The future of local planning and development control

This paper examines the various pressures for state action in respect of land use and environmental management. It then considers the processes through which these pressures are currently being articulated into policies and actions. A brief assessment of the effectiveness of local planning practice follows and then the paper considers the questions which should be addressed in land use and environmental issues in the UK.     

An ecological planning model

In this article a model is proposed that could be used as a basis for ecological planning of natural resources. The role of people as part of the ecosystem is emphasized, and the various factors that should be considered in such planning are discussed. An understanding of ecological planning is dependent on the study of human activities in, and the nature of, natural ecosystems. It also depends on the fact that people are a part of nature, and as a result nature is of value to humans. Realizing the importance of this principle is a prerequisite to studying nature and also for an understanding of the various steps in the ecological planning approach. Realization of these values is often through a series of activities that may result in a negative environmental impact. Nature is described as an interacting group of natural features and processes. In this study both the features and processes are described as natural resources. The use of these natural resources obviously affects them, and if this use is to continue over a long period, both the activity and the resource must be understood if they are to be maintained in a productive state. In order to limit impact and maintain value, a planning aid called zoning is used to assist in the understanding of the processes involved.     

Natural resources planning, management, and sustainable use in China

Almost all the issues of sustainable development in China relate to natural resources. Sustainable development as one of the most important strategies has been incorporated into all the actions related to the planning and management of natural resources in China. This paper gives an overview of the contributions of natural resources and the challenges facing the natural resource sectors. It contributes a series of proposals on the planning and management of natural resources. It also outlines the general framework of the planning system for natural resources and summarizes the Great Survey of Natural Resources Program that the Ministry of Land and Resources is implementing.     

Using ecological criteria to evaluate wilderness planning options in Idaho

Legally designated wilderness areas are acknowledged to be an important element in strategies to conserve biological diversity in United States. However, because of the restrictions on consumptive uses in wilderness, their establishment is normally contentious. Criteria for establishment have typically been associated with opportunity and aesthetic and experiential values. Biological data have not normally played a major role in guiding wilderness establishment. We present four wilderness allocation options for those public lands considered suitable for wilderness designation in Idaho. These options cover the span of choices presently available to wilderness planners in the state and range from not establishing any new wilderness areas to the inclusion of all suitable lands in wilderness. All options are evaluated using spatial biological data from the National Biological Survey's Gap Analysis Project. A conservation strategy that would protect a minimum of 10% of the area occupied by each of 113 native vegetation types and at a minimum 10% of the distribution of each of 368 vertebrate species was evaluated for each option. Only the inclusion of all suitable lands in wilderness, creating a system of 5.1 million ha came close to achieving these goals, protecting 65% of the vegetation types and 56% of the vertebrate species. We feel this approach, which allows planners to evaluate the ecological merits of proposed widerness units along with other values, can provide a means to resolve the impasse over additional wilderness designation in Idaho.     

Simplified planning zones — a reaction to the proposals

The Government has recently published Lifting the Burden which includes the proposed legislation on Simplified Planning Zones. This paper, based on recently undertaken research, specifically considers the reaction of a sample of local authorities and private agencies to the proposals.     

A planning and decision-making framework for ecological restoration

A broad and objective perspective of ecological and socioenomic knowledge is required to underlie a scientific approach to the problems of terrestrial restoration ecology. Uncertainty associated with limited scientific knowledge highlights the crucial importance of the interaction between science and policy in weighing ecological restoration alternatives in relation to other management options. In this paper, we provide a pragmatic definition for restoration ecology that is suitable for extensive terrestrial applications and present a decision framework to help organize and clarify different phases of the decision process as it is related to ecological restoration. We argue that restoration planning should include a wider spectrum of participants and decisions than have traditionally been employed.     

Natural resource economics: Relevance in planning and management

This article provides an overview of natural resource economics. It begins with a summary of historical and current views on resource scarcity. It then discusses economic models for optimal management of non-renewable and renewable resources at the micro and macro levels and evaluates their usefulness in planning, management and policy making.     

Utilization of environmental knowledge for watershed management in Northern Michigan

The Northern Michigan Environmental Research Program was conducted by the University of Michigan's Biological Station and Institute for Social Research to obtain information about the aquatic and human resources of water-rich, resort-oriented northern lower Michigan. Results of the study were directed toward long-term environmental management. Multiple methods were used to communicate study results, including self-contained information briefs, regular contacts and seminars with community leaders and public officials, and mass media. Selected illustrations of project data applied to environmental management problems are cited, e.g., curtailment of nutrient loadings, wetlands protection, improved effectiveness of riparian organizations, and highway planning. A series of shortLakeland Reports, designed to present factual information, general environmental principles, and action implications to a lay audience, proved to be effective. However, it became apparent that environmental decisions were not strongly affected by reports alone. Instead, several mutually reinforcing channels of communication must be employed to develop a climate of receptiveness and understanding to insure environmentally sound decisions.     

Privatisation,liberalisation and simplification of Statutory land use planning in Britain

A central government Consultation Paper issued in 1984 argues the case for simplified planning zones. These are seen to offer greater speed and certainty to developers and are closely related to the Enterprise Zone concept. This paper examines the context to the proposal, reviews the details of the Consultation Paper, and identifies the nature of the response to the idea.     

Theoretical orientations in environmental planning: An inquiry into alternative approaches

In the process of devising courses of action to resolve problems arising at the society-environment interface, a variety of planning approaches are followed, whose adoption is influenced by—among other things—the characteristics of environmental problems, the nature of the decision-making context, and the intellectual traditions of the disciplines contributing to the study of these problems. This article provides a systematic analysis of six alternative environmental planning approaches—comprehensive/rational, incremental, adaptive, contingency, advocacy, and participatory/consensual. The relative influence of the abovementioned factors is examined, the occurrence of these approaches in real-world situations is noted, and their environmental soundness and political realism is evaluated. Because of the disparity between plan formulation and implementation and between theoretical form and empirical reality, a synthetic view of environmental planning approaches is taken and approachesin action are identified, which characterize the totality of the planning process from problem definition to plan implementation, as well as approachesin the becoming, which may be on the horizon of environmental planning of tomorrow. The suggested future research directions include case studies to verify and detail the presence of the approaches discussed, developing measures of success of a given approach in a given decision setting, and an intertemporal analysis of environmental planning approaches.     

Aspects of planning in Scotland: an introductory paper

This paper provides an outline of the development planning and development control systems which operate in Scotland, illustrating that while they share common principles and objectives with the equivalent systems in England and Wales there are a number of important differences both in law and more especially in practice to be appreciated. Future changes are outlined both in relation to the statutory planning system as well as in the broader fields of housing, economic development and the countryside.     

Local plans and planning in England

Whilst the process of local plan preparation and adoption in England is far from complete, the commitment to the statutory planning process has not precluded the use of informal or non‐statutory material either in addition to or instead of statutory plans. This paper attempts to quantify the extent of non‐statutory local planning activity in England, and explores some of the advantages and disadvantages which an informal approach involves.     

Enterprise zones in Britain: the form and consequences of the planning scheme approach

Enterprise Zones have been in operation as part of government policy for over three years. They contain a special form of planning procedures whereby a general planning permission is given for development subject to certain exclusions and conditions. This article summarises and compares the planning schemes operating in all 25 Enterprise Zones in Britain and considers what have been the results of this planning approach to date in the zones. The operation of these planning schemes has not led to a feared lowering of development standards but nevertheless is not regarded as being suitable for wider application in the planning system.     

Regional reports or structure plans? Opportunities for strategic planning in England and Wales

The British Government is proposing a new system of single‐tier development plans for England and Wales, with clear implications for the strategic level of planning. This paper considers a proposal by the Committee of Inquiry into Town and Country Planning set up by the Nuffield Foundation, for a revised strategic planning network which includes a ‘local strategy’. The paper considers the lessons to be drawn from the use of regional reports in Scotland since the early 1970s and concludes on a note of caution for the Government's proposals.     

Natural resource planning: An urban prospective

The use and development of natural resources is becoming a critical concern, especially considering the economic development and stability of the world money market. The question here is one of resources as a political weapon. As resources become more scarce, it becomes necessary to make greater intensive use of resources that are presently available. One dimension that has been missing is the development of urban areas. Resources in this domain have been abused and the question now is how to incorporate these types of decisions into land-use planning to refurbish urban areas. Planning is the key to use of a resource. The world can no longer afford crisis planning. The key dimension to future success in resource problems is preventive planning.     

Zone planning régimes

Recent discussion of Enterprise Zones in England has been concerned with attributing development to the financial package of incentives operating, rather than the simplified planning régime, the author reconsiders the question of the significance of the new forms of planning procedure and suggests that, in the long term, the experiment will have lasting significance for the planning system itself.     

Redistributive state planning: toward an operational framework for an effective spatial development planning

The paper starts from an assessment of regional policy inspired by considerations of social justice. An effort is made to sketch the outline of a top‐down and bottom‐up approach and provide a new profile for regional planning, and for professional planners within the context of contemporary politico‐economic transformations. The planner, from having been a pure technician who does not question the nature of problems faced, must become actively engaged in, and committed to the problems and conflicts of the area, and to the specific proposals put forward.     

Landscape planning: A method applied to a growth management example

This article is the first in a series of three. These articles were prepared to document the growth management process undertaken in Teller County, Colorado, USA. In this article, an 11-step method for landscape planning is proposed. In step 1, an issue, or set of related issues, is identified as posing a problem and/or opportunity to people and/or the environment. In step 2, a goal, or several goals, is established to address the problem or opportunity. In steps 3 and 4, inventories and analyses of biophysical and sociocultural processes are conducted, first at the regional level and then at the local level. Step 5 involves detailed studies (such as suitability analyses) that link the inventory and analysis information to the problems or opportunities and goals. Detailed studies link regional and local information to specific sites. Thus, this method involves a regional-local-specific site hierarchy. In step 6, concepts are developed that lead to a landscape plan in step 7. During step 8, the plan is explained through a systematic educational and citizen involvement effort to the affected public. In step 9, detailed designs are developed that again are explained to the specific individuals who will be impacted by the designs. It is in step 10 when the plan and designs are implemented. Step 11 involves the administration of the plan. The method is illustrated through an example of growth management planning for Teller County and the city of Woodland Park, Colorado. Paper 1 in a series of 3.     

Landscape planning and the estate landscape

The country estate has a particular place in the English countryside and its contribution to the landscape scene is distinct and valuable. The paper describes an approach to planning a large country estate of parkland, woodland and estate villages in Cheshire. A Reconnaissance Survey led to the Outline Strategy for six ‘landscape types’ discovered on the estate. The Landscape Conservation Plan is described and the crucial importance of conservation measures is emphasised.     

The concept of delay in development control

This paper discusses the phenomenon of delay in development control. The Government's stress on minimising delay, and the crude measurement used, are contrasted with a discussion of the causes and the accurate measurement of delay. It is suggested that ‘delay’ is a strongly value‐laden term, and that local planning authorities are in many cases being criticised for factors wholly outside \ their control. Minimising delay by speeding decision‐making may not be altogether beneficial to society.