New land report highlights importance of Earth Observation data
A new report by leading Leicester academics has called for the Midlands to become a national Living Lab where land is used for multiple purposes to help the UK meet its Net Zero and biodiversity goals.
The land sector must deliver a reduction of 58 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtC02e) by 2050 to meet the Government’s ambition to balance the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activities with the amount being actively removed from the atmosphere.
Experts from the University of Leicester and Space Park Leicester say multifunctional land management can help the sector achieve these goals, provide food security and sustainable productivity and support community livelihoods and rural economies. They believe the Midlands’ mix of arable farming, post-industrial land, high biodiversity zones and rapidly growing urban areas offer a natural laboratory to trial integrated land management approaches.
Their report sets out several things that need to happen to achieve this, including the need to deliver training on soil health, biodiversity metric and Earth Observation data supported by knowledge exchange hubs.
Dr Francesca Faedi, who is Academic Liaison for Commercial and Innovation at Space Park Leicester and Space Economy Lecturer at the University of Leicester’s School of Business, said: “I’m thankful for the opportunity to write this briefing paper on Multifunctional Land Use and the importance of Earth Observation data for Government and stakeholders.
“Earth observation data can help us identify productive agricultural land, opportunities for multifunctional benefits and less productive land which could be freed up to meet other needs. This is why one of the things we’re calling for in this policy briefing is the need to deliver training on Earth Observation data.”
The ‘Accelerating Multifunctional Land Use Policy’ says multifunctional landscapes can help mitigate trade-offs between food production and environmental health. For instance, introducing agroforestry where trees are integrated into the farming system or buffer zones in arable regions can increase biodiversity by 30 per cent to 50 per cent while maintaining agricultural yields.
- Read the report, released in conjunction with the University of Leicester Institute for Policy