Multifunctional landscapes

There is increasing pressure on UK landscapes to feed, house and power a growing population, to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss and to build a greener, more equal and resilient economy.

The Royal Society’s policy report Multifunctional Landscapes, published on 1 February 2023, explores how science can guide land use to meet multiple societal needs. The report assesses strategies for integrating food production, housing, biodiversity, and climate resilience within the UK's landscapes.

Key recommendations include:

• Land use decision-making needs to embrace a multifunctional approach that considers multiple market and non-market land-based outputs
• Research and innovation is needed to improve the sustainable productivity of all land-based outputs
• Policy Coordination: Disjointed policies risk overcommitting finite land resources. A coordinated approach is essential for sustainable land use
• New infrastructure will be needed to provide skills, training and advice for land managers to enable them to adapt their businesses and thrive on delivering multiple outputs from their land
• A novel data science-driven approach is needed to develop a high-quality common evidence base to underpin land use decisions
• The UK countries should develop and coordinate spatially explicit national land use frameworks to ensure coherence across different areas of land use policy and between national and local scales

The report is the latest in a series of outputs which have explored scientific, economic and sociological drivers in land use policy. Follow the links below to discover more of the Royal Society’s work in this area.

Members of the Steering Group included Sir Charles Godfray FRS, Sir Ian Boyd FRS, Allan Buckwell, Judy Ling Wong CBE, Dame Fiona Reynolds FBA, Jacqueline Rosette, Peter Smith FRS, John Varley OBE, and Baroness Young of Old Scone.

Read the full report (PDF).