Place Identity In Land Use:Theory And Methodology

Under rapid urbanization, remarkable landscape change has taken place, which brings change to landscape identity at the mean time. Land use is a complex system. The so called development of the harmonious relationship between man and land indicates a mutual and circular land use system. Land resources management in China is well known by its strong ’top-down’characteristic, while land use research in China pays much attention to the rules of land use change and the rational land use control methods. However,’top-down’land management and relevant research are usually biased by the judgment and preference of superior governors or social elites. Lay people’s perception and knowledge of land use are under articulated. Increasing land use conflicts of recent years, especially conflicts in land expropriation, have reflected the irrationality of the’top-down’land resources management system in China on one hand, and land users’strong desire to have their perception expressed on the other hand. By evaluating land quality, e.g. physical quality, land use intensity, etc., land managers have been for a long time making policies to improve land use efficiency and output. Yet, when policy makers think the intention of their management is to use land in a better way and to promote regional economic development, land use conflicts still arise endlessly. One of the major reasons can be the insufficient understanding and recognition of the subjective connections between man and land.The theory of place identity studies people’s perception of regions from the social view. Place identity is the reflection of physical region in people’s mind when people interact with their living natural and social environment. Landscape change can definitely alter a region in respect of spatial outlook, which will affect place identity of the region if we value people’s subjective feelings in landscape change process. The change of place identity may in return influences people’s behavior of land use, or even regional development. Spatial policy of land use needs to be made through a way which regards place identity, different stakeholders’demands and the economic, ecological and cultural value of land use. Planners have to get away from the constraint of the traditional land planning strategy. The direction of future land use can not be predicted by planning experts alone, nor can it be determined by political elites’ knowledge about the development potential of a place. Different stakeholders’ value orientation of land use, as well as their perception of landscape identity, should be considered in land use policy making. Studies in the west have attached increasing importance to the role of place identity which can have effect on spatial planning, natural resources management, social capital and regional development. In China, however, few researches have been done on place identity issues within land use. To understand and explain the relationship among land use actors, place identity and landscape change could be a meaningful research field in China, as far as land management is concerned. Incorporating place identity theory with land use study can enrich what we have for a long time thought about the land use problem in China.This study explores place identity within land use research. Analysis on place identity issues in land use may combine the complexity of land use and the complexity of land use actors. It also helps to explain the variety of subjective cognition land use brings to social actors, and the different perception social actors have on land use. Land use management experience of the western countries, especially of the Netherlands, is introduced in this thesis, and by comparing the situation in China, it analyzes how to apply the theory of place identity to land use management study in China in view of land planning and appraisal. Based on the history of land use management in China in recent decades, the thesis points out that there is insufficient study on the relationship among land use, land use managers/users and place identity. The merit of incorporating the theory of place identity with land use planning and appraisal is studied. A SoftGIS based landscape identity and preference study system, Landscape Hotspotmonitor, is introduced. The Hotspotmonitor is a new enquiry tool that allows assessing spatially specific landscape identity and preferences of clearly defined impact populations. With the Hotspotmonitor, investigations on land use identity and preference were carried out in six regions in the Netherlands and one region in China. The empirical analysis results show that competitive perceptions on land use exist among social actors of various backgrounds at different spatial scales. Major conclusions of this thesis are followed.(1) Place identity integrates physical world and subjective social cognition. It is a fuzzy term referring either to the distinctiveness of a place or to individual’s selfhood labeled by places. These two aspects of place identity are different in respects of concept, function and measurement, but there are subtle connections between them. When people build up identity in a place, the place brings identity to its inhabitants at the same time. Researchers need to find a position when they initiate place identity studies, otherwise place identity will remain abstruse to readers. A preliminary classification of place identity is proposed in the thesis, to help geographers and other pursuers on place identity find their position.(2) The study of land appraisal usually concerns the ecological, economic and socio-cultural values of the landscape. Compared with the west, land appraisal in China needs more efforts on the socio-cultural values of the landscape. Land resources managers and relevant actors are always frustrated by the difficulty of implementing land use policy or projects. It seems hard for them to reach the truth behind the conflicts. The theory of place identity is about the relationship between physical environment and citizens’ subjective cognition. It can help to understand the social impact of land use and explain the socio-cultural values of the landscape. The thesis proposes a general appraisal framework of the socio-cultural values and impact of land use. This framework integrates theories of sociology, place identity and land use evaluation. It is expected to contribute a bit to the research of the socio-cultural values of the landscape in China.(3) Land planning in China is to protect the loss of agricultural land and prevent fast urban sprawl. Besides, land planning needs to mediate and solve people’s various demands on limited natural space. Conflicts of land use identity ascribed by different social actors are challenging land use planning. Place identity, public participation and land planning are intertwined. Planning needs negotiations among government, planner and stakeholders affected by land use plan. However, current Major Function Oriented Zoning planning in China represents mainly the planners’perception and knowledge about the natural, social and economic quality of places, while local elites’place identity is considered with high priority. The result of Major Function Oriented Zoning usually turns out to be a compromise between the identities they ascribe to a region.(4) Internet based SoftGIS methods include Geographical Information produced by the users of the environment/landscape which usually is empirical and can be collected and processed as a part of the GIS. Such geo-information consists residents’experience, knowledge, perception and value orientation etc.. It would be reasonable and a good option to analyze the place identity issues in land use with SoftGIS methods. The implementation of the SoftGIS based Landscape Hotspotmonitor turns out to be successful. The results of the SoftGIS data analyzing indicate that at different spatial scales, social actors with different backgrounds may show different cognition on the value of landscape, land use, the visual quality of landscape, the distance of landscape preference. However, there is also some consensus among these social actors on the perception of identity. Under different specific living contexts, we can hardly find a common rule about residents’ perception of land use identity. Thereby, planners, scholars and governors should incorporate the empirical land use information and the stakeholders’ perception on land use identity with spatial planning, rather than stick to the traditional ’hard’ planning approaches, e.g. mapping land use plan and calculating land use quota.(5) Land use experience of a region can be valuable for other regions as far as land management and relevant study are concerned. The study of cross-cultural land use/landscape identity ascribed by different groups of residents, e.g. comparison between China and the western developed countries, may help us understand the social actors’ perception of land use by examining the gap of landscape change and management of different societies. The soft data of land use experience in Nanjing, China, are collected with the Landscape Hotspotmonitor. Comparing the Hotspotmonitor data of Nanjing and the Netherlands, the thesis analyzes residents’ perception on landscape attractiveness and the purpose of natural land use. The results show that the residents with different culture backgrounds hold different perception on land use, which can be evidenced either from a comprehensive view or from views of subgroups divided by gender, age, resident area and education. However, the residents also share some common cognition of land use. The residents from both societies identify green, quiet, naturalness, water and recreation as the most attractive characteristics of their preferred landscape, and they value’amusement’and ’having a break’ the major purposes of natural landscape recreation. For the difference of land use perception between groups of cultural variation as well as other divisions, the reason is complex. Practical explanation can only be obtained through further analysis on concrete cases of land use problem or project.In the end, the thesis points out some subsequent work which could be done to improve this study. Firstly, more sample population in the investigation in China is needed. Further data mining with the database at hand should be done. For other practical problems or theoretical study about land use in the future, we can consider of revising or improving the current SoftGIS system, which may enrich the soft database of land use. Secondly, it is necessary to combine the place identity based land use planning and appraisal models with the SoftGIS data analysis, in order to test the study results on land resources management practices at various spatial scales. Last but not least, attention should also be paid to the empirical study on the relationship between the transformation of land use and place identity.