Land use - National Responses (Luxembourg)

The main responses put in place are the Regional Orientation Plan (‘Plan Directeur Régional’ and the National Plan for Nature Protection (‘Plan National Protection de la Nature’). The Regional Plan aims at (i) a more effective and rational spatial organisation of a region through an improved structuring of the built-up areas in towns and villages, (ii) a coordinated location of important regional infrastructures and (iii) the protection and the development of natural areas. The National Plan for Nature Protection, adopted by the government in May 2007 and covering the period 2007-2011 is intended to (i) halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010, in particular by maintaining and restoring threatened species and habitats of national or community interest – see the nature protection and biodiversity common environmental theme – and (ii) preserve and re-establish ecosystem services and processes at the landscape and national scales. The Action Plan on Landscapes (‘Plan Sectoriel Paysages’), which is currently being drafted, is another tool, as well as the cross-sector integrated plan (IVL -  ‘Integratives Verkehrs- und Landesentwicklungskonzept für Luxemburg’) which also deals with the issue of land use change and conservation. Finally, one of the 18 objectives of the second National Plan for Sustainable Development is expressly dedicated to a sustainable territory planning – building, living and working in a sustainable spatial environment – that is complemented by a clear objective with regard to soil use with a consumption of 1 ha or less per day by 2020.

Notes

[1]

The latest comprehensive land use assessment using aerial photography dated back to 1999. Subsequent analyses were partial – as for CORINE Land Cover 2006 update [Figure 2] – or are not yet totally finalized.

Figure 2 - CORINE Land Cover: 2006

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