Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (in land use)

So we’ve looked at the impact of travel on global environmental change though greenhouse gas emissions and the extinction of species as a result of habitat fragmentation and invasive species. It’s now time to turn our attention to a third indicator, land use change.

With the technological advancements over the last 2 centuries reducing the constraints on human movement, there has been an acceleration in the alteration of landscapes. This in turn has in turn led to an increasing concern about the ecological consequences of land use change.

The direct impacts of travel on land use change are clearer than ever with growing road, rail and air links aiming to combat decentralisation and create an all-encompassing global information nexus according to Cervero (2001). The removal of green space and urbanisation caused as a result is highlighted in a fantastic series of interactive maps. Of particular interest are the ones that show the length of road, fig. 1, and number of paved and unpaved airports per country, fig. 2.

Figure 1. Map showing the length of road per country (kms)

While the level of road in China and the USA is unsurprising owing to their size, it is interesting to note that France has the 7^th largest amount in the world with 1,027,183km of land tarmacked in order to transport cars. To improve the map, though, it would be ideal to see how the level of road has changed over time and what land uses were before.  



Figure 2. Map showing the number of airports by country

The airport map demands more attention, however, with the level of land devoted to concrete airports lower than it perhaps appears. In the U.K. for example, of the 505 airports counted 199 remain unpaved. This therefore raises questions relating to the extent to which travel really does impact on land use change, and whether the building of airports is as detrimental in the removal of green space as suggested.

While the indirect impacts of travel on land use change are less clear, they are perhaps greater and more widespread. As travel technology improvements have promoted increased trade and subsequent population growth, urbanisation and the concretisation of land have grown in parallel. While it is difficult to measure the exact impact of population and trade growth, Huston (2005) suggests the rate of land use change is greater than ever.