Land – Role, Importance and Implications for Human Living and Urbanization

Land – Role, Importance and Implications for Human Living and Urbanization

                                                *Jit Kumar Gupta; ** [email protected]

·       Land – defined as the solid part of the surface of the earth. A portion of the earth's solid surface distinguishable by boundaries or ownership; the surface of the earth and all its natural resources. (Webester)

·       Land - means not merely land in the strict sense of the word, but whole of the materials and forces which nature gives freely for man’s aid in land, water, in air and light and heat – Dr. Marshall.

·      Land – Total surface area of planet earth, has been estimated to be of the order of 510 million km2.

·      Land - comprises only 29% of earth surface (149 million km2), whereas Oceans occupy remaining 71% of surface  area of planet (361 million km2).

·       Land –Out of total land surface of 149million km2; Habitable land accounts for 71% (104 million km2), whereas Glaciers occupy 10% (15 million kms2) and Barren land accounts for remaining 19% of land (29 million km2.).

·       Land- Habitable land (104 million km2) available on the earth is further apportioned as; land used for Agriculture 50% (51 million km2), Forests occupy 37% (39 million km2) and Shrubs 11%( 12 million km2), Urban & Built up land constitutes 1% ( 1.5 million km2) whereas  land under Fresh water  is also !%  of habitable land ( 1.5 million km2).

·       Land-Out of 51 million km2 of Agricultural land, 77% ( 40 million km2)  is put mainly under the use of Livestock, meat and dairy whereas area under Crops  remains merely one-fourth of total area- 23%( 11 million km2).

·      Land – under forest/Forest area on this planet-- is equal to Africa (minus Libya), Middle East and South Asia;

·      Land- under global freshwater (inland water bodies)--approximates to the area of Mongolia

·      Land – under human habitation--total build-up land (villages, towns, cities & infrastructure) -would fit into an area of the size of Libya; However land under urbanization/urban use is increasing rapidly.

·      Land—locked under Glaciers (permanent ice & snow) approximates to an area of-- Antarctica & Greenland combined

·      Land – its use/transformation remains largely outcome of the Human numbers/ activities- in recent centuries. By 2000, 55% of Earth’s land converted into cropland, pasture, and urban areas; leaving only 45% as ‘natural’/ ‘semi-natural’ land. -- Ellis et al. (2010)

·      Land-Area of USA, Canada and China remains short of 1,000 million ha --USA 963 million ha, China 932 million ha, Canada 909 million ha.

·      Land- area of India is merely 328.7 million ha- around one-third of the area of USA - but housing 3.5 times larger population than USA. Considering the total number of human count India, as a nation, remains poorly placed in terms of availability of land resource.

·      Land--India remains- both unique and unfortunate regarding the availability of the land resource. Available land/man ratio remains very poor. - 2.4% of global land sustaining/housing every sixth global residents ( 17.6%) in Indi

·      Land—total geographical area of India stands at; 3,287,263 sq.km, apportioned between land--2,973,193 and sq.km under water 3, 14, 070 sq.km Land --India- ranks 7th globally, in terms of land area and 12n in terms of population; Land in India - divided into 28 states and 8 Union Territories.

·      Land--remains unique gift of nature to the mankind and living/non-living organisms- creating life and livelihood; meeting all basic human needs and creating space for growth and development of mankind on this planet.

·      Land –a basic economic resources, fundamental/critical to the economic development – when used for agriculture- produces means of subsistence- when used for urbanization - modulates cities, defining patterns how they evolve, devolve and perform.

·      Land- remains prime factor of production; providing platform for sustaining all human activities  Land- rightly called source of all material wealth; definer of economic prosperity, occupation and standard of living of people/ communities/ countries. Everything existing on this planet earth has genesis in land.

·       Land –as gift of nature, remains most unused, misused, abused and traded like a commodity for speculation and profiteering.

·       Land- its  rational planning, optimum use and sustainable development; - holds key to address majority of environmental problems facing this planet including; global warming,  creating heat island, depletion of ozone layer, increasing carbon footprints etc

·       Land - changing its use/nature involving conversion of its use from agricultural/forest  to non-agricultural uses and its sub-division for human habitation, are two most critical factors, undermining the sustainability of this planet.

·       Land- remains the basic resource and input for providing, creating and meeting the three basic human requirements of-- Roti, Kapra and Makan

·      Land --as a factor of production remains unique & different from other factors of production.

·      Land - remains the most valuable and free gift of nature: -It can neither be produced, nor manufactured by human intervention, except  created by human intervention by converting part of  area under sea/waterbodies.

·      Land – remains incapable of getting physically delivered -- buyer can only go to the piece of land- but land cannot be brought to the person.

·      Land - as a resource remains, well defined and limited in area: -Efforts made to reclaim land from sea remains negligible in proportion, as compared to total area and forms only a small percentage of the total land surface of the world. Reclaiming land from sea remains very expensive and prone/vulnerable to natural calamities/disaster

·      Land --remains largely permanent/inelastic --not easily  created/destroyed

·      Land- as a resource remains static/lacks mobility: cannot be moved/transported   physically from one place to another; lacks geographical mobility.

·       Land - has the capacity / potential to be used for innumerable/alternative purposes.

·      Land-- remains infinite in variety-- differing in physical quality, fertility, location, uses, purposes, flora & fauna, size and shape.

·      Land-- varies in productivity- depending upon natural/human factors. - Natural Factors- soil, climate, rainfall, topography; Human Factor: Situation, planning, land uses etc:

·      Land--remains the index/key resource/major determinant of nation’s economic activities /employment /development /prosperity /growth/ development of different nations/communities.

·      Land- its character, problems, potential, strength, weaknesses vary from country to country/continents and within countries/continents.

·      Land – remains indestructible and primary factor of production on planet earth - because all systems /network /processes of production have genesis in land.

·      Land – works as a passive factor of production, because land by itself is incapable of producing anything of its own.

·      Land- Human civilization/ society had its origin/genesis in organized agriculture/cultivation of land.

·      Land- and human beings remain inversely related- increasing human population leads to lesser per capita availability of land, causing congestion, over-exploitation of resources and putting environment and ecology at the greatest risk

·      Land- large per capita availability of fertile/productive land has positive co-relationship with physical growth and economic development of any community/ society/nation.

·      Land --Land grabbing/poaching’ by nations - is fast emerging as global trend- having genesis in the spike of  global food prices in 2007-2008.

·      Land – Large areas of land being grabbed/acquired by few developed nations in developing nations –Madagascar/Ethiopia -to grow food for their own people/  for overcoming threat of food scarcity/ controlling land/ controlling resources like water, minerals or forests.

·       Globally, large-scale land deals have been on the rise with land sourcing placed at 20 million hectares between 2005 and 2009; 45 million hectares since 2007-2008; and 227 million hectares since 2000 .

·      Land—its allocation to various uses and its intensity of use differs vastly on this planet. Nations having less productive landmass and less population, are known to make better/optimum use of land resource- Japan, as compared to nations blessed with more land and less population.

·      Land- and its Change of use - primarily responsible for extinction / threatened with extinction - large number  of animals/birds/reptiles/species on this planet

·      India land profile remains vast and varied-- extending from snow-capped Himalayas in the north-- to tropical rain forests in the south . Extensive floodplains are formed by three river basins – Indus, Ganges& Brahmaputra.

·       Ganges- remains   heartbeat of India—as one of the most significant rivers on the planet.

·      Land in the North western part of India is barren in nature, occupied by the Thar Desert.

·      Land – remains central and key to rational planning of human settlements.

·      Land- remains most critical factor in determining shape and size, pattern of development of human settlements- Singapore/Hongkong going vertical- due to limited availability of land.

·      Land- its identification and sub-division, under physical planning is generally based on the pre-defined principles involving determining use of land and   intensity of development on the sub-divided land.

·      Land- remains the basic resource/platform for carrying out the professions of both town planning and architecture

·      Land- all master plans/development plans/zonal plans/area plans are, primarily and essentially, land use plans, defining the pattern /use of land and related parameters

·      Land- Urban planning is largely  related to and a derivative of land use planning and orderly development of land.

·      Land- Majority of urban ills have their genesis/roots in the land /developed land arising out of  its    non-availability in adequate quantity/ quality at affordable cost; restrictive  use of land; inappropriate location ; disputed land ownership; outdated legal framework and restrictive planning framework.

·      Land – remains most valuable resource in urban context. Value of urban land - largely dictated by the land- use prescribed/ permissible in the Master Plans/Development plans/Building bye-laws/zoning regulations governing the concerned land.

·      Land – urban land commands higher premium as compared to rural land; developed land commands higher premium as compared to undeveloped land; commercial land is always priced higher than residential/industrial/ institutional land; land in the city is always priced higher than peri-urban land; land price remain positively related to the size of the town.

·      Land- In adequate availability of developed land and its unaffordable price remains the root cause of all slums/shanty towns -mushrooming in the urban areas.

·      Land- largest ownership of land rests with the government and parastatal organizations.

·      Land- Land based instruments like – property tax, advertisement rights, parking charges, tradeable floor area ratio, Transfer of Development Rights, Accommodation Reservation, Transit Oriented Development etc remain the

best instruments for raising resources for the urban local bodies/parastatal agencies

·       Land- its accumulation and speculation has emerged as the best option for increasing the price of the land and making large profits. Parastatal agencies have emerged as the major players in promoting the art and science of speculation/manipulation of the land for generating large profits from urban development process.

·       Land- Urban land have more density and higher intensity of land use as compared to rural land. Density/Intensity of development goes on increasing with the increase in size/population of settlement and land-use defined for the said land.

·       Land –Urban land pricing remains largely a function of  factors involving; use of land/location/size/shape/ physical features/ physical encumbrances/ boundaries/area/accessibility/ floor area ratio/ permissible height/ density/number of stories permitted/legal encumbrances/ Zoning/ views /neighborhood development/ future development/ suitability for the project/demand & supply etc

·       Land-Ownership pattern remains critical for planned/orderly development besides shaping cities/communities and neighborhoods at the local level.  Singapore has used the mechanism of leasing land for a period of 99 years to the houseowner- instead of transferring its ownership- to create large scale development/ creating highest ownership of housing globally. Ownership of land vest exclusively with state. Only development rights are made available to private sector through a process of open bidding.

·       Land- as a gift of nature, needs to be valued, preserved, conserved, protected and promoted with value addition, in order to optimize its potential for the preservation of communities, environment and ecology.

·       Land- for conservation and preservation, would require redefining and relooking at the planning norms and zoning/building regulations prescribed for planned development of human settlements. Land for preservation, would require community amenities/facilities to be used, on the basis of 27x7x365, which would reduce land component for cities by minimum 25-30%.

·       Land- for preservation would require putting an end to frequent extension of limits of urban local bodies, which convert large agricultural land into urban land. Municipal limits should be extended, as an exception and not as a rule. Before extending urban limits, detailed study and critical evaluation of  existing urban land resource needs to be made, for assessing the additional requirement of land for human habitation.

·        Land- For preserving agricultural land, change of land use from agriculture to non-agricultural uses should be done as an exception rather than as a rule. All permissions for change of landuse should be based on detailed study and analysis of the possible impact on the surrounding habitations, environment and ecology. Detailed policy framework needs to be evolved and put in operation in all state town planning departments, with prime focus on preserving and conserving the land resource.

·       Land- for preservation and conservation would require, land to be put to multiple uses instead of single use, based on objectivity, compatibility and planned development.

·       Land --for preservation and conservation, would also require carrying out a detailed land suitability analysis of planning area, before preparing the development plans/master plans of any settlement. All development/long term  plans should focus and define best options to preserve/conserve the valuable land resource and promote  value addition and  optimum utilization. An exclusive/ dedicated chapter, focusing on land and its effective utilization/management, should be mandated  to be made integral part of   all master plans/development plans.

·       Land- National/state /local level policy framework must be evolved/put in place on priority, so as to clearly define the agenda/framework/objectives for regulating/rationalizing the optimum use of available land resource.

·       Land – for preservation/conservation would require cities/urban settlements to be made more compact. Melting of cities needs to be stopped by minimizing /eliminating uncontrolled urban sprawl, haphazard and unplanned development taking place in peri-urban areas. City shapes/sizes must be redefined to minimize use of land for urbanization/urban uses.

·       Land- All urban planning related tools / plans- Development Plans/ Master Plans/Zonal Plans/Zoning Plans/Layout plans - should be prepared with the prime objective /focus on minimizing quantum of land and maximizing its utilization for urban purpose

·       Land- All building bye-laws, zoning regulations, permissible height and floor area ration for any area should be defined on the basis of making optimum use of available land resource .

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