Impact of Geospatial Value on Land Management

Background

Hosting 18% of the global population on just 2.4% geographical area, India is blessed with a rich diversity of climate, topography, natural resources, and socio-economic conditions. As a non-renewable ‘finite’ resource supporting primary production and social systems, land resources in India have been underperforming and over-exploited for long. About 78% of India’s geographical area is covered under agricultural and allied activities contributing 18% to GDP (2020), when compared with 40% contribution by other sectoral activities with land as principal component collectively.

With about 23% of total available land eligible for industrial uses, 17% is categorized as wastelands (spread across 28 states) and 13.6% is considered totally unfit or not available for urban, industrial, or agricultural use. Per capita agricultural land availability in India declined 82% from 0.64 Ha (1951) to 0.12 Ha (2019). Besides the pressure of the human population, there are about 540 million cattle and other livestock living off the biomass from the land, which are critical to the economy and livelihoods.

While the country struggles to balance economic growth, human needs, and environmental impacts, according to an ISRO study, about 29.7% (97.85 MHa) of peninsular land has degraded in 2011-13, and during the same period about 83.69 MHa has undergone desertification. In addition, a third of the Indian coastline is experiencing coastal erosion in varying degrees where rising sea levels are rendering the land inhabitable and in some cases, the sea is engulfing land, according to National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR). While the per capita availability of land is reducing gradually, increasing demand and deteriorating quality are triggering multi-fold problems for food and water security.

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Challenges

In classical economics, land is one of three major factors of production along with labor and capital. Growing population and economic development demand an increase in food production, an expansion of infrastructure, and a higher consumption of natural resources. But this comes at a cost. The conversion of agricultural land and forests to urban development reduces the land available for food production. Urbanization and industrialization challenge farmers on the fringes with a risk of collapse of the local agricultural economy. As a host to water resources, land degradation deteriorates the quantity and quality of both surface and groundwater resources. Loss of vegetation exacerbates climate change events, which in turn, are causing even greater degradation triggering negative impacts across the ecosystems.

Impacting close to 60% of India’s GDP, it need not be reiterated that land resource assets have a heavy bearing on the economic growth and future of the nation. With limited availability and increasing pressure, land use change is inevitable for development and social progress. While there is a need for expanding infrastructure to improve the living conditions of a growing population, there is a parallel need to satisfy shifting consumption patterns and limit negative environmental impacts. And while there is also a need for industrialization and agricultural intensification, there is a parallel need to combat climate change and ensure future food and water security. The need for improving crop yields and restoring wastelands in a sustainable manner co-exists with the need to minimize land degradation/desertification and conserve biodiversity. Managing land resources efficiently and sustainably is the only option we are left with. It is time for us to harness ‘spatial intelligence’ and move beyond land record management and land use planning to an Integrated Sustainable Land Management (ISLM).