Sustainable Land Use and Smart Growth

MDS 1163 Urban Studies Msc. Sustainable Urban Design Semester II, 2012/2013

Content

• Introduction • What is land use?• Effect of land use on the

environment• Land use growth and management • Smart Growth • Conclusion

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Introduction

• What is land use? – Can be divided into two

representations• Formal land use – concerned with

qualitative attributes of space such as it form, pattern and aspect and are descriptive in nature

• Functional land use – concerned with the economic nature of activities such as production, consumption residence and transport and are mainly socio-economic description of space.

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• Urban Land Use– Comprise two elements:

• The nature of land use which relates to what and where activities are taking place, and

• The level of spatial accumulation, which indicates their intensity and concentration

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Changes in the structure of land use

• Changes in the structure of land use involves: – Activity system – Nature of the activity– Space in which it was carried on (land itself – land

value, land character)– Its location with respect to all other activities

(location suitability) – The kinds of activities at other locations

(compatibility) – The channels which served to carry or transmit

them (accessibility)

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Forces that contributes to the change in land use structure

1. Economic – Economic growth – Supply and demand – land value – Optimization of use, compatibility

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2. Technological change / industrialization / urbanization – Accessibility – Increase in the demand for non-agricultural land because of

urban and manufacturing development – Urbanization is a process of becoming urban. Hence,

urbanization have direct impact on the reduction of agriculture land by increasing urban settlement

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Forces that contributes to the change in land use structure

3. Socio-demographics – Population growth in considered a major leading

to land use change – In order to meet the demands of growing

population, a large amount of paddy field were converted to factories, which allow much higher productivity production

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4. Political – Policy, control, special interest and government

intrusion – Local government’s role in controlling the land

use change by establishing policies and strategies concerning the future land use allocation

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Managing changes in land use structure

• Managing the land use change is carried out through the preparation and implementation of future land use plan and policies, through the review and approval of development projects.

• Also through the recommendation of capital improvement programs and through participation in on-going local government, decision making and problem solving.

• It refers to both an intellectual and socio-political activity.

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Obstacles in managing the changes in the land use change

• Accelerating rates of change • Increasing unpredictably of events • A continuing sense of crisis • Frequent confrontations with problems so complex

as to be inaccessible to normal unpredictably of events

• Increasing time spent on responding to unanticipated consequences of previous actions

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• Considerations in managing changes in land use structure – Social use values :

concerned with the weight that people give to various arrangements of land use settings for living their livesland use as a facilitator of desirable activity patterns and social aspirations

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Concept of social use values include those derived from theories of urban form, activities system and the social neighborhood. Urban form theories : concerned with designing the

physical environment Activities systems theories: concerned with

understanding the behavior pattern of urban residents Neighborhood theories : concerned with both design

and behavior but at the sub-city level

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• Impacts of unmanaged land use change– Undesirable land use changes will

contribute to the widespread land degradation

– Prominent land degradation processes were identified, namely: • Desertification• Loss of agricultural use, • deforestation, • Grassland degradation and • Loss of wetland

– Urban Sprawl

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Effect of Land Use on the Environment

Loss of agriculture land , wetland

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Effect of Land Use on the Environment

Urban Sprawl

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Effect of Land Use on the EnvironmentDeforestation

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Effect of Land Use on the Environment

Land degradation

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• In the discussion of land use impacts it is important to distinguish between two different kinds of land use impact: a) land use change and b) land occupation

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Land use Change• Land use change is also called land use transformation and denotes

the man-made process of changing the land use from one type to another, e.g. transformation of forest area to an agricultural crop or transformation from pasture land to a residential area

• Land use changes may be followed by distinct or drastic changes in the land quality, such as decreases in biodiversity, increased soil compaction, loss of nutrients etc.

• These quality losses constitute the ecological damage from land use changes.

• If the original land use type is a scarce or endangered biotype then the damage from land use change is greater than if it is a widespread land use type.

• There are, however, possible land use changes that constitute not a damage, but an ecological gain, e.g. if built-up land is transformed to gardens.

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A special case of land use change: Regeneration

• Example: the recovery of a land use area after a certain occupation type has ended.

• A typical example would be regeneration after open cast mining operations.

• Regeneration processes can be spontaneous, or be assisted or directed by humans.

• Usually, a recovery process strives for an improvement of the ecological quality of an area

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Land Occupation

• Land occupation denotes the continuous use of a certain area of land for a certain period of time and for a defined land use type.

• In contrast to land use change, the occupation time is always an important parameter in land occupation activities; as is – of course – the size of the concerned area.

• The units of land occupation are therefore area*time, e.g. m2a (square metre- years).

• Important information for the assessment of land use occupation also includes the land use type of the area concerned.

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Impacts of land use: a definition• Any human interference of soil, water, microclimate as well as

vegetation, other living biomass• And detritus caused directly by the use of land during the life

cycle of a product, a production• Process or service has to be assessed as an impact of land use

and related to the impact• Category land use. Impacts on soil, water, microclimate,

vegetation, other living biomass• And detritus like the extraction of resources or emissions not

directly caused by the use of land• Should be covered by other impact categories.

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SMART GROWTH

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• The term 'smart growth' is particularly used in North America.

• In Europe and particularly the UK, the terms ‘COMPACT CITY’ or 'urban intensification' have often been used to describe similar concepts, which have influenced government planning policies in the UK, the Netherlands and several other European countries.

• "Smart Growth” concept emerged in the early 1990's, driven by "new guard" urban planners, innovative architects, visionary developers, community activists, and historic preservationists.

• It accepts that growth and development will continue to occur, and so seeks to direct that growth in an intentional, comprehensive way.

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SMART GROWTH PRINCIPLES

1. Mix land uses2. Take advantage of compact building design3. Create a range of housing opportunities and choices4. Create walkable neighborhoods5. Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of

place6. Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical

environmental areas7. Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities8. Provide a variety of transportation choices9. Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective10.Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development

decisions

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• Smart growth is related to, or used in combination with the following concepts:– New Urbanism– New Community Design– Sustainable Development– Traditional Neighbourhood Development– Land Preservation– Preventing urban sprawl– Creating Sense of Place– Development Best Practices– Preservation Development– Transit Oriented Development

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References

• Bullard, Robert D. (ed.) (2007). Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice, and Regional Equity. The MIT Press

• http://www.smartgrowth.org/• www.epa.gov/smartgrowth

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