Integrated Land Management – Overview

Overview

Integrated Land Management (ILM) is a strategic, planned approach to the way we use land and natural resources. This approach aims to balance values, benefits, risks and trade-offs when planning and managing resource extraction, land use activities, and environmental conservation and management.

To learn more about ILM, see:

What is Integrated Land Management?

To find out more about the ILM approach and principles, see:

This practical guide showcases ways to share public land and reduce the human footprint:

Integrated Land Management Tools Compendium

ILM is not a plan or a process. It is a way of doing business and a way of thinking. By working together, we work to avoid, reduce, restore, offset footprint and reduce costs by using a variety of tools and approaches to:

share existing footprint
reuse old footprint
remove old footprint
coordinate development to minimize the new footprint

What is footprint

Footprint is the surface area of land disturbed from its natural condition by human activity. It also includes the impact on the land’s natural resources. Footprint can be temporary or permanent disturbances (for example: land clearings, roads, trails, well sites, industrial sites, etc.).

ILM and the Land-use Framework

The Land-use Framework is a high-level policy that sets out an approach to manage public and private lands and natural resources in Alberta. The vision is that we all work together to respect and care for the land as the foundations for our economic, environmental and social well being. Strategy five in the Land-use Framework promotes the efficient use of land to reduce the footprint of human activities on Alberta’s landscapes. This requires addressing footprint on both public and private land.

ILM is the on-the-ground way to influence land-use behaviour. It will play a crucial role in achieving the vision by promoting the responsible use of public land.

On public land

The Integrated Land Management Tools Compendium sets out a series of tools and best practices that can be utilized by public land-use planners, land users and decision-makers to help implement efficient use of land strategies and reduce the footprint of human activities on Alberta’s landscape.

To read stories about a few ILM examples over the years, visit: Integrated Land Management Success Stories.

On private land

The Efficient Use of Land Implementation Tools Compendium provides a review of tools and best practices by municipalities in Alberta and other jurisdictions. This document is a resource for land-owners and land-use planners for decision-making on private and public land.