Political interest mediation at the local level as a factor explaining land take. The case of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia

Land take and soil degradation have recently found increased recognition in EU policy-making. This contribution aims to show drivers for land take by investigating political factors in municipalities in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia. We use Corine Land Cover Data and electoral data to verify hypotheses on the relationship between land-use changes and political majorities, wealth of the inhabitants, the influence of interest groups and influx of new inhabitants. Our findings indicate that higher shares of the conservative as well as the social-democratic parties correlate with increased artificialisation of land. We also confirm that the strongest impact on the artificialisation of land is past artificialisation within the municipality. Another insight is the spillover effect of population growth and wealth of inhabitants on a regional level. Land take decisions by the local governments are influenced by development in adjacent municipalities.