Land use planning involves deciding how land should be utilized – from green spaces and agricultural sites, through residential and industrial zones, and into green spaces and open areas. Land use planning helps us minimize our environmental footprint by using only what is necessary and not overusing resources.

Land is a valuable and limited resource that plays a key role in meeting human and ecosystem needs. Urban areas contribute to economic development by offering housing, industry and commercial space; agricultural land provides food and fiber to meet population growth; forest land provides wildlife habitat, raw materials for lumber industries as well as protect water quality and supply. Wetlands and water bodies serve as sources of sustenance while coastal fisheries offer commercial as well as recreational fishing opportunities.

Land is becoming scarcer every year and monitoring trends in land use patterns is essential in helping policymakers and stakeholders work toward programmes such as The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

However, disparities between land-use trends and plans are inevitable for various reasons, such as classifications and measurements of data, analysis methods and interpretation methodologies, sampling timeframes, etc. Additionally, identifying land use trends on a national scale is challenging due to activities occurring mainly within specific urbanizing geographic areas; so solutions must be found that address this challenge; this article explores how dynamic adjustments to general land-use planning may help alleviate contradictions between current policy orientation and actual demand, while simultaneously keeping legal standing intact and providing economic benefits in addition to guidance functions and legal benefits without losing legal standing status.