Towards sustainable development exemplified by monitoring land use efficiency in Europe using SDG 11.3.1

Monitoring land use efficiency (LUE) is of great importance for the sustainable development of each country. The identification of regions where land consumption prevails over demographic growth should prompt public administrations to act and establish a recovery programme. This paper took Europe as the research area, and CORINE Land Cover and statistical population data to assess changes and spatial diversity of the LUE status from 2006 to 2018. Results show that, during the 2006–2012 period, LUE was more diversified than in 2012–2018. The differences concern both values of the indicator and the spatial differentiation between regions. Between 2012 and 2018, the number of countries moving towards efficient land use doubled compared to 2006–2012. Great progress towards achieving SDG 11.3.1 was seen in Portugal and Germany, and almost all Balkan countries are moving towards more efficient land use.