LIUDD and the community
LIUDD promotes localised forms of environmental management and therefore extends responsibility for environmental management beyond the domain of ‘experts’.
That means landowners, community-based groups and the development industry, as well as a broader range of departments within local authorities, have an integral part to play.
Residents and community organisations become key stakeholders and need to be engaged in the processes of research, planning and monitoring. Active community involvement in the design and implementation of low-impact approaches can lead to improved ecological and social outcomes.
Kathryn Scott investigated the benefits and principles of community engagement in urban environmental management and found community engagement in LIUDD can occur at a range of scales, from adoption of on-site low-impact approaches, to participation in neighbourhood- and catchment-based environmental projects, and influencing policy and practices to support improved environmental and social outcomes.
She says there are many benefits of including communities in urban environmental management.
‘Local-level partnerships encourage community ownership and solutions, and paths for civic participation. Community-based groups often have energy, skills, and detailed local knowledge relating to the natural environment and social history. Such groups also know the local networks and key players and, most importantly, locally specific ways of engaging local residents.
‘They often have the strongest capacity for networking to support local environmental management and there is evidence of community engagement leading to the preparation of better plans as well as enhanced community support for the implementation of the plans.’
Local community-based restoration groups found that people were motivated to become involved by a wide range of factors such as interest in conservation, local history or the arts, ‘giving something back’, and socialising with neighbours. Engagement approaches such as ‘Adopt a site’ provided regular opportunities for residents to connect with and become involved in caring for their local area. Such locally specific engagement is also more likely to result in changes in environmental practices than the ‘moral high ground’ approach often used by social marketing campaigns, Ms Scott says.
Community engagement in neighbourhood site planning can lead to better plans, as shown in Talbot Park, a 5-hectare, medium-density state housing redevelopment in Glen Innes, Auckland. LIUDD included rain gardens within public roads, rain tanks, permeable paving, extensive landscaping, and protection of mature trees and overland flowpaths.
Dialogue with the community in the early stages of the planning process allowed the integration of LIUDD with other solutions to issues raised by the community. Ongoing research by Ms Scott shows the vast majority of residents enjoy living in Talbot Park and are proud of the community and its LIUDD principles.
Kathryn Scott