The demand for land: rethinking land use management and regulation

This article aims to bring to light the most important issues connected to land and land use management. New challenges to be faced by public policies emerge: sustainable development processes and resilient communities ask for a different approach to land and land use management and imply a redefinition of institutional boundaries, following the deep interconnection among all ecosystem components. In this scenario, urbanization processes attract more attention because they are directly linked to “land take/consumption” and held responsible for soil sealing. This notwithstanding, all land and land use transformations are to be taken into account, even the ones affecting undeveloped lands (agricultural, green, open lands). The comparative analysis of land (and land use) management approaches on the one hand helps to understand the limits of traditional spatial and urban planning tools and of mere quantitative thresholds; on the other hand it brings to light several best practices and new legal solutions.