Migration: Cities provide better employment opportunities. There is attraction of city life in view of more comfofts’and amenities available there. Therefore, a large number of persons migrate from villages and small towns to the larger cities for better prospects. Migration has led to overcrowding in cities. There has been change in the land use patterns to meet the basic needs for sheltering of migrating population.

Three stages of capital formation:

1. Industrialisation: As a result of industrialisation, industrial activities are replacing agricultural activities as more income and wealth can be generated there. This has led to change in land use pattern. Industries have developed by occupying agricultural, grassland and forest areas. Industrialisation has disastrous impact on natural environment and atmosphere. It has also resulted in various types of industrial hazards like air and water pollution.

Industrialisation has resulted in emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, leading to rise in global temperature. It has polluted the air. Industrialisation has led to water pollution due to flow of chemical and industrial effluents into rivers and other water bodies.

2. Population Growth: Large increase in human population is also responsible for change in the land use patterns. World population has been increasing at a very fast rate since the early eighteenth century. A very large track of forests and grasslands has been converted into agricultural land to provide food for the exploding population.

3. Construction of Large Dams: Land use patterns have also changed because of construction of large dams on the upper catchment of rivers. Large dams have been constructed to provide hydro power and irrigation facilities on a large scale. Construction of large dams have submerged large areas of agricultural land and forests surrounding these dams, thereby reducing the area under agriculture and forested land. These large dams have also led to ecological disasters and loss of habitat species.