Landscape as an Integrating framework for Rural Policy and Planning

Project Status: Completed (See Final Report Summary)
Type of Project: Development Activity
Principal Investigator: Prof Paul Selman, University of Sheffield (Email)


Objectives

Many future decisions about the British countryside will be made in a landscape context. Several landscape based characterisation/ assessment methods are gaining currency as means of identifying areas in which to analyse environmental processes, valorise local assets, devise policy, target expenditure, forge partnerships and engage stakeholders. Whilst ‘landscape’ has often been treated as an afterthought in land use decisions, it can more positively be viewed as an over-arching framework for comprehending and interpreting patterns and processes of countryside change. This project aims to prepare a rapid-but-rigorous literature review, culminating in a seminar, of the cultural landscape as an integrative device. It will develop a model for integrating social, economic, built and natural capitals within the context of landscape units, and will propose how this model might be elaborated through future research. The literature review and seminar will contribute to our understanding of how local expressions of the UK’s rural economy and land use can be analysed and framed.

This Development Activity reflects our growing acknowledgement of landscape as a multi-functional, rather than essentially visual, construct – a recognition which is currently reflected in the substantial investments by the UK ‘countryside’ organisations in land-unit mapping as a prelude to area-based policy delivery, and the river basin characterisation approach of the European Water Framework Directive. From this perspective, landscape is to be conceived, not as a sectoral interest, but as an overarching device for understanding and promoting sustainable development. If the UK ratifies the European Landscape Convention – which has been in force since 1st March 2004 – this approach will take on even greater significance, and will become an important basis for rural data management, policy delivery and stakeholder participation.

This Development Activity will:
(1) produce a review paper analysing how four ‘capitals’ – social, economic, natural and built – mesh within landscapes, and how an understanding of this synthesis can illuminate and assist sustainable rural development;
(2) elaborate a model in which landscape is seen as a conceptual and practical framework for area-based rural policy and management;
(3) suggest how this model might be tested in future, inter-disciplinary research focusing on the potential of landscape units as loci for a ‘virtuous circle’ between place, work, people and governance;
(4) conclude with a seminar/workshop in which the nature and implications of the landscape model can be debated and disseminated.
In so doing, it: will explore how current thinking on the landscape can assist integrated policy delivery in ways that facilitate rural economic recovery, healthy lifestyles, sustainable environmental services and place-distinctiveness; and will broach impending major policy issues, such as the re-casting of protected areas as multifunctional landscapes fit for the 21st century, and regeneration of rural economies through valorisation of local identity.

Publications

Selman, P. and Knight, M. (2006) ‘On the nature of virtuous change in cultural landscapes: exploring sustainability through qualitative models’, Landscape Research, 31(3), 295-308

Conference Papers and Presentations

Selman, P. and Matthews, R. (2005) "Landscapes as a focus for integrating human and environmental processes" Presentation to RELU Workshop People and the Environment: Scoping the Research Agenda, York.
http://www.relu.ac.uk/events/WorkshopMay05/2BSelmanMatthews.pdf

Selman, P. (2005) "Landscape as an integrating framework" Presentation to RELU conference Rural Economy and Land Use: The Challenge for Research 19-21 Jan 2005, Birmingham.
http://www.relu.ac.uk/events/Jan05/Presentations/p4.5.Selman.PDF