Welcome to the Foresight Project on Land Use Futures (April 2008 - present)
How we use land fundamentally affects our economy, the environment and our society.
Over the coming decades we will face new and potentially competing pressures for land.
The Foresight study is a fresh chance to explore the way we view and value land as a resource in the future.
Demographic changes in the UK, the evolution of the global economy and the impact of climate change, are among the challenges that will affect the demands we make on land. For example, climate change will affect patterns of agriculture and biodiversity whilst changing demographics will create further demands for housing and infrastructure.
The project’s aim
The project will explore how our use of land may need to evolve to meet future challenges and how it can deliver economic, social and environmental benefits sustainably.
By combining the most up to date scientific evidence with well-informed futures work, it will assist policymakers in developing land use strategies to manage our future better.
Project process
The project will take a holistic view of the future of land use, taking a broad perspective of the land system. It will look at rural and urban land use.
It will be an in-depth study involving leading experts and scientists from a wide range of disciplines.
The project is currently in the scoping phase. Subsequent phases include:
- Gathering evidence, reviewing and exploring the cutting edge science
- Analysing and combining this evidence base with futures thinking
- Publishing findings at the end of 2009
- Producing a plan of action to take forward the findings.
The project is overseen by Professor John Beddington, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office for Science.
Baroness Kay Andrews OBE, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government and Jonathan Shaw, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs sponsor this project.
The Project will be overseen by a High-Level Stakeholder Group and steered by an Expert Advisory Group.
Read the press notice announcing the project.