Three decades of environmental planning: what have we really learned?

Abstract

Environmental planning is thus a diverse activity, comprising multiple approaches, and based on a range of options for direct action and indirect influence. Its theory and practice can be related to four broad spectra. One represents the continuum of degrees of compulsion over environmental modification, ranging from land purchase, through ‘command-and-control’ legislative powers and economic incentives and disincentives, to advice and exhortation. Another reflects the inclusion of local opinion and expertise, both through a system of elected members and via mechanisms of public participation, ranging from virtual exclusion, through token involvement, to citizen control. A third entails the production of technical knowledge, enabling environmental problems to be conceptualised and viable solutions to be proposed. Finally, there is a concern to make environmental governance less sectoral and more integrated, seldom by major legislative or institutional reforms, but more commonly through the creation of partnerships to facilitate multi-disciplinarity. Considerable controversy surrounds all these issues.

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