Thesis
Land use planning in urban areas : towards an ecosystems approach
- Creator
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2014
- Thesis identifier
- T13769
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Urbanisation - the demographic transition from rural to urban - can pose challenges for urban areas by increasing pressure on urban ecosystem services. In meeting these challenges, urban planning and design is increasingly looking towards techniques that work with rather than against nature. Despite this, the impact of urban land use/management on urban ecosystem services is currently little understood and urban land use planning stakeholders have limited means by which to assess the impacts of their decisions on urban ecosystem services. The overarching aim of this thesis therefore is to understand, develop, trial and evaluate new approaches to urban planning that can operationalise key aspects of the ecosystems approach. The interdisciplinary research approach adopted had three main stages: 1) review, assessment and synthesis of technical evidence to inform the development of principles and technical guidance for ecosystems approach based urban land use planning; 2) development and trialling of new tools, models and guidance for considering ecosystem services in urban planning; and 3) evaluation of new tools, models and guidance. The research methods used are document review, rapid evidence assessment (REA), action research and semi-structured interviews. Geographic information system (GIS) technology has been used to integrate qualitative data from the evidence assessment with existing spatial datasets to develop new spatial models for urban land use planning. This thesis has demonstrated how existing technical principles and theories from discrete natural science and social science disciplines (e.g. planning, landscape ecology and hydrology) can be combined with existing spatial datasets to produce tools, models and guidance for ecosystems approach based urban land use planning. In this regard, a new approach to urban planning has been developed comprising the following elements: 1) a suite of ecosystems approach guiding principles; 2) three new spatial models to prioritise land use/management intervention for specific urban ecosystem services; and 3) supporting technical guidance.
- Advisor / supervisor
- João, Elsa M.
- Lord, Richard
- Resource Type
- DOI
- EThOS ID
- uk.bl.ethos.618872
- Date Created
- 2014
- Former identifier
- 1033039