Places: Linking Nature and Culture for Understanding and Planning

How can we make the best use of the places we live in? How can environmental planners, decision makers, students, the public, and all those concerned about the history and future of places best understand the serious challenges facing them?

In recent years, environmental conservation and sustainable development have become critical parts of the planning equation. However, most attempts to incorporate these considerations have focused too narrowly on specialized economic, geologic, biological, or other factors. With Places, James Gordon Nelson and Patrick L. Lawrence present a new, more complete approach to planning—the ABC method.

The ABC method links Abiotic, Biotic, and Cultural factors in a systematic and comprehensive analysis with the aim of achieving better understanding of and planning for the challenges facing places and the people living in them. Examples of the ABC method are presented through international case studies and are illustrated with photographs and maps.

This book is written for environmental planners, decision-makers, students, and all those who are concerned about the history and future of places, presenting a new, more highly integrated way of thinking that will help address serious challenges in effective, efficient, and equitable ways.

James Gordon Nelson is a Canadian geographer with a long interest in landscape history, landscape change, and planning. He has focused on the links between research and policy and has undertaken field studies in Canada, the United States, the U.K., Central Europe, Indonesia, and many other parts of the world.

Patrick L. Lawrence is an environmental geographer with interests in water resources, watershed planning, landscapes, land use change, natural area planning, the Great Lakes, and natural hazards.

Preface
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Introducing the ABC Method: Towards Comprehensive and Accessible Information Systems for Conservation and Development
J.G. Nelson, J. Theberge, and J. Bastedo

Chapter 2: Origins of the ABC Method
J.G. Nelson

Questions for the Reader
Some Hints on Beginning an ABC Study

Part 1: Detailed Analytical Studies

Introduction

Chapter 3: Emerging Theory and Methods of Land Use and Conservation Planning and Decision-Making for National Parks and Protected Areas
J.G. Nelson, R. Serafin, A. Skibicki, and P.L. Lawrence

Chapter 4. Planning for Presqu’ile Provincial Park Ontario
J.G. Nelson and J. Grieg

Chapter 5. Applying the ABC Resource Survey to the Bruce Peninsula National Park and Environs
J.G. Nelson, P. Grigoriew, J. Theberge, and B. Bastedo

Part II: Focused Summaries of Detailed Studies

Introduction

Chapter 7. Institutional Arrangements for a System of Environmentally Significant Areas: The Case of the East Beaufort Sea Coast, Canada
P.G.R. Smith, J.G. Nelson, and J. Theberge

Chapter 8. The Grand as a Canadian Heritage River
J.G. Nelson

Chapter 9. Assembling, Analyzing, and Assessing Information for Costal Planning in Java
J.G. Nelson, E. LeDrew, C. Olive, and Dulbahri

Chapter 10. A Human Ecological Approach to Coastal Management in the Great Lakes
J.G. Nelson and P.L. Lawrence

Part III: Comprehensive Overviews and Assessments

Introduction

Chapter 11. Twenty Years of Efforts towards Ecosystem Planning in the Bruce Peninsula National Park, Ontario, Canada, 1987 to 2006
P.L Lawrence and J.G. Nelson

Chapter 12. San Pedro River, Arizona: Land-Use History, Landscape Change and Planning for a United States Riparian National Conservation Area
J.G. Nelson

Chapter 13. Fairy and Peninsula Lakes, Ontario, Canada: Land-Use History, Landscape Change, and Planning
P.L. Lawrence, J.G. Nelson, A. Skibicki, and K. Wilcox

Chapter 14. The Carpathian Ecoregion Initiative: Assessing Large-Scale Landscape Planning in Central Europe
J.G. Nelson

Part IV: Rapid Reconnaissance Studies

Introduction

Chapter 15: Planning for the Great Arc in the Great Lakes Region
J.G. Nelson and P.L. Lawrence

Chapter 16. Consecration and Use of the Mai Po Marshes, Hong Kong
J.G. Nelson

Chapter 17. The New Forest: Analysis and Planning of a Historical Landscape in English
J.G. Nelson

Part V: Communication and Education

Introduction

Chapter 19: A Heritage Landscape Guide to the Grand River Watershed
J.G. Nelson

Chapter 20. Retrospect and Prospect: Strengthening and Broadening the Approach
J.G. Nelson

Index

This book identifies the major deficiency in the field of environmental planning, which is that issues are addressed from the perspective of one discipline or one dimension . . . The ABC method outlined in the book provides a holistic framework for analyzing the environment and guiding environmental management.

—Thomas Gunton, Director, Resource and Environmental Planning Program, Simon Fraser University