Wildland–Urban Interface Planning: Lessons From a Participatory Mapping Exercise

Abstract

Wildland–urban interface (WUI) expansion is both an expression and a consequence of the global urbanisation process. It manifests spatially as residential expansion into wildlands at local scales, a process that has been documented on every permanently populated continent. Due to their wildland–urban duality, WUI areas are subject to multiple and frequently competing interests and uses, such as residential development, outdoor recreation, and biodiversity conservation, which makes their governance and management complex. Participatory methodologies are capable of addressing the complexity of WUI social-ecological systems by assessing the values and demands of diverse stakeholders. In particular, participatory mapping offers the advantage of producing spatially explicit information about those values and demands, which can be incorporated into scenario planning efforts. This study explored the ability of participatory mapping to capture stakeholders' values, contribute to the co-development of predictive and exploratory future residential expansion scenarios, and inform spatial planning in San Martín de los Andes, a touristic city experiencing WUI expansion in Argentina. This was done through the combination of semi-structured interviews with participatory mapping activities and involving diverse stakeholders. The mixed-methods approach enabled the emergence of three different exploratory residential expansion narratives, which were called ‘conservation-oriented expansion,’ ‘tourism-driven expansion,’ and ‘restrict further expansion’. In addition, we assessed the socio-economic values underlying these narratives, as well as participants' consensus and disagreements regarding residential expansion issues in this WUI social-ecological system. The participatory mapping outputs were digitised, combined, and merged into ‘expected’ and ‘desired’ future expansion scenarios, providing a spatial input that could be integrated into scenario planning processes. However, the values, agreements, and disagreements underlying these scenarios have environmental justice implications that require further analysis. Inclusive participatory mapping approaches can contribute to bridging the gap between community members, experts, and governmental authorities for better-informed decision-making in spatial planning.