LAND IT: A Decision Support System for Optimising Land Use Planning Strategies

Abstract. Over the past two decades, Portugal has been severely affected by large-scale forest fires. In response, the Portuguese government launched a programme aimed at transforming the landscape to make it more resilient to wildfires and economically sustainable. The process of creating new land-use proposals, however, remains highly complex, involving multiple stakeholders and error-prone workflows reliant on disconnected geographic information systems (GIS) and spreadsheets.

This paper presents LAND IT, a web-based spatial decision support system (SDSS) designed to optimise OIGP (Integrated Landscape Management Operations) creation process. An OIGP is a management model that define a new landscape proposal. Unlike conventional GIS software, LAND IT provides a structured framework that streamlines version control, scenario comparison, and stakeholder collaboration. The system enables users to create and manage multiple proposals iteratively, preserving decision-making knowledge and minimising costly errors. It also integrates essential geospatial datasets, automates dependency management, and enhances data-driven decision-making.

Mação, a wildfire-prone municipality, was selected as the pilot case study due to its strategic role in implementing nine OIGP. The results were approved by Mação’s stakeholders as they demonstrate significant improvements in efficiency, transparency, and the ability to compare alternative landscape transformation strategies. While LAND IT is currently tailored to Mação, its scalable architecture allows for future expansion to other municipalities.

LAND IT represents a significant step towards more resilient and sustainable territorial management, ultimately contributing to wildfire mitigation and long-term environmental planning.