Between 2005 and 2008 the built-up and traffic area in Germany rose by 104 ha/day. Hence, the rate of area increase slowed down as compared to the period from 2004 to 2007, when it had reached as much as 113 ha/day. Between 1997 and 2000 the daily growth rate of land use, calculated as a moving four-year average, was as much as 129 hectares; then it began to decline to its current level, falling to 128, 123, 115, 115, 114, 113 and again 113 hectares. The goal of the federal government’s national sustainability strategy is to reduce the daily growth of land use for new built-up and traffic areas to 30 ha/day by 2020.
