Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
top-down legal structure, which re
ects governmental perception of it as
a delivery vehicle for policies, is inimical to a genuinely strategic plan-
ning approach built up from knowledge of regional and local circum-
stances.
72
In view of these weaknesses, the land use planning system
would need to be replaced if a system of ecological governance is to be
introduced by a legal framework that possesses the
ve capacities I
discuss in the following sections, and which, by virtue of them, would
enhance the state
s ability to marshal resources, to coordinate actors in
governance, to engage non-governmental actors in plan-making, and
thereby to implement its policies for an ecological transition.
The proposed framework is
'
rst is that it
would establish common principles and parameters for the conduct of
local and regional planning processes. In part, this enables the state to
perform its guiding role in ecological governance.
73
The second is that
the state would work with local and regional planning bodies to develop
a nationwide strategy for stress reduction.
74
In this regard, the purpose of
its involvement would be to address drivers of ecological degradation
that cannot be dealt with by local and regional institutions acting in
isolation, and to consider how measures could be used to mitigate or
redistribute the environmental, economic and social effects of an eco-
logical transition where these fall disproportionately on certain regions
and localities. The development of a national perspective through inter-
action with local and regional planning would also enable the state to
conduct planning processes for which it is responsible, such as for the
development of nationally important infrastructure, on an informed and
collaborative basis.
'
national
'
in two senses. The
5.3.1 Comprehensive planning
A planning system and the legal framework that gives it form should be
comprehensive if it is to provide adequate support for ecologically
progressive planning. By comprehensive, I mean that all sectoral
Planning Institute: London, pp. 10
-
17, reveals that they fail to provide
'
understanding of
.Thisis
attributed to a failure to integrate infrastructure planning with other planning processes
and the limited spatial content of the documents concerned.
72
See my argument that planning, if it is to be strategic, should be based on the provision of
informationfromthebottomupatChapter4,
Section 4.4.3
.
73
Chapter 4,
Section 4.4.1
.
74
This is in line with the state
how these sectoral issues might complement or con
ict with each other
'
'
s coordinating role in ecological governance. See Chapter 4,
Section 4.4.3
.
