Integrating Analytical and Participatory Techniques for Planning the Sustainable Use of Land Resources and Landscapes

Abstract

Planning the sustainable use of land resources and landscapes must be a process in which stakeholders and the public work together to establish common guidelines for understanding the options of, and the implications for, future land uses. Key aspects of this process are the establishment of meaningful knowledge bases and tools, and methodologies based on the enhanced involvement of stakeholders in making decisions, and their subsequent implementation. The gradation of power or control in public participation proposed by Arnstein (1969), extending from ‘citizen control’ to ‘manipulation’, provides a conceptual basis for considering the evolution in political thinking about participation in areas such landscape planning.