Land Planning Concepts
The Methods & Theory Recreation &
Outdoor Education Providers use to
manage the land & the people
Sustainability
“The health of the oceans
depends on the health of the
rivers; the health of the rivers
depends on the health of small
streams; the health of small
streams depends on the health of
their watersheds”
Wendell Berry, from a book of essays titled “The Way of Ignorance” – in Duluth News Tribune
11/2/08
Basic Planning Approaches
• Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC)
• Benefits Based Management
– vs. Best Management Practices
• Public Participation
• Multiple Use
• Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS)
Limits of Acceptable Change
(G. H. Stankey, D. N. Cole,
R. C. Lucas, M. E. Petersen. & S. S. Frissell, 1985)
• Based upon a set of baseline data
To know the area before development
• An effort to prevent desensitization
• Reflects biological, physical, and social
conditions
The social demands are what most
influence the biological & physical
• The Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC)
planning system
• Response to growing recognition in the U
.S. that attempts to define and implement
recreational carrying capacities were both
excessively reductionistic and failing.
• Carrying capacity concept itself was based
on biological models.
• Such models did not transfer well into
ecosystems being managed for human
benefits based primarily on recreational
experiences
• LAC was based on the recognition that
• ( 1) specific objectives were needed to identify
what it was that management was to protect,
• (2) change is always present in nature-dominated
systems,
• (3) any recreational use leads to some change,
• (4) management is therefore confronted with the
question of how much change is acceptable, and
• (5) monitoring of the outcomes of management is
needed to determine if actions were effective.
(McCool,
1989. Paper presented at Workshop on Impact Management in Marine Parks, sponsored by Maritime Institute of Malaysia, August 13-14,
1996, Kuala Lumpur, MALA YSIA)
Benefits Based Management
• Similar to LAC
• Assesses a range of benefits of the site
Includes biological, physical, & social
• Determines highest priorities of site through
rankings (socially determined) and manages
based on those benefits.
Multiple Use
• Coined by Gifford Pinchot
• An effort to provide multiple compatible
uses for an area
• It is not everyone’s right to use the same
area.
Designations (Classes) in ROS
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Primitive
Semi-primitive Nonmotorized
Semi-primitive Motorized
Roaded Natural
Rural
Urban