biostudies-literatureUnknown68(5)Meyer MALand consumption for settlement and infrastructure development has been extensively discussed and analyzed in the last two decades. In Germany, existing governance at the state level seems to hardly foster effective land management at the municipal level to achieve overarching goals at the level of the European Union such as "no net land take". Germany aims to limit land consumption to less than 30 ha per day by 2030. This goal is hardly translated to the municipal level where actual land-use decisions are taken due to the municipal planning sovereignty. In order to address these deficiencies, this study characterizes land consumption in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region with self-organizing maps and identifies major factors explaining cluster differences using boosted regression trees. WeEnvironmental management755-771https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC7983356biostudies-literatureSpatial Indicators to Monitor Land Consumption for local Governance in Southern Germany.PMC7983356Lehmann IFruh-Muller AMeyer MASeibert OfalseSpatial Indicators to Monitor Land Consumption for local Governance in Southern Germany.Land consumption for settlement and infrastructure development has been extensively discussed and analyzed in the last two decades. In Germany, existing governance at the state level seems to hardly foster effective land management at the municipal level to achieve overarching goals at the level of the European Union such as "no net land take". Germany aims to limit land consumption to less than 30 ha per day by 2030. This goal is hardly translated to the municipal level where actual land-use decisions are taken due to the municipal planning sovereignty. In order to address these deficiencies, this study characterizes land consumption in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region with self-organizing maps and identifies major factors explaining cluster differences using boosted regression trees. We2021-01-01T00:00:00Z2021 Nov2025-05-29T20:45:15.991Z2022-02-09T08:02:24.817ZS-EPMC79833563375117610.1007/s00267-021-01460-3