Introduction
2. Land-Use and Land-Cover Change—Definitions
3. Factors Influencing Land-Use and Land-Cover Change: An Overview
4. Factors Influencing Land-Use and Land-Cover Change at the Level of the Individual
Land Unit
5. Factors Influencing Land-Use and Land-Cover Change at Aggregate Spatial/
Organizational Levels
5.1. Biophysical Factors Influencing Land-Use and Land-Cover Change
5.2. SOCIETAL Factors Influencing Land-Use and Land-Cover Change
5.2.1. Population
5.2.2. Income and Affluence
5.2.3. Technology
5.2.4. Socio-economic Organization, Culture, and Institutions
5.2.5. Political Changes
6. Conclusions
Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketch
Summary
Since time IMMEMORIAL, humans use land to meet their material, social, and cultural
needs. In this process, they are modifying land resources in various ways, often with
detrimental impacts on the environment and human well-being. Land cover may change
under the influence of biophysical conditions only but, most frequently; it results from
human-induced land-use change.
Land-use and land-cover change is influenced by a variety of biophysical and societal
factors operating on several spatial and temporal levels, and acting in intricate WEBS of
place- and time-specific relationships. At the level of the individual land unit, relevant
biophysical factors include local climate and weather, topography, bedrock and soil
type, surface water, and groundwater. The choice of land use and decisions to change it
are influenced by the size of the household, age, gender, education, employment,
attitudes, values, and personal traits of household MEMBERS, site-specific conditions—
accessibility, landesque capital, regional land-use structure—as well as by
transportation cost, profits, parcel size, competition, costs of production, product prices,
public and private financial SUPPORT, land-management practices, land tenure,


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