Ecological Planning Method - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 233

1. Problem and/or
opportunity
identification

2. Goal
establishment

11. Administration

3. Regional-level
inventory and
analysis

10. Plan and
design
implementation

8. Education and
citizen
involvement

4. Local-level
inventory and
analysis

9. Detailed
designs

5. Detailed
studies

7. Landscape
plan

6. Planning
concepts

FIGURE 13.1
Ecological planning model. (Adapted from Steiner, F., The Living Landscape , pp. 3-24. Copyright 2008 Frederick
Steiner. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington, DC.)

the problems and opportunities facing the region and the goals to address these problems
and opportunities may be altered, as is indicated by the dashed lines in Figure 13.1.
This process is adapted from the conventional planning process and its many varia-
tions* as well as those suggested specifically for landscape planning. 10 -14 Unlike some of
these other planning processes, design plays an important role in this method. Each step
in the process contributes to and is affected by a plan and implementing measures, which
may be the official controls of the planning area. The plan and implementing measures
may be viewed as the results of the process, although products may be generated from
each step. The approach to ecological planning developed by McHarg at the University
of Pennsylvania differs slightly from the one presented here. The Pennsylvania, or
McHarg, model places a greater emphasis on inventory, analysis, and synthesis. This one
places more emphasis on the establishment of goals, implementation, administration,
and public participation, yet does attempt to do so in an ecological manner.
Ecological planning is fundamental for sustainable development. The best-known
definition of sustainable development was promulgated by the World Commission on
Environment and Development, known as the Bruntland Commission, as that which
“meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future genera-
tions to meet their own needs.” 15 A more recent definition was provided by the National
Commission on the Environment, which has defined sustainable development as

a strategy for improving the quality of life while preserving the environmental potential
for the future, of living off interest rather than consuming natural capital. Sustainable
development mandates that the present generation must not narrow the choices of

* See Hall, 4 Roberts, 5 McDowell, 6 Moore, 7 Stokes, 8 and Stokes et al. 9