‘Locationally disadvantaged’: planning governmentalities and peri-urban agricultural futures

ABSTRACT

Peri-urban areas are the interface between urban and rural regions, with these regions traditionally acting as foodbowls for adjacent urban areas. This peri-urban agriculture provides a diverse suite of benefits to urban areas. Increasingly, however, peri-urban areas are being converted to residential uses, driven in part by higher land values secured for land converted for residential development. In Sydney, planning and development has tended to treat peri-urban areas as ‘suburbs in waiting’. Using a Foucauldian governmentality approach, this paper investigates the prevailing rationalities in metropolitan-level strategic planning documents—in particular A Plan for Growing Sydney and the Draft South West District Plan—and how these rationalities relate to peri-urban agriculture. Our analysis shows that the three overarching rationalities—the global city, the compact city and the sustainability agenda—frame the urbanisation of peri-urban agricultural lands as necessary and inevitable, and only integrate agriculture as part of the future of the city of Sydney when it can be rationalised within the ‘global city’ narrative. As a result, peri-urban areas are not considered to have unique planning needs, but are imagined as latent spaces that will enable Sydney to meet its housing and job targets through their future development.     

Exploring the future of rural–urban connections in sub-Saharan Africa: modelling urban expansion and its impact on food production in the Addis Ababa region

Abstract

The built-up area of Addis Ababa and its surrounding towns is expanding into the peri-urban region leading to high losses of farmland, directly influencing the food production for the urban population. This paper investigates the patterns of settlement growth in the region surrounding Addis Ababa and their impact on peri-urban agriculture using an urban spatial scenario design model. The effects of two population density scenarios are explored within the framework of a proposed master plan. The model output was used to estimate areas of different suitability levels that would be lost to the modelled settlement expansion. The settlement area in 2038 would represent 29% of the case study’s total area in the low-density scenario but only 19% in the high-density scenario. Compared to the low-density scenario, the high-density scenario would only require a third of the agricultural land transformed into settlement areas. Settlement development would contribute to higher losses of land suitable for cultivating important export products, high nutritional value and import-substituting products. The scenario approach can support sustainable regional planning for settlement expansion that conserves valuable farmland in the peri-urban area and contributes to building capacity for strategic planning of the city regions of sub-Saharan Africa.     

Planning for Peri-urban Agriculture: a geographically-specific,evidence-based approach from Sydney

Agriculture on the fringes of cities across the Global North is increasingly perceived as making an important contribution to urban sustainability. As Australian cities continue to expand and encroach on their peri-urban peripheries, there is rising concern about loss of farmland to housing. Such concerns are especially urgent in the Sydney Basin, due to population growth, and topographical and land-use constraints. Accounting for the Basin's farmlands, however, remains opaque, not unrelated to difficulties in acquiring reliable data on the area and value of Sydney's agricultural industries. The problem is not simply that there are no data available but rather that the nature of existing data is (often hotly) contested. Critical questions for urban planners therefore remain unanswered, including: is peri-urban agriculture as important as advocates suggest? Are metropolitan food supplies under threat? If peri-urban farmland is important, what should be done to preserve it? In collating and analysing existing Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and non-ABS data on Sydney agriculture between 1992 and 2011, we outline the need for more reliable and consistent longitudinal data to enable better planning for Sydney's farmland into the future. Notwithstanding limitations of available data sources, our findings reveal trends in Sydney Basin agriculture that invite debate on many assumptions about the nature of peri-urban agriculture. These findings emphasise the importance of geographically specific, evidence-based analysis as a basis for planning for peri-urban agriculture.     

The role of distance in peri-urban national park use: Who visits them and how far do they travel?

There is a sizable literature about the factors shaping park visitation and use – especially for urban parks, including (i) geographic (e.g. proximity), (ii) socio-cultural (e.g. population characteristics) and to a lesser extent, (iii) individual psychometric factors (e.g. attitudes and values). Yet comparatively little is known about how factors related to distance may affect peri-urban national park use, particularly outside the United States. This paper reports on research investigating distance-related factors affecting use of a peri-urban national park in Brisbane, Australia. This study found that older visitors live closer to the park while younger visitors travel further to use it. Surprisingly, travel distance did not vary with the type of recreational activities that users were conducting in the park. These results have implications for park planning and management including user demand for different recreational activities in peri-urban national parks. Results are useful for scholars using distance decay models to explain travel behaviour, evidencing the empirical veracity of the model in different places and across different service types. The findings are especially important for geographers because they demonstrate that assumptions about uniform park catchments may be unsupported and need to be empirically validated.     

The Utility and Organization of a College Field Course: Examining National Park Management

Abstract

This article reviews the benefits of field-based instruction, particularly as it complements traditional classroom learning. It suggests that direct observation and hands-on learning associated with field-based instruction raise students' interest level and improve their understanding and long-term retention of targeted concepts. In addition, planning, implementation, and evaluation strategies are provided and recommendations are outlined for instructors interested in organizing or improving a field course at their learning institution. The park management field course offered between spring and summer semesters at Oklahoma State University provides an example of the major components of a successful field course.     

Collaborative landscape research in Reunion Island: Using spatial modelling and simulation to support territorial foresight and urban planning

This paper reflects on collaborative landscape research conducted in Reunion Island, an outermost region of the European Union. On this 2,500 km² tropical island also considered a major international biodiversity hotspot, land-use planners must address important challenges, especially growing population densities and urban sprawl that cause important pressure on agricultural land and natural ecosystems. While progress has been made towards land-use zoning and planning at the island scale, entrenched interests and a lack of communication between the agricultural, urban and environmental sectors continue to hinder the design and implementation of integrated land-use plans at the local level. This paper presents an approach to territorial foresight where urban development scenarios and spatial models were co-constructed with a collective of institutional actors in order to facilitate dialogue on future urbanization patterns and impacts on landscapes. It describes how spatially explicit models and simulations of urban development, first used as demonstrators, have raised individual interests and expectations and facilitated the structuring of a collaborative research network. Models and scenarios were then questioned, redesigned collectively and used as boundary objects to facilitate a shift away from statistical and sectorial readings towards more territorialized and integrated perspectives. Analysing inputs, reactions and feedback from the actors involved in the research, this paper discusses the role and potential value of landscape modelling and simulation in mediating debates among planning stakeholders and creating social learning situations.     

Communication,Partnerships, and the Role of Social Science: Conservation Delivery in a Brave New World

Abstract

The Saginaw Bay Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in Michigan is an innovative conservation effort organized to address water quality impairments involving a unique collaboration between conservation organizations, agronomists, universities, commodity groups, and agribusinesses. We track the evolution and adaptation of the Saginaw Bay RCPP, and the collaboration among the traditional and nontraditional conservation partners. Our reflections are organized around three key lessons: vertical and horizontal communication challenges; contextual and structural constraints; barriers that remain between private and public sector entities for this and alternative conservation-delivery models. Lessons from this evaluation will inform the design of future collaborative/multi-stakeholder watershed management efforts. We also demonstrate that rather than being used as an ad-hoc approach, social science evaluation was integrated into conservation planning and practice, hence increasing the salience and legitimacy of the conservation social science in collaborative watershed management.     

Evaluating the Process and Outcomes of Collaborative Conservation: Tools,Techniques, and Strategies

Abstract

Collaborative conservation has been touted as a viable option for addressing contentious natural resource stewardship issues in a way that represents the diverse voices impacted by, and involved in, conservation decisions. Engaging meaningfully in collaborative conservation involves overcoming a unique set of challenges while also realizing opportunities. In this special issue, we use the term collaborative conservation evaluation to encompass research and evaluation related to collaborative governance and collaborative natural resource management projects, programs, or decision-making processes that leverage a participatory approach, involve multiple stakeholders, and incorporate a range of contemporary evaluation approaches. Here, we provide a series of articles and tools intended to highlight different approaches to evaluation that utilize a variety of methodologies adapted for different contexts. We intend for these articles to spark further conversation and inspire future directions in evaluating collaborative conservation for researchers and practitioners.     

Water security and rainwater harvesting: A conceptual framework and candidate indicators

Rainwater-harvesting tanks (reservoirs) in Tamil Nadu, India support agricultural livelihoods, mitigate water insecurity, and enable ecosystem services. However, many tanks have fallen into disrepair, as private wells have supplanted collectively managed tanks as the dominant irrigation source. Meanwhile, encroachment by peri-urban development, landless farmers, and Prosopis juliflora has reduced inflow and tank capacity. This exploratory study presents a conceptual framework and proposed indicator set for measuring water security in the context of rainwater harvesting tanks. The primary benefits of tanks and threats to their functionality are profiled as a precursor to construction of a causal network of water security. The causal network identifies the key components, causal linkages, and outcomes of water security processes, and is used to derive a suite of indicators that reflect the multiple economic and socio-ecological uses of tanks. Recommendations are provided for future research and data collection to operationalize the indicators to support planning and assessing the effectiveness of tank rehabilitation.     

National parks in Lithuania: Old environment in a new democracy

Despite a long tradition of nature and forestry management, conservation of nature has a relatively short history in Lithuania. Most aspects of environmental management are facing considerable challenges since Lithuania's recent freedom from the 50-year Soviet regime. New democracies tend to develop new and often unpredictable ramifications for environmental management, and there is an urgent need for developing national park concepts and planning models that are responsive to the local context. This paper discusses some of the challenges encountered in developing and adjusting national park concepts. Lithuanian parks, like protected areas in other parts of the world, are characterised by the interaction of diverse natural and socio-cultural factors. This more or less unique complexity is the essence of the national park identity. Sustainable management of integrated protected area resources demands a change from the former expert-based top-down Soviet management. New models of collaborative, adaptive management will need to consider multiple values and goals and be able to function within rapidly changing political and administrative contexts.     

主题公园旅游体验记忆的结构维度与模型构建

在体验经济时代,为游客创造旅游体验记忆至关重要,这种体验后的记忆将会影响旅游者的未来旅游决策。以方特为例,选取网络游记为数据来源,综合运用内容分析法和共现网络法,探索主题公园旅游体验记忆的结构维度,尝试构建主题公园旅游体验记忆构成模型。研究发现:主题公园旅游体验记忆按照游前——游中——游后时间轴,分别包含体验预演和成本估计——城市形象、身份重构、参与涉入、互动交往、配套支持和感知价值——行为意向总计9个维度,并进一步构建主题公园旅游体验记忆构成模型。     

ASSOCIATION AFFAIRS

Current long-range planning activities affect future characteristics and functions of the Association of American Geographers. This commentary addresses the need for such planning, describes planning issues that should be faced by the membership, and suggests some themes for future action. Several problem areas are discussed. The key debate is seen between proponents of a scholarly society and advocates of a professional association. This, in turn, raises a variety of lesser related issues, such as the program for the Annual Meeting, the role of regional divisions, academic and non-academic constituencies, and the benefits and dangers involved in Association grantsmanship. This statement by President Marcus is the first of a series to appear in THE PROFESSIONAL GEOGRAPHER on the subject of the Association's long-range planning efforts.     

Understanding Effectiveness in its Broader Context: Assessing Case Study Methodologies for Evaluating Collaborative Conservation Governance

Abstract

Collaborative forms of governance are increasingly favored in conservation and potentially offer a range of practical and outcome-based benefits. However, tools for critically assessing whether and how collaboration enhances the attainment of conservation objectives are lagging behind the enthusiasm. We use a framework that considers effectiveness in relation to capacity of key actors and institutions to achieve outcomes and respond to emergent problems, robustness over time (i.e. adapting to changes while still achieving objectives), context-specific drivers of change, and the structure of networks and institutions to assess common approaches for evaluating effectiveness. Network analysis performs well in terms of structure, while action research and the diagnostic method offer deep insights into capacity and context. Scenario planning performs well in understanding robustness and context but performs better when combined with a diagnostic. The evaluation reveals important insights for approaching and standardizing investigations of collaborative governance regimes and their effectiveness.     

Assessing the impact of Celaque National Park on forest fragmentation in western Honduras

The effectiveness of parks as management regimes is much in debate. This study examines the effect of establishment of the Celaque National Park, Honduras, in 1987, on limiting deforestation through a comparison with the surrounding landscape using remote sensing, GIS and landscape pattern analysis. Pressure on the park region is found to relate spatially to the locations of towns and roads, with increasing deforestation in the landscape surrounding the park. In contrast, the park has been largely successful in maintaining forest cover. Although the extent of change within the park is not pronounced, the pattern of change is. Expansion of agriculture and coffee production have led to increasing pressure on the park boundaries, with as much as 25% of the landscape surrounding the park experiencing land cover change between 1996 and 2000. This has significant implications for the future of the park.     

场景规划：助力城市群协同发展

通过梳理国内外场景理论的发展脉络,对场景内涵及要素特征进行了深入解读与分析,构建了包含场景要素、场景层级特征和场景规划方法在内的场景规划理论体系,从场景识别、场景构建、场景评价和场景应用视角实现了对场景规划工具的全新探索,用于指导在不同领域开展场景实践工作。并以粤港澳大湾区城市群协同发展为例,基于场景规划方法挖掘湾区的现状问题和发展目标,识别出代表未来湾区城市群协同发展方向的重要场景。最后以粤港澳大湾区城市群生态廊道构建为应用示例,初步应用场景规划方法进行场景要素分析,为下一步开展场景评价及场景应用示范等实践探索工作提供基础。     

Relational Hubs for Collaborative Landscape Stewardship

Abstract

Landscape stewardship is considered an important place-based approach to addressing sustainability challenges. Working at landscape-level requires collaboration between diverse landscape stakeholders. In this study, we partnered with local stewardship practitioners across six cases in South Africa to investigate how they facilitate collaboration towards social-ecological sustainability outcomes. We found that practitioners facilitate collaboration among stakeholders by operating as relational hubs in the landscape. Through these hubs, they build new inter-personal relationships among stakeholders, creating social networks which enable stewardship practice. The hubs deepen human-nature relationships by creating enabling conditions for stewards to put stewardship ethics into action. Drawing on insights from these cases, we call for a relational approach to landscape stewardship which focuses on human-to-human and human-to-nature relationships. Moreover, we argue that landscape stewardship initiatives need to re-focus stewardship on stewards, recognizing them as key agents of change in addressing the conflict between agriculture and conservation inherent in many landscapes.     

Tools for Developing Short-Term Study Abroad Classes for Geography Studies

Abstract

Short-term international field study is an attractive alternative for many students to traditional, longer-term study abroad programs. We present a discussion of critical planning, administrative, and curricular elements related to the development and implementation of such courses. In doing so, we share a number of checklists and planning tools that other instructors may find helpful in the context of developing their own international field studies courses. In addition, we provide representative examples and experiences from two short-term international courses taught by the authors in the Geography Department at Shippensburg University.     

Access to natural resources and conflicts between farmers and agro‐pastoralists in Borkena Wetland,north‐eastern Ethiopia

This case study on the Borkena wetlands in north‐eastern Ethiopia tells, through the voices of the inhabitants, the story of the occupation and management of an area where agro‐pastoralists (Urrane) and farmers have progressively settled. It shows how different policy changes and natural disasters have transformed the type of peoples' livelihoods and land use patterns in the wetland. It tells the history of relationships between smallholder peasants, irrigation farmers, commercial farms, and the Urrane, where conflicts as well as collaboration developed, and it shows how different stakeholders behave and consider their own situation. The study also reveals that development intervention by World Vision Ethiopia (WVE) had mixed impact on peoples' livelihoods in the wetland: sedentary peasants have benefited while the Urrane have been adversely affected. The main issue is the marginalization of pastoralists, with the denial of their traditional land use rights by three successive regimes and administrations. Any solution to the cohabitation of the different groups and livelihoods will have to address the issue of land rights for the pastoralists and promote the fair participation of all stakeholders in the future management of the wetlands. Good governance and the competence of the state actors at local levels are the crucial issues for the realization of the suggested solutions.     

半城市化地区的识别方法及其驱动机制研究进展

半城市化地区是动态变化的区域,许多国家的半城市化地区是发展最快的区域,在空间、社会、经济以及环境等方面具有重要意义。半城市化地区显著的过渡性、动态性和不稳定等复杂特征已得到地理学、城市规划、经济学、生态学等领域学者的广泛关注。本文首先分析了“半城市化地区”概念内涵,重点辨析了城市边缘区、Desakota、城乡结合部等概念与半城市化地区的异同,并尝试提出了本文对半城市化地区的定义。而后梳理了国内外“半城市化地区”空间识别、类型识别和驱动机制的研究进展,总结分析了研究方法的演变、争议或薄弱之处。最后,在综合分析国内外相关研究成果基础之上,进行了简要述评,并提出未来研究需要更多关注中国半城市化地区的形成机理、人文思想与计量方法的深入融合以及半城市化地区内部类型研究。