Although land use is not a feature of the environment as such, it does represent the current status of the land surface as a whole, and therefore also reflects the condition of the environment. Land use is reflected by land use patterns, based on terrain morphological units.

Several factors have dominated the development of South African land use patterns, of which the most important are rainfall distribution, mineral deposits, harbours and transport routes. Harbours were the initial links between South Africa and the rest of the world. The development of areas around harbours and transport routes to the mineral fields of the interior, have lead to industrial and commercial development nodes. These in turn have given rise to the establishment of cities and towns. Gold, for example, has generated enormous peripheral development, resulting in the creation of the economic powerhouse of Gauteng.

Rainfall and favorable climatic conditions have made agriculture possible, resulting in four major regions of farming activity. These are the intensive farming districts of the Cape mountain areas with their winter rainfall where wine, fruit and wheat are produced; the moist sub-tropical east coast region of KwaZulu-Natal with its sugar-belt as well as the eastern Lowveld; the summer rainfall area in the maize-producing region of Gauteng and the Mpumalanga Highveld, the North-West Province, the Northern Province, the Free State and the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands; and the high rainfall escarpment with its exotic forest plantations.

These forms of land use utilise natural resources and contribute towards national growth and development, but have also altered the natural environment and have been the cause of tremendous environmental degradation. As in the case of all forms of land use except conservation, there will always be trade-off between environmental impacts and economic development, an issue that has become more prevalent and contested since the latter part of the twentieth century

Other forms of land use include areas classified as natural, such as cattle and sheep farming regions and areas classified as wild, where conservation is the prime land use.