Land consumption as part of humanresource consumption is theconversion of land withhealthy soil and intacthabitats into areas forindustrial agriculture, traffic (road building) and especiallyurbanhuman settlements. More formally, theEEA^[1] has identified threeland consuming activities:

1. The expansion ofbuilt-up area which can be directly measured;
2. the absolute extent of land that is subject to exploitation byagriculture,forestry or other economic activities; and
3. theover-intensive exploitation of land that is used for agriculture and forestry.

In all of those respects, land consumption is equivalent to typicalland use inindustrialized regions and civilizations.

Since often aforementioned conversion activities are virtuallyirreversible, the termland loss is also used. From 1990 to 2000,1.4 million hectares (3.5×10^⁶ acres) of open space were consumed in the U.S.^[2] In Germany, land is being consumed at a rate of more than 70 hectares (170 acres) every day (~250 thousand hectares (620,000 acres) per 10 years).^[3] In European Union, land take is estimated approximately about to 1.2 million hectares in 21 EU countries over the period 1990–2006.^[4]

Urban growth reducesopen space in and aroundcities, impactingbiodiversity andecosystem services

Land loss can also happen due to natural factors, likeerosion ordesertification - nevertheless most of those can also eventually be tracked back tohuman activities. Another slightly different interpretation of the term is the forced displacement orcompulsory acquisition of a native people or settlers from their original land due toland grabbing, etc. Again, in most cases, this will be due to economic reasons like search forprofitableinvestment andcommodification of natural resources.

Reducing global land loss, which progresses at an alarming rate, is vital since theland footprint, the area required both domestically and abroad to produce the goods and services consumed by a country or region, can be much larger than the land actually used or even available in the country itself.^[3][5]

Whileland prices have surged in the first few years of the 21st century, land consumption economy still lacksenvironmental full-cost accounting to add the long-term costs ofenvironmental degradation.

The major effects of land conversion foreconomic growth are:

• Land degradation
• Habitat loss – built-up areas support only particularly adapted species
• Soil degradation – loss orcontamination oftop soil by civilizationwaste and generalpollution
• Soil compaction – buildings, heavy machinery and vehicle traffic compact the soil to a degree that macrobioticsoil life is eradicated
• Impervious surfaces –asphalt andconcreteseal off the soil from the atmosphere and disrupt naturalwater andbiogeochemical cycles

• Land use
• Ecology
• Environmental issues with soil
• Human impact on the environment

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