, following a sharp increase in economic growth. The effect of driving forces in shaping land-use change tends to remain stable over time, but the deployment of new infrastructure and the gradual enforcement of spatial planning policies appear to be important factors in dynamically changing spatial patterns of land-use change.