Defining land uses

The second step is to capture the main land uses that exist at the beginning of the simulation period. You account here for the benefits and costs associated with different types of forests, annual and perennial crops, livestock production models and other uses of the land.

Estimated time for this module

60 minutes on the tutorial

120 minutes on your project

Definition of land uses

How much area is used to produce staple crops? What is the productivity? What are the production costs and the labour force needed? To gather information on the economic, ecological and social value of each land use, you may start with your best estimates.

Alternatively, you can use the Land-use Planner data portal to find initial proxy data for specific land uses. You can then adjust this data to your context through interviews with local experts or field surveys.

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.

Download data collection worksheets (English)

Download data collection worksheets
(English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese)

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?