Land use is the way that land is used or unused by humans in a place. This can be planned and controlled by governments or can emerge with the choices of landowners. Land use has a significant impact on quality of life, economic growth, sustainability, environment and resilience. The following are common examples of land use.

Agriculture: Crops	Agriculture: Livestock
Beaches	Blue Space
Bodies of Water	Brownfield Land
Commercial	Conservation Area
Extractive Industries	Forests / Natural Ecosystems
Gardens	Government
Green Space	Heritage Sites
High Density Urban	High-rise Buildings
Industrial	Institutional
Low Density Suburban	Low-rise Buildings
Mid Density Urban	Mid-rise Buildings
Military	Mixed Use Commercial
Mixed Use Industrial	Mixed Use Residential
Mixed Use Transportation	Mobile / Manufactured Housing Park
Multifamily Structures	Offices
Parks	Pasture / Range
Public Infrastructure	Public Space
Rail	Recreational Facilities
Residential	Seasonal / Vacation Homes
Single-Family Attached	Single-Family Detached
Tourism & Culture	Transportation Infrastructure
Utilities	Vacant Lot
Waste Management	Water Infrastructure
Waterfront	Wetlands

Blue space are water features of an urban area such as a canal, river or lake.

Brownfield land is land that was previously used for industrial or commercial purposes that is polluted or potentially polluted. These are sometimes abandoned and may sit for many years undeveloped.

Extractive industries are uses such as mining that are likely to have a large impact on the land.

High density and high-rise uses aren't the same. For example, it is possible to have high density with buildings of 2 to 5 stories that are close together. Likewise, suburban areas may be dotted with high-rise buildings without being particularly high density.

Mixed use residential indicates flexible zoning that is designed to produce downtown-like or village-like neighborhoods with high walkability whereby people can live close to work, shopping, recreational facilities, education, green space and so forth.

Mixed use transportation indicates that roads and other transportation infrastructure have been specially designed to support multiple uses. For example, a train station with a park on its roof or a road that is designed to be safe for recreation and play.

The classic types of land use are agriculture, residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and public space.

In future, land use may be oriented more towards sustainability, resilience and quality of life. This may involve more detailed and specific types of land use. For example, high density living spaces that also have a great deal of green space, public space and resilience features such as food production.

Public space is a critical type of land use in a city that provides freedom of movement and supports quality of life such as the right to play. This is viewed as distinct from transportation infrastructure such as roads unless roads are mixed use whereby they include features such as gardens and parks.

It is common to calculate the land footprint of a product or service. For example, solar panels on a rooftop are arguably zero or low footprint as compared to land that is used for solar panels alone.

48 Examples of Land Use

Cities

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