How can we use the planning system to promote sustainable development? That is the question this module seeks to answer. Students will be introduced to the whole area of land-use planning and spatial planning. From this platform, students will then examine how far we can expect planning to help guide society towards more sustainable futures. Attention will be given to different models of planning: those which emphasise delivery against sustainability targets; those which emphasise collaboration; and those which emphasise learning.  The main focus is on the planning system in the UK, with particular attention given to renewable energy and nature conservation, but the module also draws on relevant international experience. A vital thread that runs through the module is the relationship between knowledge and decision-making. The second half of the module picks up this thread and introduces students to two key ‘tools’ for promoting sustainability by the application of knowledge to decision-making procedures: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Students will learn about the procedures, step by step, but also gain a critical understanding of the extent to which these tools help to encourage more sustainable forms of development.

• engage in theoretical, practical and ethical debate at the forefront of sustainability and planning.
• evaluate planning strategies and policies, in terms of their contribution to sustainable development
• demonstrate skills in policy analysis and evaluation, with particular attention to the critical reading of texts
• appreciate the ways in which planning is influenced by wider societal ideas about environment, nature, the economy and the public sphere.
• explain the different theories by which knowledge is believed to influence decision-making, and identify evidence from planning practice to assess these theories
• understand the ways in which EIAs and SEAs are undertaken, interpreted and evaluated;
• understand the individual and team skills involved in EIA and SEA
• evaluate the quality of Environment Impact Assessments

The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures, workshops and in-class discussion groups. There will be two two-hour sessions each week. Handouts will be made available for each session, summarising the material covered and suggesting additional reading. Handouts will be posted in advance on Learning Central. Powerpoint presentations will accompany most sessions. Only limited use of audio and video is made in this module.

During all sessions, there is an expectation of student input, either individual, or following in-class group work exercises. Students will always be given an appropriate amount of time to prepare for this input. In some weeks students will be expected to read and assess written material, or gather some information, which will be used in the following session.

Students will familiarise themselves with the EIA process, methods used in EIA, EIA in different institutional contexts, and the potential of EIA as an environmental planning and policy-making tool. Students will also practise and develop the following:

• Ability to critically analyse planning and policy processes
• Skills in group collaboration and oral presentation
• Written communication skills

Coursework (100%)

This module does not assume that all students will have a clear idea of what planning is. Consequently, it starts with an explanation of the basic elements of planning – in particular land use planning – and outlines theories by which planning might steer society towards sustainability: linear rational models; models based on collaboration; and models which see planning as important arenas for contestation and debate. These models are then mapped on to theories of how knowledge relates to decision-making. Subsequent sessions in the first half of the module then explore the role of planning in particular case study areas: renewable energy and nature conservation. The ideas developed in the first half of the module are then applied in the second half to two specific decision-making tools: Environmental Impact Assessment (for projects) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (for plans, programmes and policies). Students are introduced to the basic steps and principles of these tools, including the requirements of European Union Directives, before critically appraising their effects on decision-making. All sessions are mandatory.

The following are useful introductory readings for the module as a whole. Each week, additional and more-up-to-date readings will be issued to support the topic being discussed, and these lists will be placed on Learning Central.

 For the first half of the module: 

Blowers, A. (ed) (1993) Planning for a sustainable environment, TCPA/Earthscan. 

Cowell R and Owens S (2006) ‘Governing space: planning reform and the politics of sustainability’ Environment and Planning ‘C’, Government and Policy 24(3), 403-421 

Davoudi S, Crawford J and Mehmood A (eds.) (2009) Planning for Climate Change. Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation for Spatial Planners, London: Earthscan. 

Healey, P. and Shaw, T. (1994), “Changing meanings of ‘environment’ in the British planning system”, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 19. 

Owens, S. and Cowell, R. (2010),Land and Limits,2^nd edition,Routledge: London. (the 2002 edition is the same, it just lacks the new foreword and introductory chapter) 

Rydin, Y. (1998), “Land use planning and environmental capacity: reassessing the use of regulatory policy tools to achieve sustainable development”, in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 41(6).

For the second half of the module: 

Environmental Assessment: a guide to the procedures.(1989) Department of the Environment. London: HMSO. 

Carroll, Barbara & Trevor Turpin.  2002. Environmentalimpactassessment handbook: a practical guide for planners, developers and communities. London: Thomas Telford. 

European Union environment policy and new forms of governance: a study of the implementation of the environmentalimpactassessment directive and the eco-management and audit scheme regulation in three member states. 2001. Hubert Heinelt et al. (eds.). Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. 

Glasson, John, Riki Therivel & Andrew Chadwick (1999) Introduction to environmentalimpactassessment : principles and procedures, process, practice, and prospects. 2nd ed. London: Spon Press. 

Morris, P. and Therivel, R. (eds.) (2001) Methods of environmentalimpactassessment. 2nd edition. London: Spon Press. 

Owens, S., Rayner, T. and Bina, O. (2004) 'New agendas for appraisal: reflections on theory, practice and research', Environment and Planning A 36, 11, 1943-1959. 

Partidario M and Clark, R. (eds) (2000)Perspectives on strategic environmental assessment. 

Petts, J. (ed.) (1999) Handbook of environmentalimpactassessment. Volume 1 and 2. Oxford: Blackwell Science. 

Therivel R and Partidario M (eds)(1996)Practice of strategic environmental assessmentLondon: Earthscan Publications 

Weston J (ed.) (1997)Planning and environmentalimpactassessmentin practice. Harlow: Longman. 

Wood, C (1995) Environmental Impact Assessment, A comparative review. Harlow: Longman.

 

 

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