The role of soil science in the land use negotiation process

The hierarchial concept of land use planning becomes less relevant in a soc iety with continuous interactions between stakeholders, researchers, planne rs and politicians. In this context, land use negotiation rather than land use planning appears to be the most appropriate concept. In the negotiation process, good duality data about the land is important as land properties are, obviously, key elements to be considered. Case studies at farm and reg ional level have been analysed to explore answers to a number of questions. How can soil data be presented most effectively? What are the research nee ds? How can the large existing body of data be mobilized most effectively? Studies on regional land use in Costa Rice used methods in a logical sequen ce including projections, explorations and predictions of land use patterns . The work involved upscaling of data, obtained tit farm level, to the regi onal level. Work at farm level focussed on prototyping procedures in which farming systems were 'designed' by close interaction between farmers and sc ientists, including applications of precision agriculture. Soil data demand s were analysed, emphasizing the effects of using data with different degre es of detail together with the application of pedotransfer functions which effectively transform existing data into parameters that are difficult or e xpensive to measure directly. This not only facilitated interactions with s takeholders but also with colleague scientists in interdisciplinary teams. In addition, use of Geographical Information Systems allowed visual present ations of alternative geographical land use patterns that wore associated w ith various scenarios, thereby facilitating the interaction processes. A pl ea is made to increase interaction of stakeholders and researchers by consi dering research programmes as vehicles for joint learning.