Show Case 1 - IOER FDZ

Understanding changes in land use

How far have we come in achieving the ‘30-hectare target’?

As part of its National Sustainability Strategy, the German government has set a target of limiting the growth of settlement and transport areas to less than 30 hectares per day by 2030 (30 minus x). This corresponds to an area of approximately 42 soccer fields, which is the maximum amount of new land that may be designated for this purpose each day.

The rationale behind the 30-hectare target is to ensure efficient and sustainable use of soil, which is a finite resource.

In 2030, around 43 hectares were designated daily for new residential and transport areas.

These areas have been used to create residential areas, industrial sites, roads and squares, and sports and recreation areas, for example. Over the course of a year, this amounts to around 157 km² and is commonly referred to as land consumption. Until now, most of the land converted for this purpose has been agricultural land.

Although land consumption has been reduced by almost a third since 2011, efforts to reduce new land consumption must be further intensified if the target of ‘less than 30 hectares per day’ is to be achieved by 2030.

In line with the EU, the German government plans to develop settlement and transport areas only on land already used for this purpose by 2050. To achieve this, the concept of land recycling (net zero target) has been developed.

The IOER Monitor as a data basis for evaluating and monitoring land use.

The IOER Monitor is a research data infrastructure of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER). It provides information on land use structure and its development, as well as on landscape quality for the Federal Republic of Germany.

It is based on the combined processing of official geodata, specialist geodata and statistical data. Indicators are derived from these and presented in map and table form. For a better understanding of the individual indicators, they are also provided with meta-information.

To calculate the indicators, the IOER has developed an area scheme that allows for a complete description of the Earth's surface using area categories. This scheme can be used to calculate how much of the Earth's surface humans use for various purposes.

The IOER Monitor helps cities and municipalities to develop in a way that conserves land.

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