EU-LUPA - European Land Use Patterns

Main research areas

• Current European land use patterns and land use changes, dynamics and trends over the last 16 years (1990-2000-2006) as well as the driving forces behind.
• Assessment of to what extent existing land use patterns throughout Europe are in line with the general spatial development principles and how this picture will look like if no extra policy action is taken and new territorial dynamics come into play
• Relations between land use patterns (and more specifically urban land use patterns) and drivers of development such as geographical, demographic and cultural influences, climate change, transport, employment, GDP and other economic structures
• Efficiency of land use patterns efficient in relation to these aspects taking into account the relations between urban areas and open space (non-build areas)
• Assessment of the land use development and land use patterns in particular types of regions
• Evaluation of how these developments can (e.g. through cooperation initiatives) be coordinated and create a development potential.

Main results envisaged

• Identification of scope of existing spatial data and information related to the aspects of land use (urban, non-urban, rural, natural, etc.), land use patterns, land use change (dynamics and trends) and policy-relevant typologies
• Methods of measuring and monitoring land use processes (data and indicators development)
• Input to the ESPON database (data, indicators, typologies)
• Maps visualizing land use processes in Europe in different administrative levels (European, national, regional and local): where are the areas of urban land use and fragmentation, connected areas and stepping stones for rural land use and high quality open space? Mapping European land use patterns and land use change
• Relations between specific land use patterns and performance of European regions, between urban areas and open space at a certain distance, between urban sprawl and specific features (e.g. mountains) and between land use efficiency and aspects such as population, transport, employment, GDP and how can these relations be measured and visualised and which of
  these relations are suitable to use in territorial research at European scale
• Spatial distribution and specifications of land use development patterns in cross-border regions and the differences between patterns inside neighbouring cross-border regions and between border regions and inland