Geoscience Reference
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seeking outcomes that allow both economic and environmental objec-
tives to be realised, but without advising how irreconcilable con
icts
between them should be resolved has had two consequences. The
rst is
that entrenched outlooks have gone largely unchallenged and, conse-
quently, that economic concerns continue to predominate in decision-
making.
23
The second is that the
exibility of the concept has allowed
advocates of stronger environmental protection to advance interpreta-
tions of sustainability which encapsulate
'
theideathattherearesome
absolute constraints to development
beyond which one cannot go
...
.
24
In view of this, the accept-
ability of economic growth should be determined and limited by refer-
ence to the carrying capacities of natural systems.
It is this notion of environmental limits as a basis for making judg-
ments on proposed development, and the enthusiasm with which it has
been adopted by those who call for a more environmentally oriented
approach to planning, that I consider in the
following section
.
without unacceptable change occurring
'
5.2.1 Identifying environmental capacities
The planning system in England andWales provides, in theory, a neutral
decision-making framework under which judgments are made through a
process of balancing economic, social and environmental considerations
as to whether proposed land uses would be in the public interest.
25
However, the widespread perception is that this balance is weighted in
favour of development with the primary purpose of the system being to
facilitate economic processes by making allocations of land to meet
resource demands.
26
Environmental in
uence on planning is, at its
highest, limited to making development
'
benign
'
by seeking out locations
23
S. Owens,
Negotiated Environments: Needs, Demands and Values in the Age of
Sustainability
'
'
(1997) 29 Environment and Planning A, 571; Owens and Cowell,
'
Land
and Limits
'
,1stedn,pp.54
-
5.
24
Rydin,
'
Land Use Planning and Environmental Capacity
'
(
1998
), 749
-
50. See also Owens
and Cowell,
'
Land and Limits
'
, 1st edn, pp. 30
-
3; Ross,
'
Modern Interpretations
'
; Owens and
Cowell,
'
Land and Limits
'
, 2nd edn, p. 3; Ross,
'
Sustainable Development
'
, pp. 287
-
310;
Garver,
'
Introducing the Rule of Ecological Law
'
; Bosselmann,
'
From Reductionist
Environmental Law
'
.
25
Bishop,
'
Planning to save the Planet?
'
, pp. 211, 218; Stallworthy,
'
Sustainability, Land
Use
'
, p. 100; Cullingworth and Nadin,
'
Town and Country Planning
'
,pp.1
-
2.
26
Owens,
'
Negotiated Environments
'
, 576; Owens and Cowell,
'
Land and Limits
'
,1stedn,
pp. 43
-
4; Cullingworth and Nadin,
'
Town and Country Planning
'
,p.252.
