Introduction

Abstract

Land use is a key human activity, which, through the exploitation of natural resources, fosters socio-economic development and alters structures and processes in the environment. At the European level, the Sustainable Development Strategy stresses the need for real integration of economic, environmental and social issues across policy areas. In particular, land use policy aims to promote sustainability pathways of natural resources use and rural development through the decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation while supporting social cohesion. Manifested with the idea of multifunctional land use,the environment is understood to provide a portfolio of functionalities, which, through proper land use management, can be exploited as environmental goods and services for the benefit of society. A sustainable way of managing land use and exploiting environmental functionalities requires tools that can provide anticipations of possible impacts of land use decisions at all levels of governance. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.