The evolution of land take in Estonia since 1991: the need for regulations and consistent data collection methods

In 2011, the European Union set a ‘no net land take by 2050’ goal, but legally binding documents are missing. The European Environment Agency measures land take within functional urban areas, mainly covering larger cities and their surroundings. Several European countries have started to monitor land take and set goals to constrain it. Estonia is not one of these countries, and the average artificial area per person has grown. This article aims to clarify the evolution of land take in Estonia since 1991 and to demonstrate that land take is happening inside and outside the functional urban areas, although the population has decreased. A desk study, documentary and GIS analyses are applied. The main implications of the study are that land take has occurred because of many different aspects, and a proper methodology for data gathering and regulations is needed to limit land take. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ .