Limits to participation in road infrastructure planning: Which choices do citizens make when their valued landscapes are under pressure?

Anne Marel Hilbers, Frans J. Sijtsma, Tim Busscher and Jos Arts

Land Use Policy, 2024, vol. 138, issue C

Abstract: There is only a finite amount of land, which is why the decision to allow a particular land use often results in a trade-off with other potential land uses. Traditionally, trade-offs have been assumed by planning professionals (i.e. ‘experts by profession’), while citizens, who experience the landscape on a daily basis (i.e. ‘experts by experience’), are only involved to a limited extent. Several researchers suggested that assessment and mapping of these trade-offs should be done at landscape level. The aim of this paper is to examine citizens’ trade-offs between different valued landscapes when under pressure due to road infrastructure development. Using the ‘Place Value Identifier’ (PVI), an online Public Participatory GIS (PPGIS) approach applied in the Netherlands (n = 1044), we analyse: (1) the general sustainability, infrastructure and land-use related values of citizens, (2) their valued landscapes, and (3) their trade-off choices between the different valued landscapes when these are under pressure of spatial developments. Our results show that respondents had difficulty making a distinct choice for a valuable place to be saved or sacrificed; only 23,8% had a strong preference for one place to save. However, the collective result of the individual choices seems to hold important information for planning. As a way forward, we developed information-rich maps (PVI-maps) visualising how landscapes are valued by the citizens around three Dutch road infrastructure projects. The PVI-maps include details on the degree of resistance to sacrificing different places, thus contribute to context-sensitive planning.

Keywords: Public participatory GIS (PPGIS); Local trade-offs; Valued landscapes; Land-use configurations; Road infrastructure project development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837723004635
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:138:y:2024:i:c:s0264837723004635

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106997

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().