What are the key land uses in your case study area?
Now, it’s time to identify the most important land uses in your project area for each of the following land use categories: forests, annual crops, perennial crops, livestock area and other (e.g., peatlands, wetlands). Each category may have various important land uses (e.g., in forests, there may be a conservation forest area and a production area). Some land uses may cut across different categories (e.g., agroforestry).
There is no need to distinguish all of the different types of land uses in your area. However, you should identify those types that you know are central to the planning exercise (e.g., a new crop that is expected to expand a lot, or a certain type of forest that might be affected by other land uses, etc.) by listing the specific type of crop, forest, livestock or other land use in your area. We recommend that you choose between 4 and 12 different land uses.
Compile land-use data
Accessing quality data is often a limiting factor in land-use planning projects. See how you can gather and manage the key data for your Land-use Planner projects.
Data collection worksheets
These data collection worksheets facilitate data collection by field staff or collaborators who don’t have access to the Land-use Planner interface.
Data collection worksheets
If you are working with other people who don’t have access to your Land-use Planner workspace (for instance, field staff), they can use these land-use data collection worksheets to gather relevant data. This is the simplest way for your collaborators to contribute to the data collection that you need for your project. It will then be up to you to copy this data manually into your workspace. If you are collecting the data yourself or if you are working with other people that have access to your Land-use Planner workspace, then you may save time by putting the land-use data directly in your workspace without using this Excel file.
Test your knowledge
If you would like to receive a certificate at the end of the training, you must complete the quiz. Please be sure to provide your email address at the end of each quiz to record your responses.
Tasks
Now that you have completed the tutorial, it’s time to work on your project. Please complete the following task before moving on to Step 3. If you get stuck, check out the videos below where we answer some frequently asked questions. You can find additional guidance in the Land-use Planner manual and in our forum.
Add each of the key land uses in your area into step 2 (“Land use”) of the Land-use Planner (re-watch the video Compile land-use data for further guidance on this step). Best practice is to add your land-use data first from your workspace, to have it available in the “farming practice” menus appearing in the step 2 interface of your projects. This will save you time, especially if you want your land-use data to be readily available to use in different Land-use Planner projects.
- Connect to your workspace.
- Go to the tab “Land-use models”.
- Select the land-use category that corresponds to your first key land use (forest, annual crop, etc.)
- Create your land use here by clicking “Add new” to create a new land use or by importing data from the Import tab (go back to the tutorial video on this if needed).
- Fill in the information with your best available data. Don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect data, you can always adjust the data later.
- Repeat these steps to add other key land uses in your workspace. You may start with just 3 or 4 key land uses.
- Now go to your Land-use Planner project, navigate to step 2 “Land use” and indicate the main land uses in your project area, one by one. Fill in the information boxes as they appear in the Land-use Planner interface: area for each land use, etc. Select the desired farming practice when you wish to automatically input the corresponding data prepared from your workspace.
If you lack data on a land use or would like to validate your information, you can utilise data from our land-use data portal. This land-use data portal provides freely-accessible information on a wide range of crops, livestock production and forest management models. Information from the portal is available directly from your workspace by selecting “import” in the “land-use models” page.
Ideally, most, if not all, of your territorial bar should be filled by the different land uses. Again, don’t worry if you don’t have perfect information for all data entries. Put your best estimates for the moment. You can always go back to it later when you have better information or invite others to review it.
Check out an example of a Land-use Planner project with land-use data.
This project is called “My Region” and is provided by the Land-use Planner team for illustrative purposes. Feel free to play with the project data if that helps you better understand the different parts of the tool. We nonetheless recommend that you continue this training focusing on your own case study by creating your own first Land-use Planner project.
Problems solved
Stuck on how to proceed in your project? Check out the videos below where we answer some frequently asked questions from real users. If you don’t find what you are looking for, you can also post a question on our forum.
What’s the difference between a crop and a farming practice?
How can I share data with other Land-use Planner users? Adding a practice
Modifying data in the Land use step of your project: example for forest land use
If I make a change in my project, will it change the values in the workspace?
How do I create an intercrop land use?
How do I adjust productivity data when intercropping?
How can I take into account replanting of my crop in different years in step 2?
What land-use type should I use for tree plantation?
What do I do with extra area with no specified land use in my project?
What do I do if I don’t have data?
How can I check values in the Land-use Planner workspace? – be sure to review Land-use Planner provided data
The importance of validating input data with stakeholders
How do I check if my data makes sense?
Why is the viability check negative in the economy section?
How do I change the beneficiaries in my Land-use Planner project?
How to take into account ecosystem service values in forest land uses