Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Landesplanung
are very much understood as being cross-cutting and co-ordina-
tive, yet German planners are very much aware of the fact that the influence of
spatial planning over for example decisions related to the federal transport infra-
structure is extremely limited. Clearly, the representation of urban areas and trans-
port infrastructure networks (including airports) helps to convey a message of a
powerful, accessible and economically successful area. Likewise, the designation
of economic regeneration areas and strategic employment sites might pave the
way for future (or already agreed) funding priorities. With regard to the depiction of
nature conservation areas, this is often in response to national and international
legislation, and thus also supports the preservation of existing dichotomies
between 'development' and 'conservation' - something which, one could argue,
stands in contrast to the increasingly formulated goal of achieving integrated devel-
opment and use in most natural areas. The diligent depiction of 'green belts'
surrounding urban areas in the majority of English planning documents under study
conveys another message: that of the belief that the countryside can be protected
and urban sprawl contained through the designation of green space around cities
and towns. There is evidence that suggests that 'green belts' do not actually
prevent urban sprawl, but rather force commuters to leapfrog the designated areas
and thus increase travel distances with all related negative impacts on the environ-
ment (cf. Elson, 2003), yet the strong land preservation ethics in the UK and the
public and political support for protecting the countryside from development
means that this continues to be a dominant policy - and the depiction on key dia-
grams in regional and local plans ensures that the underlying objective will not be
forgotten. There is also interest in 'corridor development' (combining multi-modal
transport infrastructure, economic development and housing) in planning docu-
ments in all three countries. Likewise, this is an idea aiming at 'channelling' devel-
opment whilst at the same time limiting development in the surrounding areas and
thus making efficient use of available space, but it is also a concept that is easily
depicted and therefore memorable and easy to communicate.
Besides the dominant elements in cartographic representations in planning
strategies, it is also of interest to consider the policy themes that have
not
been
depicted on the key diagrams. Whilst one could argue that it requires 'new' carto-
graphic approaches to illustrate the variety of rural areas, ICT, agriculture, air
quality and social infrastructure, one underlying reason for leaving these issues 'off
the map' could also be either that they are considered not to be at the heart of the
plan, or that public attention should be kept away from these issues. For example,
although undoubtedly many policies on air quality and waste management aim at
behavioural changes, there are also clear land use implications, which are often (in
the case of air quality) related to transport, or (in the case of waste) related to
housing density and economic activity. Yet these links are not visualised in any of
