Habitat fragmented by numerous roads near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

'Land use' is also often used to refer to the distinct land use types in zoning.

Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce, change or maintain it" (FAO, 1997a; FAO/UNEP, 1999). ^[1]

Land use and regulation[link]

Land use practices vary considerably across the world. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization Water Development Division explains that "Land use concerns the products and/or benefits obtained from use of the land as well as the land management actions (activities) carried out by humans to produce those products and benefits." ^[2] As of the early 1990s, about 13% of the Earth was considered arable land, with 26% in pasture, 32% forests and woodland, and 1.5% urban areas.

As Albert Guttenberg (1959) wrote many years ago, "'Land use' is a key term in the language of city planning."^[3] Commonly, political jurisdictions will undertake land use planning and regulate the use of land in an attempt to avoid land use conflicts. Land use plans are implemented through land division and use ordinances and regulations, such as zoning regulations. Management consulting firms and Non-governmental organizations will frequently seek to influence these regulations before they are codified.

Land use and the environment[link]

Land use and land management practices have a major impact on natural resources including water, soil, nutrients, plants and animals. Land use information can be used to develop solutions for natural resource management issues such as salinity and water quality. For instance, water bodies in a region that has been deforested or having erosion will have different water quality than those in areas that are forested. Forest gardening, a plant-based food production system, is believed to be the oldest form of land use in the world.^[4]

The major effect of land use on land cover since 1750 has been deforestation of temperate regions.^{[dead link][5]} More recent significant effects of land use include urban sprawl, soil erosion, soil degradation, salinization, and desertification.^[6] Land-use change, together with use of fossil fuels, are the major anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide, a dominant greenhouse gas.^[7]

According to a report by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, land degradation has been exacerbated where there has been an absence of any land use planning, or of its orderly execution, or the existence of financial or legal incentives that have led to the wrong land use decisions, or one-sided central planning leading to over-utilization of the land resources - for instance for immediate production at all costs. As a consequence the result has often been misery for large segments of the local population and destruction of valuable ecosystems. Such narrow approaches should be replaced by a technique for the planning and management of land resources that is integrated and holistic and where land users are central. This will ensure the long-term quality of the land for human use, the prevention or resolution of social conflicts related to land use, and the conservation of ecosystems of high biodiversity value.

The citadel of Kastellet, Copenhagen that has been converted into a park, showing multiple examples of suburban land use.

Urban growth boundaries[link]

The urban growth boundary is one form of land-use regulation. For example, Portland, Oregon is required to have an urban growth boundary which contains at least 20,000 acres (81 km²) of vacant land. Additionally, Oregon restricts the development of farmland. The regulations are controversial, but an economic analysis concluded that farmland appreciated similarly to the other land.^[8]

See also[link]

	Agriculture and Agronomy portal
	Sustainable development portal

References[link]

External links[link]

• Guttenberg, Albert Z. 1959. 'A Multiple Land Use Classification System', Journal of the American Planning Association, 25: 3, 143 — 150
• Land use defined at Encyclopedia of Earth
• Land Use Law News Alert
• Land Use Law by Prof. Daniel R. Mandelker (Washington University in St. Louis School of Law)
• Land Use Accountability Project The Center for Public Integrity
• Schindler's Land Use Page (Michigan State University Extension Land Use Team)
• Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University
• Powell, W. Gabe. 2009. Identifying Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) Using National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) Data as a Hydrologic Model Input for Local Flood Plain Management. Applied Research Project. Texas State University–San Marcos. http://ecommons.txstate.edu/arp/296/
• Journal of Transport and Land Use

Look up land in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Dry land redirects here. It may refer to:

• The part of the Earth that is not covered by water
• Drylands, areas with low amounts of water in the soil
• Dry Land, the only album by How We Live

Land may refer to:

• Landscape
• Landform, physical feature comprises a geomorphological unit
• Land (economics), a factor of production comprising all naturally occurring resources
• Land law
  • Real estate, a legal term for land, used in regard to ownership
  • Real property, a legal term similar to real estate

In music:

• Land (band), American rock band
  • Land (Land album), the first album by the band
• Land (Týr album), an album by Týr
• Land (1975–2002), an album by Patti Smith
• Land (The Comsat Angels album), an album by The Comsat Angels
• Lands (band), Japanese rock band
• Dah (band), a former Yugoslav/Belgian rock band, known as Land during 1975-1976 period

People:

• Edwin H. Land (1909–1991), American scientist and inventor
• Frank Land, British information systems researcher
• Frank S. Land (1890–1959), Americal founder of Order of DeMolay
• Frank William Land (b. ~1961), British mathematician
• Greg Land (b. ~1965), American comic book artist
• Harold Land (1928–2001), American tenor saxophonist
• Michael Land (b. 1961), American composer and musician
• Michael F. Land, British neurobiologist

As a synonym for a region belonging to a people:

• Country
• Nation
• Motherland
• Fatherland
• Homeland
• -land, a suffix used in the names of several countries and other regions

As a geographical place:

• Land, California
• Land, Norway
• Land Glacier, Antarctica

As a division of a country:

• Lands of Denmark
• Lands of Finland
• Lands of Germany
• Lands of Norway
• Lands of Sweden
• Ziemia, Polish for "land", a unit of administration in Poland

Other usages:

• Land Instruments International, A company specialising in infrared temperature measurement and emissions monitoring equipment
• LAND, a type of denial-of-service attack
• Landing, the end of a flight
• In Rifling, lands are the raised areas between grooves in gun barrels

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Look up use in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Use may refer to:

• Use (law), an obligation on a person to whom property has been conveyed
• Use–mention distinction, the distinction between using a word and mentioning it

See also[link]

• Use case
• User story
• USE (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Yashwant Sinha
Indian Minister for External Affairs
In office 1 July 2002 – 22 May 2004
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Jaswant Singh
Succeeded by	Natwar Singh
Personal details
Born	(1937-09-06) September 6, 1937 (age 74) Patna, Bihar, British India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party

Yashwant Sinha (born November 6, 1937, Patna^[1]) is an Indian politician and a former finance minister of India (1990–1991 under Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and March 1998 – July 2002 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee)^[2] and foreign minister (July 2002 – May 2004)^[3] in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet. He is a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, currently the largest Opposition party in India.

Early life[link]

Born and educated in Patna, Bihar, Sinha received his Masters Degree in Political Science in 1958.^[1] Subsequently, he taught the subject at the University of Patna till 1960.He resigned from the BJP vice presidency declaring that he was dissatisfied with the party's action following the defeat in the general elections of 2009

Bureaucratic career[link]

Yashwant Sinha joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1960 and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure. He served as Sub-Divisional Magistrate and District Magistrate for 4 years. He was Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the Finance Department of the Bihar Government for 2 years after which he worked in the Ministry of Commerce as Deputy Secretary to the Government of India.

From 1971 to 1973, he was First Secretary (Commercial) in the Indian Embassy, Bonn, Germany. Subsequently, he worked as Consul General of India in Frankfurt from 1973 to 1974. After working for over seven years in this field, he acquired experience in matters relating to foreign trade and India's relations with the European Economic Community. Thereafter, he worked in the Department of Industrial Infrastructure, Government of Bihar and in the Ministry of Industry, government of India dealing with foreign industrial collaborations, technology imports, intellectual property rights and industrial approvals. As Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Surface Transport, Government of India from 1980 to 1984, his main responsibilities were road transport, ports and shipping.

Political career[link]

Janata Dal[link]

Yashwant Sinha resigned from the Indian Administrative Service in 1984 and joined active politics as a member of the Janata Party. He was appointed All-India General secretary of the party in 1986 and was elected Member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament in 1988.

When the Janata Dal was formed in 1989, he was appointed General Secretary of the party. He worked as Minister of Finance from November, 1990 to June 1991 in Chandra Shekhar's Cabinet.

BJP[link]

He became the National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party in June, 1996. He was appointed finance minister in March, 1998. He was appointed as Minister for External Affairs on July 1st 2002. In the Lok Sabha elections of 2004, he was defeated in Hazaribagh Constituency. He re-entered the Parliament in 2005. On June 13, 2009, he resigned from the post of vice president of BJP.^[4]

Finance minister[link]

Sinha speaking at World Economic Forum on East Asia in 2008

Yashwant Sinha was the finance minister until July 1, 2002, when he exchanged jobs with foreign minister Jaswant Singh. Sinha, during his tenure, was forced to roll back some of his government's major policy initiatives for which he was much criticised [1]. Still, Sinha is widely credited for pushing through several major reform measures that put the Indian economy on a firm growth trajectory. Among them are lowering of real interest rates, introducing tax deduction for mortgage interest, freeing up the telecommunications sector, helping fund the National Highways Authority, and deregulating the petroleum industry. Sinha is also known for being the first Finance Minister to break the 53 year tradition of presenting the Indian budget at 5 pm local time, a practice held over from British Rule days that sought to present the Indian budget at a time convenient to the British Parliament (1130a GMT) rather than India's Parliament.';kl'

Sinha has written a comprehensive account of his years as Finance Minister titled "'Confessions of a Swadeshi Reformer'".^[5]

Personal life[link]

Yashwant Sinha has a wide range of interests including reading, gardening and meeting people. He has widely travelled and has led a number of political and social delegations. He played a leading role in many negotiations on behalf of the country. Mr. Sinha's wife is Nilima Sinha, one of India's leading children's writers and President, Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children. He has a daughter, Sharmila who is a writer and married to Ashok Kantha, an IFS officer. He has 2 sons, Jayant and Sumant. Jayant is an IIT Delhi and Harvard Business School graduate. He is currently a Partner at Omidyar Network http://www.omidyar.com/team/jayant-sinha. Sumant is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta and was a Dean's Fellow at The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. He is the Founder and Chairman of ReNew Wind Power, a renewable energy power producer. Sumant Sinha starts his own firm. [2]</ref>.

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Yashwant Sinha, a profile:Finance Minister, Government of India". http://www.indianembassy.org/special/cabinet/sinha.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-30. 
2. ^ "Yashwant Sinha gets finance, Advani home (Indian Express)". http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980320/07950504.html. Retrieved 2007-09-30. 
3. ^ "Indian government reshuffled". BBC News. 2002-07-01. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2077483.stm. Retrieved 2007-09-30. 
4. ^ Yashwant Sinha quits as BJP vice president
5. ^ Confessions of a Swadeshi reformer at publisher site. http://books.google.com/books?id=onp5GQAACAAJ. Retrieved 2008-11-04. 

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Felix Baumgartner (born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria) is an Austrian skydiver and a BASE jumper. He is renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he has performed during his career. Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones.

Biography[link]

He was born on 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria.^[1]

In 1999 he claimed the world record for the highest parachute jump from a building when he jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[2]

On 31 July 2003, Baumgartner became the first person to skydive across the English Channel using a specially made fibre wing.^[3]

Baumgartner set the world record for the lowest BASE jump ever, from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.^[4]

He became the first person to BASE jump from the completed Millau Viaduct in France on 27 June 2004^{[citation needed]} and the first person to sky dive onto, then BASE jump from, the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Sweden on 18 August 2006.^[5]

On 12 December 2007 he became the first person to jump from the 91st floor observation deck, then went to the 90th floor (about 390 m (1,280 ft)) of the then tallest completed building in the world, Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan.^[6]

[edit] Red Bull Stratos

In January 2010, it was reported that Baumgartner was working with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull to attempt the highest sky-dive on record.^[7] Baumgartner was going to make the 120,000 ft (36,600 m) jump from a capsule suspended from a balloon filled with helium, intending to become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier; the feat was scheduled to take place sometime in 2011.^[8][9][10] Joseph Kittinger, who holds the records Baumgartner is attempting to break, was advising Baumgartner during the "Stratos" mission in the hopes of getting scientific data on next-generation full pressure suits.^[7][11] However, on October 12, 2010, Red Bull announced it was placing the project on hold after Daniel Hogan filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, California in April, claiming he had originated the idea of the parachute dive from the edge of space in 2004 and that Red Bull had stolen the idea from him.^[12][13] The lawsuit was resolved out of court in June 2011^[14] and on 5 February 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported that the project would be resumed.^[15]

On 15 March 2012 he completed the first of two test jumps from 71,581 feet (21,818 m). During the jump he spent approximately three minutes and 43 seconds in free fall, reaching speeds of more than 360 miles per hour (580 km/h), before opening his parachute. In total, the jump lasted approximately eight minutes and eight seconds and Baumgartner became only the third person to safely parachute from a height of over 13.5 miles (21.7 km).^[16]

See also[link]

• Michel Fournier, who has been working on a 25 mile jump for several years.^[17]
• Joseph Kittinger, world record holder for skydiving from 102,800 ft
• Yves Rossy, the first man to cross the English Channel using a jet-powered wing

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Red Bull Stratos Project
• Felix Jumping from the Christ Redemeer - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

External media
	Felix Baumgartner