Context
India is currently experiencing heavy pressure on its available land resources. The country, with approximately 2.2 percent of the overall global geographical area, accommodates about 18 percent of the world’s population. this makes land a precious Commodity over which various sectors are competing. Additionally, the absence of an integrated, overall concept for spatial and land use planning aggravates conflicts and encourages excessive exploitation of land resources.

Over the last few decades, the land use patterns in India have undergone major changes. Ever-increasing urbanisation and industrialisation are diverting fertile land from its agricultural purpose.

This poses serious challenges for food security, particularly for the vulnerable sections of society. It also threatens the flora and fauna surviving in limited biodiversity hotspots. Against this backdrop, it is important to develop policies and institutional mechanisms promoting coherent land use planning and management.


Objective
The and Use Planning and Management project supports the Indian state planning institutions in developing and implementing standardised instruments for integrated spatial land use planning and management. They will be used for the development and sectoral planning at the central, state, and municipal level and for planning Eco-sensitive Zones, Special Industrial Areas, Special Economic Zones, and Road Requirement Plans.


Approach
The Land Use Planning and Management project facilitates interaction and cooperation between the various planning levels and institutions. The project, therefore, works at the central, state, and municipal level to carry out the following activities:

- Supporting the development of policies and guidelines for integrated land use planning and management. These policies and guidelines are derived through extensive discussions with the main sectoral ministries and bodies, both, at the policy and the technical levels and the technical levels.

- Engaging the central and state departments, the local administrations, private sector, academia, and the local population to develop standard
planning tools and processes for territorial strategic development.

- Bringing together, at state level, cross-sectoral planning institutions with relevant sector authorities to concretise the goals of integrated spatial and land use planning.

- Building specific competencies to apply the developed policies, guidelines, tools, and processes adequately. fte project offers human capacity development measures for technical specialists and managers of cross-sectoral and sector planning institutions at state and municipal level.

Expected Achievements
The project aims at achieving the following results:

- Through the introduction and application of modern planning tools and guidelines, land management and land use planning will become more transparent and balanced, with regard to the ecological, economic, and social aspects.

- Operating procedures and guidelines for intra- and inter-ministerial coordination will be standardised. ftis will facilitate inter-sectoral cooperation among various ministries and agencies at the central, state, and municipal level, which is an essential pre- requisite for developing an integrated land use plan.

- Overall, it is expected that the developed policies, guidelines, tools, and processes for integrated spatial land use planning and management will contribute to a more sustainable and balanced usage of the country’s land resources.