Land take and industrial zones

Currently, we can see a rapid decline of agricultural land, especially for construction purposes. This negative trend is evident across Europe, the Czech Republic is the country with the fastest loss of land in the EU. One reason for the significant loss of agricultural land is building industrial zones is their utilisation of greenfield areas, and their occupying new areas of agricultural land, often the most the most fertile. The analysis deals with the occupied area (the area of a particular industrial zone), the percentage utilization of that industrial zone, the number of employees in the industrial zone, and the land quality expressed by means of the agricultural land protection class. The results of the analysis show the low usability of industrial zones, the large occupation of agricultural land, and the low benefits to the Czech state and Czech citizens. The results also show poor land use policy in relation to soil protection. This work is followed by the project Sustainable management of natural resources with emphasis on non-production and production ability of soil, the results of which will be included in legislation and binding for spatial planning.

Keywords: soil sealing, land take, land use changes, agricultural land management, land agriculture protection, brownfield