1.2: Land

INTRODUCTION

Our planet has a land and water surface area of approximately 510 million square kilometres divided between the land area (148.9 million km²) and water area (361.13 million km²). Land area is 29% of the total, leaving behind 71% as the water surface. These ratios are however dynamic and there are minor changes as either of the two, land and water surfaces, encroach upon each other.

Geography enables the human population to engage in their economic activities, and thus the interaction of land (water surfaces included), population and economic activity generate the space for creating, distributing, competing for, and sharing power over land people and economy. This process is often titled Politics and the space for power-play gets known as a 'political unit’.

LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN

It must however be remembered that these are simple definitions which do not capture the deeper realities of the creation of the universe and its movement through an eternity of space and time. We leave that dialogue to the knowledge domain of religious and pure reason. Recognizing the limitations of our knowledge domain, the Global Barometer of Facts and Opinion is largely restricted within the self-made boundaries of what may be called ‘Practical reason’. The chapter on Geography as well as all other chapters of this short book may be please to read within these knowledge limitations. This important point has also been explained in the introductory chapter of the book.

TYPES OF LAND measurement of two types of land in the G & G Global Barometer.

Beginning with the distribution of planetary surface between land area and water area, there can be many types of land. Each type has an inherent value in terms of its capacity to accommodate the population, its economic potential and political significance. Here lies the dynamic dimension of all the four namely land, population, economy, and politics, to generate power. That is the reason why we have grouped these four in the part one of this short book. Together they constitute, in our definition, the sources of power. We attribute to them a changing and dynamic character. In another word, we treat them as ‘variables’ in the ‘fixed contexts’ of political units or spaces. We have deliberately chosen the title of ‘space’ rather than ‘political unit’. When we use the word ‘space’ we generally wish to refer to space of ‘authority’, which might be derived from sources broader than what is commonly understood as ‘political’. We treat this subject in greater detail in part two of this book. Related to and titled as space of power.

It would be legitimate to raise the question that how can be given a fixed, as opposed to variable, character to either sources or space of authority when their power potential says land to accommodate people, as well as the economic and political significance of different types of lands, different types of people, population characteristics, change over a period of time. This would indeed be a legitimate question to ask.

We address this question by including the dimension of ‘Time’ in part three of our book. More details on that will be provided as we reach there, but a short lead at this point might help, the reader. In Part One, our measurements generally begin with the year 2020. Those measurements are fixed in the ‘spaces’ identified in Part Two. However, when we move to Part three we generate the capacity to move our Timeframe’. This provides a dynamic or moving character to the qualities of the entire range of indicators included in Part One and Part Two.

To explain through an example, the economic and political significance of a people living in a piece of a desert can drastically change if a mineral is discovered in it and the technical manpower to harness its economic benefit becomes available. But all potential benefits generate potential vulnerabilities or dangers. A dialectic between the two might be leading to generating the measurement identified in the answer displayed in Part One measurement of the G & G Barometer.

CONCLUSION

We thus conclude the introductory section of Chapter One of Part One of the book, dealing with global geography. This extended introduction is equally applicable to the remaining chapters as well as parts of the book because it identifies the mutually interactive and dynamic character of the contents of all the eleven chapters of the book. The reader may please keep that in mind while reading the ‘Glossary Section’ of each chapter in this book. Each chapter will have an ‘introductory section’ and a Glossary Section. In the subsequent chapters, the introductory section might be shorter because some of the basics outlined in the recent chapter will be equally applicable to them as well.

With this move to section two in which we describe two types of land. Two types have been chosen from a wider list of 10 types on which data are provided in the World Bank, compiled dataset which is one of the primary sources on which the G & G Barometer is drawing upon as the source data. We provide details of that in Part Four of the book dealing with the Methodology and the Sources of data employed by G & G Global Barometer of Facts and Opinions.

TYPES OF LAND

Measured in the G & G Global Barometer

Type # 1: Land Area (sq. km)

Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases, the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

Type # 2: Arable land (% of land area)

Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.

Types of land by world bank development indicators

1. Land area (sq. km)

2. Rural land area (sq. km)

3. Urban land area (sq. km)

4. Agricultural land (% of land area)

5. Arable land (% of land area)

6. Cereal cropland (% of land area)

7. Permanent cropland (% of land area)

8. Forest area (% of land area)

9. Permanent pasture (% of land area)

10. Terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area)

LAND INDICATORS DASHBOARD

Glossary of Land Indicators

Arable land (% of land area): Arable land includes land defined by the FAO as land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow. Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.

Land area (sq. km): Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

Population density (people per sq. km of land area): Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers. Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

Rural land area (sq. km): Rural land area in square kilometers, derived from urban extent grids which distinguish urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.

Urban land area (sq. km): Urban land area in square kilometers, based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.

Note: Microstates and islands those account for less than 1 per cent of the world population were excluded from the analysis.

Share of land area used for agriculture (1961-2018)

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Further Reading

Land Use