Environmental Engineering Reference
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structure and function. In the latter case, of landscape as locale, perhaps the most
valuable contribution of landscape ecology as a science is to inform communities
and stakeholders about the landscape context in which they live, its characteristics
and how it functions, and how this context shapes their everyday lives. In the next
section we outline an example of place based spatial strategy making that draws
upon such landscape ecological understanding.
12.4.3 Collaborative Local Planning in Denmark:
The Lihme Project
Danish rural landscapes are farmed intensively by highly specialised pig, dairy, or
cropping farmers producing commodities mainly for the world market. More than
90 % of all farm land is arable and affected by high concentrations of nutrients and
pesticides. However, many of these rural landscapes are also relatively densely
populated, and are currently affected by urbanisation processes, leading to sig-
nificant in and out migrations of people. As a result, the vast majority of people
living the rural regions are no longer commercial farmers or farm workers, and
they are increasingly seeing the landscape and its values (or potential values) as a
key resource for quality of life- thus attracting people to the area. These new rural
populations are expressing interest in local landscape initiatives, and together with
an administrative reform that has led to a decentralising of spatial planning, this
has resulted in a growing interest in collaborative landscape planning. The focus of
this section is a planning experiment in Lihme parish in central Jutland.
Lihme was one of five local areas included in an experimental planning project
carried out by the municipality of Skive in close co-operation with researchers
from University of Copenhagen. The project ran for 2 years with the aims to
develop new forms of collaborative landscape planning and to develop new
models for multifunctional rural landscape patterns. The key agent to drive the
planning process forward was a working group in each of the five areas. Each
group was established first by the municipality which contacted a few citizens in
each area and asked them to form a group and appoint a leader. In Lihme the group
varied over time between 7 and 10 representatives of the local community,
including farmers as well as non-farmers.
The project goal was to create a strategy plan for the landscapes in the parish
which had local 'ownership' and which could be incorporated in the legally binding
municipal plan. The group worked closely together with a planner from the
municipality, and this is critical to its success, with frequent contacts of different
kinds with scientists and professional experts. The process started with a meeting for
all five groups where the project objectives were outlined, and the first phase (app.
5 month) was to work out a broad analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats (SWOT) for the future socio-economic development of the parish.
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