Assessment of agricultural land use in urban regions as a decision support system using WebGIS

The use of agricultural areas in the town of Klagenfurt (Carinthia, Austria) was assessed from an agro-ecological point of view by the authors. The project was processed in close co-opera-tion with the GIS-department of Klagenfurt. The elaborated data were implemented into a Web-GIS and can now be used as a decision support system. 1. Introductory remarks Agriculture is in urban regions of great importance because of its multifunctionality (produc-tion, biodiversity, green belt etc). Nevertheless the pressure on the agricultural areas in urban regions is steadily growing. Increasing building activities in the urban fringe cause an enor-mous consumption of land and sealing of valuable soil. In conurbations agricultural use is often only a place-marker, which is accepted as long as there are no other interests in more intensive (structural) use. By determinating agricultural-priority-areas the increasing waste of agricultural areas shall be kept low. Furthermore agricultural land use has to be evaluated from an agro-ecological point of view. Landuse in the town’s surroundings should be headed for a minimum of environmental risk and a maximum of biodiversity