Sustainable Management of Land Resources

Development of land resources in a sustainable manner requires the integration of economic, environmental and social policies and their implementation in a mutual reinforcing manner. The concept of "sustainable development" was mainly disseminated as a long-term oriented policy by the World Commission on Environment and Development under the "Our common future" report sub¬mitted in the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1987. Sustainable development of land resources can be defined as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations of meeting their own needs (Brundtland Commission)". The developmental mea¬sures appropriated in a sustainable way are associated with the human activities that ensure the harmony of social, economic and ecological balance.The high growth rate of human population in many of the developing nations is putting growing pressure on the finite land resources. This is a major cause of land degradation. Desertification, droughts and depletion of natural resources affect more than 2 billion people across the globe, where it is estimated that this situation might worsen due to the unsustainable practices of soil and wa¬ter under the present scenario of climatic changes. The potential risks arising from the violation of sustainable principles are sometimes hard to conceive in the present situation. Nonetheless, the concussion of harmful and unsustainable activities of humans might hurt the habitants even more badly and can influence the survival of future generations. This book covers a wide range of sustainable developmental measures which work towards a common goal of achieving sus¬tainable pattern of development by envisaging different uses of land resources, the planning of land-use patterns, the formation of policies towards the equi¬table distribution of land and addressing the challenges while supporting the development of land resources.The topics of this book are diverse where introductory chapters provide an in¬sight of land-related definitions, the future trends related to land resources and give an overview of cause-problem-symptom relationship. They provide a brief description of the services of ecosystem and extent of the land practices along with the planning of watershed management. Further, a lot of attention has been paid to the challenges in sustainable management of land resources that throw light on the key issues of water management and climatic adaptations that can be resolved through the implementation of an integrated approach. Lead¬ing chapters of the book provide a glimpse on the promotion of sustainable management along with the planning of resource utilization by devising long term planning of environmental goods and services in a cost-effective manner. The objective is to promote international cooperation and develop a framework which entails the response against the climatic conditions through the applica¬tion of multi-dimensional and focused goals.In accordance with the above outline, the book gives a detailed description of innovations in the administration of land management by detailing the needs for continuous change and formation of innovation platforms that facilitate the conduct of land management. Aligning with the same structure, the tools and approaches for the assessment of sustainable development illustrate the steps involved under this approach while screening the evaluation and conduct of management process. The concluding chapters of this book scrutinize the cli¬matic changes and their major challenges while going through the phase of development of resources followed by the mitigation and adaptation of strate¬gic policies to overcome these dramatic situations. Lastly, it delivers the major objectives and scope of sustainable land management by describing the major objectives of holistic approach in framing the policy, conducting research and development, sharing knowledge and providing incentives for financing the de¬velopmental projects.The main objective of this book is to guide the reader on the development of land resources in a sustainable manner by maintain the ethical aspects of sustainable management, application and implementation of required policy reforms and technological upgradations, revised approaches for risk management, assess¬ment of unsustainable practices so as to intelligently support the sustainable development in the global context.