A Data-Driven Farm Typology as a Basis for Agricultural Land Use Decisions

As a large proportion of land is managed by professional family farms, agent-based models are of interest for simulating agricultural land use. This requires a deep understanding of the farm characteristics that influence land use decisions. We developed a methodology to identify a data-driven farm typology by combining participatory methods, multivariate statistical modeling and spatiotemporal parcel-based land cover analysis between 2000 and 2020. A formal questionnaire provided data on the farm characteristics, which were subjected to principal component analysis and k-means clustering. The resulting data-driven typology complemented a production-based approach to understanding land use decisions. The main influencing factors were farm size, share of private land, dominant crops and participation in European schemes such as NATURA2000 and agri-environment-climate measures. Overall, family tradition and a high return on investment were the most important motivations for maintaining current land use practices, while a higher income, income support and diversification were the most important reasons for pursuing new land use options. Differences between the farm characteristics highlighted the importance of the motivations for land use decisions between the farm types. This methodology can be used to generate data-driven typologies suitable for implementing agent-based models to explore sustainable land management options in a changing environment.