Sustainable Land Use and Smart Growth

1. Sustainable Land Use and Smart Growth MDS 1163 Urban Studies Msc. Sustainable Urban Design Semester II, 2012/2013

2. Content • Introduction • What is land use? • Effect of land use on the environment • Land use growth and management • Smart Growth • Conclusion

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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)

6. Forces that contributes to the change in land use structure • Economic • Economic growth • Supply and demand – land value • Optimization of use, compatibility

7. 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

8. Forces that contributes to the change in land use structure • 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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 lives land use as a facilitator of desirable activity patterns and social aspirations

13. 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

14. 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

15. Effect of Land Use on the Environment Loss of agriculture land , wetland

16. Effect of Land Use on the Environment Urban Sprawl

17. Effect of Land Use on the Environment Deforestation

18. Effect of Land Use on the Environment Land degradation

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. SMART GROWTH

25. 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.

26. "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.

28. SMART GROWTH PRINCIPLES • Mix land uses • Take advantage of compact building design • Create a range of housing opportunities and choices • Create walkable neighborhoods • Foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place • Preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty, and critical environmental areas • Strengthen and direct development towards existing communities • Provide a variety of transportation choices • Make development decisions predictable, fair, and cost effective • Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions

29. 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

30. 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