Land use planning results from a reasonable compromise
between the environmental potential mea- Ž
sured in terms of the availability of natural resources
and the social demand measured in terms . Ž
of the requirements of goods and services by specific
human communities . Land use planning and neces- .
sary supporting data are crucial to developing coun-tries that are usually under severe environmental and
demographic strains see, e.g. Food and Agriculture Ž
Organization, 1995 . Third World countries have .
difficulty in meeting the high costs of controlling
natural hazards through major engineering works and
rational land use planning Guzzetti et al., 1999