Housing Rural Communities: Connecting Rural Dwellings to Rural Development in Ireland

This paper explores the interaction between rural development policy and planning policies for rural housing within the context of Ireland. Drawing on an interpretive approach to policy analysis, the paper examines competing narratives of ‘the rural’ within the policy arena that underpin a fragmented approach to rural sustainable development. The evidence points to a disconnection between these spheres of public policy marked by a strained relationship between rural communities and regulatory planning, not least with regard to the preferred shape of the rural settlement pattern. It is argued that any housing policy for rural areas must give full regard to the social, economic and cultural attributes of rural life and not just the criteria of environment and landscape. In this context, partnership based local planning processes would enable the exploration of competing rural narratives to be re-orientated towards local needs, capacities and the perspectives of local people and the adoption of cultural, environmental and community values within the policy process.     

Landscape Policy and Planning Practice: The gap in understanding,Ontario, Canada

Distortions inevitably occur between the creation of policy and its practical application. The gap that exists between the understanding of landscape held by the policy writers and that of the implementers of land-use planning legislation in Ontario, Canada is revealed. The story is told over a nine-month period between the passing and defeat of one planning act, and the introduction of another. A change of government and a substantive shift in governing ideology resulted in the radical transformation of the policies protecting landscapes in this Canadian province's land-use development process. The research documented took place over that crucial period and gives a window into the dynamics of landscape conservation that is created by upper- and lower-tier differences. Higher-level policy makers have a considerable task in protecting landscapes within land-use planning that demands rational and bounded terminology and processes. Conversely, the local implementers of that policy need more flexible and site-specific strategies to conserve those landscapes on the ground. It is this gap that has stalled the protection of landscapes in Ontario, where governments and communities struggle to conserve their valued landscapes - a phenomenon not uncommon in other locations. Some strategies on how to bridge that gap in understanding and improve the prospects for landscape conservation are given.     

Landscape Policy and Planning Practice: the gap in understanding, Ontario, Canada

Distortions inevitably occur between the creation of policy and its practical application. The gap that exists between the understanding of landscape held by the policy writers and that of the implementers of land-use planning legislation in Ontario, Canada is revealed. The story is told over a nine-month period between the passing and defeat of one planning act, and the introduction of another. A change of government and a substantive shift in governing ideology resulted in the radical transformation of the policies protecting landscapes in this Canadian province's land-use development process. The research documented took place over that crucial period and gives a window into the dynamics of landscape conservation that is created by upper- and lower-tier differences. Higher-level policy makers have a considerable task in protecting landscapes within land-use planning that demands rational and bounded terminology and processes. Conversely, the local implementers of that policy need more flexible and site-specific strategies to conserve those landscapes on the ground. It is this gap that has stalled the protection of landscapes in Ontario, where governments and communities struggle to conserve their valued landscapes - a phenomenon not uncommon in other locations. Some strategies on how to bridge that gap in understanding and improve the prospects for landscape conservation are given.     

Accommodating New Housing Development in Rural Areas? Representations of Landscape,Land and Rurality in Ireland

Abstract

Housing development in rural localities represents one of the most visible and contested indicators of landscape change, as many European rural landscapes that are regulated by weak planning regimes are transformed by incremental suburbanisation. However, scant attention has been given to understanding stakeholder perceptions and interpretations of the physical processes of landscape change and preferences towards accommodating new housing development in rural areas among stakeholder groups. We address this deficit by drawing on a series of stakeholder focus groups undertaken in Ireland addressing: 1) stakeholder perceptions of landscape change and 2) attitudes towards future change scenarios based on digitally manipulated images of landscape change. The focus group analysis suggests a nuanced interpretation among rural residents of the impact of accommodating housing development, particularly in balancing local demand for rural housing with preferences for maintaining a sense of ‘rural character’; however, there were variations across rural space dependant on the extent of development experienced in recent years.     

Analyzing public preferences concerning woodland development in rural landscapes in Scotland

This paper considers the decision-making aspects of a closer integration of woodlands with other land uses in rural landscapes in Scotland regarding their socio-economic components and in view of positive implications, which woodlands have for the environment. The research follows a semi-qualitative route and applies a quantitative method of Q-analysis to identify public attitudes towards landscapes by integrating ecological, socio-economic and aesthetic criteria. Some innovative perspectives on the areas of consensus and conflict between people, concerning the future development of rural areas are put forward. The research categorizes landscape preferences and preferences for woodlands, and shows that these preferences are complex. It arrives at a number of conclusions about the role of woodlands in landscape changes, adds to practical suggestions on policy and management decisions for transforming landscapes towards sustainability and suggests that woodland has an important role to play in the integration of aesthetic, ecological and socio-economic components in landscape management in Scotland.     

Optimising rural land health: From landscape policy to community land use decision-making

Implementation of sustainable landscape policy directions can be held back by various constraints. These limitations may include: an absence of reliable integrated landscape character predictions, unproductive tensions arising from poorly informed public and institutional debate, low levels of political resolve due to uncertainty, and limitations on program and project design due to either inadequate availability, or ineffective use of ecological and social data. The need for new methodologies to speed the attainment of sustainable land use is pressing when considered in the context of information indicating that the condition of the world's ecosystems remains in decline. This decline is measurable by the changes in ecosystem services. Taking an ecosystem services view offers an opportunity to address some of the limitations noted earlier. The ecosystem services concept links natural resource management more clearly to the broader functionality of natural systems. Ecosystem services like clean water, productive soils and distinct flora and fauna are generated or maintained by healthy functioning ecosystems. Dwelling on these services and the practices that alter them defines the reasons for natural resource management. Modelling these ecosystems and their services is the key way to understanding these relationships. The utilisation of land use modelling methods to inform, and be informed by community and stakeholder landscape preferences, represents a potential step forward in the evolution of approaches to deliver sustainable landscape policy objectives. This paper presents a summary of examples of a multi-criteria land use optimisation technique that has been used to envision land use combinations most likely to achieve sustainable landscapes in Germany. A number of the sustainable landscape principles arising from Victoria's rural land stewardship project, such as use of an ecosystem services framework to better inform long-term land use planning along with calls to better connect community input to landscape function and land use decisions, are also considered.     

Multifunctional landscapes in a rural,developing country context: conflicts and synergies in Tshidzivhe,South Africa

Available examples of multifunctional landscapes are derived from developed countries, and do not typically shed light on the spatial clashes and synergies between traditional subsistence and commercially intensive production activities in developing countries. This paper explores the relationships between multiple land uses in a rural South African landscape, and in particular, the interactions between a community involved in subsistence agriculture and mixed livelihoods, and adjacent commercial forestry. Using both field and desktop methods, the paper aims to enhance understanding of landscape conflicts and synergies in this developing country context. The findings reveal a landscape polarised between highly productive monofunctional commercial forestry and tribal authority lands comprising a continuum of human settlement and indigenous vegetation. Conflicts and synergies centre around the natural resources required for these uses. Proposed policy solutions for landscape management include the need for better understanding of dual economy landscapes; maximising land use synergies; and providing direct community benefits and livelihood opportunities.     

Human impact on the abundance of useful species in a protected area of the Brazilian Cerrado by people perception and biological data

Studies about relationships between people and landscapes have shown that local communities can affect the abundance of plant species useful to humans, which raises the question of how landscape management processes might modify the abundance of useful plant species in a forested area. We addressed this issue based on people perception and biological evidence. This study was undertaken in the Araripe National Forest, a protected area of sustainable use of natural resources in Brazil. Our results showed that the studied landscape experienced modifications in abundance of species caused by management processes. For instance, phytosociological data for the managed areas showed a greater abundance of the more salient useful species compared with useful species that have lower local importance. The comparison of historical and current aerial images of the landscape indicated that plant density had increased in forested managed areas where agricultural practices were stopped. Despite this, local perceptions indicated that the abundance of most of the useful plant species in the managed areas had decreased over time.     

论乡土景观及其对现代景观设计的意义

该文探讨了乡土景观的含义,论述了解读乡土景观对现代景观设计的意义,提出乡土景观是指当地人为了生活而采取的对自然过程和土地及土地上的空间及格局的适应方式,是此时此地人的生活方式和价值观在大地上的投影。因此,乡土景观是包含土地及土地上的城镇、聚落、民居、寺庙等在内的地域综合体。这种乡土景观反映了人与自然、人与人及人与神之间的关系。乡土景观的这种理解包含几个核心的关键词：即,它是适应于当地自然和土地的,它是当地人的,它是为了生存和生活的,三者缺一不可。这可以从乡土景观的主体、客体及相互关系方面来理解解读乡土景观对现代景观设计的意义在于理解景观是乡土经验的一种历史记载,帮助设计师用种新的、非自我的视角,设计内在人生活的景观,从种不自觉的、没有设计师的景观和唯设计师的景观,走向自觉的为使用者而设计的景观。     

Transforming landscapes and identities in the south Wales valleys

Abstract

In contrast to the declining socio-economic legacy of the loss of coalmining and heavy industry, the landscapes of the south Wales valleys have witnessed a remarkable environmental transformation within living memory. Yet an apparent paradox exists between reported community pride in these landscapes with emerging community-led economic initiatives, and seeming indifference towards or disconnection from them. In this paper, we draw upon analysis of qualitative material from two pieces of research in different Valleys’ localities to explore landscape relationships with respect to radical landscape changes, reported disconnections and emergent community-led countryside activities. We consider these in the context of emerging models and notions of landscape identities. We conclude that the changed landscape character in the Valleys is impacting on landscape perceptions, valuation and uses with new existential identities emerging amongst some. Greater insights into evolving landscape identities might inform better land use policy and natural resource management to bring about socio-economic and environmental benefits.     

Why landscapes of the past are important for the future

Landscapes change because they are the expression of the dynamic interaction between natural and cultural forces in the environment. Cultural landscapes are the result of consecutive reorganization of the land in order to adapt its use and spatial structure better to the changing societal demands. Particularly in Europe, history has recorded many successive and even devastating landscape changes, which have left barely any relics today. Today, the changes are seen as a menace, as a negative evolution because they cause a loss of diversity, coherence and identity, which were characteristic for the traditional cultural landscapes that are rapidly vanishing. This growing concern is also expressed in the European Landscape Convention, which will be used as a start for the analysis in this article. Three periods of landscape dynamics are considered: the traditional landscapes before the important changes that started in the 18th century, the landscapes of the revolutions age of the 19th to 20th century, and the post-modern new landscapes. The combined effect of the driving forces such as accessibility, urbanization, globalization and the impact of calamities have been different in each of the periods and affected the nature and pace of the changes as well as the perception people have had about the landscape. Values change accordingly and so does the way of using and shaping the landscape. It is argued that this changing perception also influences what kind and aspects of landscapes are studied, protected and managed. Diversity and identity of cultural landscapes are central in the discussion. It is shown that coherence between small composing elements in a broader spatial context is important for the legibility of the landscape and that the ability to tell the (his)story of a place strongly enhances the identity and the overall value. This offers criteria for inventorying and assessing landscapes, which is needed to define future management and development. Although the general trends of future development of the European landscapes are rather well known, planning and managing future landscape remains difficult and extremely uncertain. The processes and management in past traditional landscapes and the manifold relations people have towards the perceivable environment and the symbolic meaning it generates, offer valuable knowledge for more sustainable planning and management for future landscapes.     

Planning Rural-Urban Landscapes: Railways and Countryside Urbanisation in South-West Flanders,Belgium (1830–1930)

In the international literature on today’s urban condition, Flanders is presented as prime example of urban sprawl, generally described as unplanned incremental development induced by the quantum leap of private car ownership. The research on rural-urban landscapes in south-west Flanders qualifies and substantiates this assertion by analysing pre-war keystone processes of infrastructure planning in relation to land-use patterns and landscape transformations. The research reveals that not only the development of rural-urban landscapes reaches back far beyond the welfare state, fuelled by railways prior to highways, but also shows that the supposedly chaotic hybrid landscape has its roots in drawn-out landscape ideologies inscribed in public works policy. The analysis—which crosses the divides between disciplines (landscape and infrastructure planning), concepts (rural-urban, modern-traditional), and geographical scales (national, regional, local)—reveals consistently planned mechanisms of public works policy and landscape change underlying both the diffuse regional urbanisation patterns and local landscape transformations, which are generally perceived as spontaneous or vernacular developments. Infrastructure planning facilitated a spatial organisation that attributed centrality to the transport network rather than the metropolis, and that conceived a resilient infrastructure framework rather than a stylistic spatial constellation in order to steer and geographically root heterogeneous modernisation processes within the landscape.     

Landscape planning and community participation: Local lessons from Mullaghmore, the Burren NationalPark, Ireland

Issues relating to community participation in landscape management, as well as the manipulation of the community for political ends, are addressed. It is argued that the current fashionable participatory model of development and policy formulation requires closer scrutiny and may be unrealistic in certain contexts. A case-study approach is adopted, whereby the role of the community in attempts to construct a visitor interpretative centre at the foot of Mullaghmore Mountain, within the Burren National Park, Ireland, is analysed. The complexity of the term community is exposed, and important questions about who speaks for the community are raised. It is concluded that local development, including ecosystem and landscape management, is best approached neither from a 'top-down' nor a 'bottom-up' developmental model. It is suggested that insights from adaptive co-management models, which promote a multi-level management approach, whereby local knowledge and experience are incorporated within enabling local and extra-local institutional structures, may provide a viable alternative. Finally, it is argued that human-environmental interaction in a specific place, including the management of common pool resources, needs to be situated within the historical, ecological and cultural narrative of its human ecology.     

Associations between Landscape Preferences and Place Attachment: A study in Røros,Southern Norway

Associations between place attachment and preferences for local landscape categories were investigated. The subjects were the inhabitants of the Røros area in Southern Norway, a World Heritage site designated for its history of mining and unique architectural attributes. Revealed landscape preferences were clustered into four categories (from most to least preferred): Wildlands, Farm environment, Cultural landscapes and Modern agriculture. Significant positive associations were found between place attachment and two of these categories (Wildlands, Farm environment), indicating that place attachment had a positive effect on attractiveness of landscapes that have a natural character, and landscapes that contain historically important elements. Since both attachment to a place and preference for natural and traditional landscapes reflect positive emotions, the findings may partly be explained by the tendency to evaluate an environment along a pleasant-unpleasant dimension. Another explanatory factor may be that the subjects primarily pay attention to the recreational/restorative functions of the landscapes shown, and that focus on alternative functions (e.g. residential functions) could lead to different associations between place attachment and landscape preferences.     

“平战”结合的社区可食景观营造 ——基于传染性疾病防控的思考

社区是与人们日常生活最为密切的空间,社区内的景观承载着居民日常休闲和社会交往的功能。在传染性疾病暴发和防控期间,人们出行范围与时间受到限制,社区成为人们可活动的最大区域,社区景观则成为人们唯一可接触到的绿地空间,其重要性不言而喻。可食景观倡导在景观设计中利用可供人类食用的植物,不仅可以加深绿地与民众生活的深度融合,还可以提供新鲜优质安全的食品,实现景观与自然、城市与乡郊、美观与食用的融合。通过对社区外、社区内、家庭半户外3个层次的公共空间进行可食景观的营造探索,构建社区传染性疾病防疫圈和蔬菜供应缓冲链,以期成为"战时"生命花园和"平时"社区花园,使有限的社区公共空间承担更多的健康韧性功能,为未来可食景观在城市社区中的应用提供具有指导意义的理论基础和实践方法,试图为实现健康中国的宏伟目标提供可参考的社区发展途径。     

Landscape planning and community participation: Local lessons from Mullaghmore,the Burren NationalPark,Ireland

Issues relating to community participation in landscape management, as well as the manipulation of the community for political ends, are addressed. It is argued that the current fashionable participatory model of development and policy formulation requires closer scrutiny and may be unrealistic in certain contexts. A case-study approach is adopted, whereby the role of the community in attempts to construct a visitor interpretative centre at the foot of Mullaghmore Mountain, within the Burren National Park, Ireland, is analysed. The complexity of the term community is exposed, and important questions about who speaks for the community are raised. It is concluded that local development, including ecosystem and landscape management, is best approached neither from a ‘top-down’ nor a ‘bottom-up’ developmental model. It is suggested that insights from adaptive co-management models, which promote a multi-level management approach, whereby local knowledge and experience are incorporated within enabling local and extra-local institutional structures, may provide a viable alternative. Finally, it is argued that human–environmental interaction in a specific place, including the management of common pool resources, needs to be situated within the historical, ecological and cultural narrative of its human ecology.     

"人性化"场所——解析大连城市道路景观

从大连市特定的文脉结构切入,从城市道路景观与城市交通、用地规划协调发展;凸显自然景观、体现文化传承;主体要素与客体要素"共生"三个方面分析了大连城市道路景观的"人性化".最后指出,城市道路景观不应仅限于纯物质景观的秩序美,而是要形成能包容城市流动人群相关活动的、符合人们心理和生理需求的"人性化"场所.     

Transformative actions on communities and landscapes: the case of Kaldabruna village

ABSTRACT

The dynamic relationship of people to landscapes changes according to the context; as regimes change the balance of power shifts, resulting in different values arising where landscapes are perceived in different ways and new landscape uses examined. Changing landscapes can bring a restoration of hope to a place. This paper examines the role that an evolving landscape, both physically and culturally, in a small, rural Latvian community played in the formation of a revitalised landscape identity. By combining new and old traditions, self-esteem rose and in turn contributed to further changes to the landscape with influence rippling outwards to neighbouring areas. We have used observation, workshops and ongoing dialogue as data collection methods at the site. We draw on historical and individual narratives to tell the story of the landscape and then draw some conclusions regarding the transformative actions upon the communities and the landscape.     

Land-use planning and public preferences: What can we learn from choice experiment method?

In this article we discuss the economic approach to evaluate landscape preferences for land-use planning. We then use the choice experiment method to examine public preferences for three landscape features – hedgerows, farm buildings and scrubland – in the Monts d’Arrée region (in Brittany, France), in the context of re-design of landscape conservation policy by the local environmental institute. Surveys were undertaken on two user groups, visitors and local residents. Our objective was to obtain empirical evidence of the difference between the preferences of tourists and residents, for landscape attributes. We then analysed the welfare changes of tourists and residents affected by different landscape programmes. Our results point out the strong divergence between the landscape preferences of the public and those of local public actors. The comparison of the estimated values of willingness to pay for single-attribute landscaping action shows some divergence between residents’ and tourists’ ranking of preferences for agricultural landscape areas. Finally, we find, at least for the socio-economic context examined in this study, that apart from its social, cultural and aesthetic values, rural landscape has economic values, and that agricultural landscape preservation tends to be more beneficial to low-income social groups.     

Managing Rural Change and Competing Rationalities: Insights from Conflicting Rural Storylines and Local Policy Making in Ireland

This paper assesses the actions of local policy makers and policy stakeholders in the rural arena by exploring the contested nature of rurality. Through an examination of two case studies in the west of Ireland, the paper argues that the persistence of conflicting rural storylines within the local policy arena has underpinned and framed the emergence of competing rationalities for local territorial development, which have impacted on landscape protection goals and economic and community development. The result is a disintegrated rather than a holistic approach to establishing local policy goals for rural sustainable development, suggesting the need for competing narratives to be explored, challenged and reworked within policy and local governance processes.