Temporal groups of land use practices
These are land use rotations, or changes in land use over time. A very common temporal group of practices is the cultivation of a crop followed by a fallow phase. The cultivation phase and the fallow phase can be viewed as two distinct land use practices because each phase has quite different components and different management requirements. However, together they form a group of practices because what happens in one phase affects the performance of the other. During the fallow phase soil fertility is restored and crop performance in the subsequent cultivation phase is improved (Sinclair, 1999).
Spatial groups of land use practices
Spatial groups of land use practices are much less common than temporal groups. They are groups of practices where the functionality of one practice is affected by its location with respect to another. For example a homegarden surrounded by a live fence forms a spatial group of land use practices. The live fence is a discrete practice as it is managed seperately from the rest of the garden and has a specific function - that of protecting the garden (Sinclair, 1999).