Clicking on the image will open a new browser window that will display Land Use for this watershed area. The legend provided on this page defines the Land Use in a color coded system that will define the areas on the Land Use map.

Orange County, California is a rapid developing area. Land Use is constantly changing and this information may not reflect the current conditions of the land.

Land Use, in its strictest sense, is the description of the human cultural activities on the land and water. While most efforts in resource inventory are focused on what biophysical components are present in an area, Land Use deals with the activities [that use] the biophysical components.

Land Use is the description of human enterprises on the land and water, and may have the following components:

• Activities (the actual use of land and related structures and modifications to the landscape).
• Use-related land cover (where cover implies a use or is important to interpreting patterns or impacts of use).
• Declared interests in the land (where use decisions may be affected by such interests).
• Legal entities (legal boundaries, tenures, and regulations that affect use).