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- Info
Environmental Change and land use planning
| Author: |
Fotheringham, A.S. |
| Date: |
1992 |
| Periodical: |
Environment and Planning A |
| Abstract: |
In this commentary I explore an issue of rapidly growing significance-the relationship between land-use planning and emerging concepts of environmental sustainability. I draw on a desk study of the planning policy implications of climate change and consider more general implications of the interactions between land use and environmental quality at different scales. Land-use planning is a long-standing instrument of environmental policy, but its emphasis in Britain and elsewhere has been on the efficient use of land and infrastructure, and on the quality of the urban and rural environments. There is, however, growing recognition that the use and development of land are linked to environmental change at all scales: even global environmental problems are generated and impact in localities. Location of activities, form of development, and the timing and phasing of change can influence resource consumption, pollution, habitats, and other elements of the natural and human environments. Sensitive planning could avoid or reduce adverse impacts and might also have a significant proactive role in adaptive responses to environmental change: for example, development control could be a mechanism for internalizing risk in coastal zones subject to sea-level rise, or for facilitating the migration of ecosystems. Although there are limits beyond which growth and development become unsustainable, land-use planning might be one way of making such limits more elastic. These are relatively new and important considerations for planners. Although elements of a wider environmental remit have been recognized for some time, it is only recently that diverse threads have been drawn together to place new emphasis on the full range of environmental implications of the use and development of land. This recognition is now explicit in planning policy guidance issued by the UK Department of the Environment: "The planning system, and the preparation of development plans in particular, can contribute to the objective of ensuring that development and growth are sustainable" (DoE, 1992, paragraph 1-8). Such a commitment is welcome, but the implications for planning in practice are difficult to identify. Although the relationship between land use, planning policies, and environmental sustainability is potentially of great importance, it is complex and remains poorly theorized. Policy is, in some senses, moving rapidly ahead of theory in this field. There is therefore an urgent need to develop a sound conceptual framework for analysis of interactions between the use and development of land and environmental change at all scales. An essential first stage is to identify the significant links; a subsequent and more difficult task is to interpret the concept of sustainable development in the context of land-use planning. Without such a framework, there can be no consistent basis for integrating objectives of environmental sustainability with the land-use planning system. |
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