New Method to Assess Territorial Land Occupation Pressures

New Method to Assess Territorial Land Occupation Pressures | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article New Method to Assess Territorial Land Occupation Pressures Jean-Marc Salotti This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8431066/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Growing pressures on land arise from competing demands of food, energy, urbanization, and ecosystem conservation within a finite territorial surface. Existing indicators, such as ecological footprint or biocapacity, provide aggregated assessments but do not quantify how close a territory is to fully occupying its exploitable land under specific demographic and policy assumptions. We introduce the Territorial Land Occupation Rate (TLOR), measuring the ratio of land required for agriculture, artificialized surfaces, energy production, and ecosystem preservation to total exploitable land. TLOR accounts for population size and policy-dependent parameters, allowing consistent scenario comparisons. We apply TLOR to metropolitan France using recent data and examine two contrasting scenarios: (i) an energy-transition pathway with increased nuclear and biofuel production replacing fossil fuels, and (ii) a reindustrialization scenario phasing out fossil and nuclear energy while expanding industrial activity and renewables. In the first scenario, fossil-fuel replacement fully occupies exploitable land, leaving little or no margin for other land uses. In the second, TLOR exceeds unity, indicating that land constraints conflict with current population levels. TLOR provides a transparent, flexible tool for evaluating land-use feasibility and trade-offs under demographic and policy choices. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8431066","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":576145071,"identity":"983db4cf-6d9e-4214-9a7d-1baef06ad25c","order_by":0,"name":"Jean-Marc 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