Land Use Changes in Europe: Processes of Change, Environmental Transformations and Future Patterns

Abstract

Patterns of land use in Europe owe much to the boundaries set by the natural environment. The alterations imposed by man are still ultimately constrained by natural limitations of which climate pays a major role. Possible global climatic change, therefore, is likely to have a major effect on land use patterns and this is the first volume to describe the potential changes against the background of historical land use changes in Europe, the likely future land use patterns and the policy implications that are becoming evident in relation to feasible land use management strategies. This book covers a wide spectrum of issues: How will the characteristics of the land resource change? What are the implications of these changes on the environment? What policies need to be introduced to encourage sensitivity to environmental supply limitations? What is the scale of response that is needed to address these issues? The workshop that addressed these topics was sponsored by IIASA in association with the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Stockholm Environment Institute collaborated in this and took on the main responsibility of producing this volume from the range of contributions at the workshop.