engleski

Optimising land use decisions: the importance of general conservational interest disclosure

The aim of the paper is to highlight the need for information on landscape value preferences in conservation activities within land use planning. The paper therefore draws on the importance of conservation criteria explication fostering the idea of effective implementation of public participation in the beginning of planning process, specifically the phase of landscape evaluation. The paper addresses two main issues in planning that often cause impasse to a particular spatial conservation problem solving: uncertainty and subjectivity. Two problem contexts are addressed in this paper. The first is determined by disputes about conservation goals and objectives in, for example, impact assessments and other environmental planning tools that are used to cope with conservation problems within land use planning. Secondly, land use planning is fundamentally an evaluative activity, as Udy (1996) suggested. In terms of environmental qualities that should be conserved and/or enhanced by planning, optimisation of alternative solution has been recognised as the principle that planning process should be based on (Johanessen et.al., 1998, Marušič, 1993). The value question in the planning context, i.e. identification and acceptance of diversity of interests is given by Taylor’ s (1986) direction of environmental ethics - the principle of “ as low as reasonably achievable” , ALARA. The study was carried out in a rural area of continental Croatia which main physiographical feature is riparian landscape. The photo questionnaire (ranking of the state of the landscape naturalness by photo simulation).was used as the method for achieving value preferences from three social groups: local inhabitants, experts (people directly involved into a land use planning process) and potential users of a space. The knowledge of preferences of the respondent groups for three landscape quality dimensions tested was interpreted by statistical analysis. Using the tool of vulnerability modelling, specific qualities of a landscape were presented as spatial information. The results have shown that the conservation goal is transferred into three distinctive value dimensions. The result also showed that a specific environmental component might be simultaneously carrier of diverse value definitions. The method of participative approach in searching for solutions for landscape protection resulted in complex system of landscape values which opens the possibility of further dialog between the space users and planning experts in optimisation of decisions regarding land use. Acknowledged complexity of environmental qualities enables a search for an acceptable compromise between different conservation efforts as well as developmental ones. Further research is needed on issue of information transformation from value preferences to spatial information that is operative in land use planning.

landscape; values; land use planning; protection; public participation

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