Land & Water

Land Resources Planning Toolbox

This category of tools gives prominence to biophysical attributes (climate, soil, terrain, water, etc.) and their interactions in the land evaluation process. The output, in most cases, guides the users to suitable options for land use alternatives, based mainly on biophysical attributes. Land suitability and similarity analysis are typical examples. Documents describing principles, approaches and guidelines for land evaluation are included, as well as different tools for classifying soils based on the suitability for a specific use, capability or potential, fertility constraints and management and linkages to yield, productivity, physical and chemical properties. Sophisticated or simplified modelling of crop growth and yield predictions, also fall into this category.

The tools in this category use as inputs information on both biophysical characteristics  and social and economic conditions and generally incorporate principles, approaches and methods of participatory land use planning, with the overall objective of reaching mutually beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders.

The tools in this category give prominence to the characterization of social and economic settings required for land use planning and includes approaches and methods of participatory decision-making. Biophysical conditions may be considered in these tools, but not in depth.

This category includes databases that can facilitate land evaluation and land use planning by providing information that may serve as inputs for the process. These databases provide maps and data on soil and terrain characteristics, land degradation, land cover, land use, climatic data including future projections, crops and yields, food, agriculture, water resources, adaptability/suitability of identified plant species for a given environment, and socio-economic data and statistics on poverty, population, tenure and gender.

This category of tools do not produce results that have direct use for land evaluation and land use planning, but has a supporting role by providing various types of data  that can be used in land evaluation studies and as input data sets for land use planning.

Number of records: 35
CropSyst is a is a user-friendly, conceptually simple but sound multi-year multi-crop simulation model with daily time step. The model simulates the soil water budget, soil-plant nitrogen budget, crop canopy and root growth, dry matter production, yield, residue production and decomposition, and erosion. Management options include: cultivar...
Type: Model
Scale: Locality/Farm/Site
Thematic areas: Crops - productivity
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor, Modeller
The Global Soil Erosion Modelling platform (GloSEM) provides a global soil erosion map (in Geotiff format) at 25 km spatial resolution for 2001 and 2012. The map is a resampled version of an original 250 m  dataset. The erosion data...
Type: Maps/GIS
Scale: Global, Regional, National, Sub-national/Province/District
Thematic areas: Land degradation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor
The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is an upgrade of USLE that is land use independent. It can be used on cropland, disturbed forestland, rangeland, construction sites, mined land, reclaimed land, military training grounds, landfills, waste disposal sites, and other lands where rainfall and its associated overland...
Type: Model
Scale: Locality/Farm/Site, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Land degradation, Soils - management and conservation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor, Modeller
The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is a powerful tool that is widely used by soil conservationists in the United States and many other countries. The USLE was developed by W. H. Wischmeier, D. D. Smith, and others with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),...
Type: Model
Scale: Locality/Farm/Site
Thematic areas: Land degradation, Soils - management and conservation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor, Modeller
The main goal of these guidelines is to provide a methodology  for implementing in rainfed agricultural systems the key principles  of the Framework for Land Evaluation (FLE): (1) matching the requirements of the land use against the qualities...
Type: Framework/Guidelines
Scale: National, Sub-national/Province/District, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Land evaluation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor
The main goal of these guidelines is to provide a methodology  for implementing in irrigated agricultural systems the key principles  of the Framework for Land Evaluation (FLE): (1) matching the requirements of the land use against the qualities...
Type: Framework/Guidelines
Scale: National, Sub-national/Province/District, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Land evaluation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor
The main goal of these guidelines is to provide a methodology  for implementing in agricultural systems based on extensive grazing the key principles  of the Framework for Land Evaluation (FLE): (1) matching the requirements of the land use...
Type: Framework/Guidelines
Scale: National, Sub-national/Province/District, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Land evaluation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor
The main goal of these guidelines is to provide procedures for conducting land evaluation with particular reference to forestry. The purpose of land evaluation for forestry is to assist decision-making in respect of which land to keep under forests, and choosing between different types of forestry and...
Type: Framework/Guidelines
Scale: National, Sub-national/Province/District, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Land evaluation
User Category: Technical specialist, Scientific advisor
The World Food Studies simulation model (WOFOST is a mechanistic model for the quantitative analysis of the growth and production...
Type: Model
Scale: Locality/Farm/Site, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Crops - productivity
User Category: Technical specialist, Modeller
Type: Educational materials,Maps/GIS
Scale: National, Sub-national/Province/District, Watershed/Basin/Landscape
Thematic areas: Land evaluation
User Category: Technical specialist
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