Andalusia, Spain: An Assessment of Coastal Scenery

The 1101 km length of the Andalusian coast (Spain) was assessed for coastal scenery at 45 specific locations. Selected areas covered resort (3), urban (19), village (8), rural (10) and remote (5) bathing areas. Scenery was analyzed for physical and human parameters via 26 selected parameters. These parameters were obtained by interviews of 4500 people on European beaches. Each parameter was assessed via a one-to-five-point attribute scale, which essentially ranged from presence/absence or poor quality (1), to excellent/outstanding (5). Results were subsequently weighted by interviewing 4600 bathing area users (not all 26 parameters have equal weight) and subjected to fuzzy logic mathematics in order to reduce recorder subjectivity. High weighted averages for attributes 4 and 5 (excellent/outstanding) reflected high scenic quality, vice versa for attributes 1 and 2. Sites were classified into five classes ranging from Class 1 sites having top grade scenery to Class 5, poor scenery. Seven sites each were found in Classes 1 and 2; 10 sites each in Classes 3 and 5; 11 sites in Class 4. The finest coastal scenery was found in remote areas whilst urban areas scored mainly as Class 3 or 4. Three out of the ten rural sites had Class 3 and 4 values assigned them whereas the rest scored as Class 1 and 2; village sites invariably had scores within Class 3 and 4. Of the three resort sites investigated, one scored as a Class 1 site, the others as Class 3

Pylons in the back yard: local planning and perceived risks to health

Health fears arising from the presence of high-voltage power lines in residential areas have received recent attention in spatial planning. A study of stances taken by planning authorities in England and Wales shows their willingness to give expression to the concerns of local communities through precautionary measures, and the difficulties encountered in the face of official statements and industry opposition. These attempts to embody local feeling in patterns of development are illustrative of the increasing prevalence of a sense of risk in contemporary society. The spatial patterns of risk are also revealed, which owe much to the presence and distribution of industrial infrastructure in the landscape and to the associated contested use of land.</p

Public opinion on energy crops in the landscape: considerations for the expansion of renewable energy from biomass

Public attitudes were assessed towards two dedicated biomass crops – Miscanthus and Short Rotation Coppice (SRC), particularly regarding their visual impacts in the landscape. Results are based on responses to photographic and computer-generated images as the crops are still relatively scarce in the landscape. A questionnaire survey indicated little public concern about potential landscape aesthetics but more concern about attendant built infrastructure. Focus group meetings and interviews indicated support for biomass end uses that bring direct benefits to local communities. Questions arise as to how well the imagery used was able to portray the true nature of these tall, dense, perennial plants but based on the responses obtained and given the caveat that there was limited personal experience of the crops, it appears unlikely that wide-scale planting of biomass crops will give rise to substantial public concern in relation to their visual impact in the landscape

Making sense of urban food festivals: cultural regeneration, disorder and hospitable cities

This article examines urban food festivals, and in doing so it carries out a case study of Nottingham’s Food and Drink Festival (NFDF). It contends that such festivals need to be understood in relation to local contexts, such as the reputation for alcohol-related disorder associated with Nottingham’s night-time economy. Rather than being used to attract tourism, NFDF was primarily directed at existing residents of Nottingham, where it sought to produce particular kinds of guests who would be able to invest in the city’s wider regeneration. Here, the article draws on recent academic work on hospitality in demonstrating how NFDF attempted to rebrand the city centre as a more hospitable place. It concludes by showing how visitors to NFDF exhibited a sense of generosity and pride, and argues that the meaning of urban food festivals cannot therefore simply be reduced to the logic of neoliberal governance

Transactions costs in rural decision-making: The cases of funding and monitoring in rural development in England

Public domain decisions in rural England have become more complex as the number of stakeholders having a say in them has increased. Transactions costs can be used to explore this increasing complexity. The size and distribution of these costs are higher in rural areas. Grouping transactions costs into four - organizations, belief systems, knowledge and information, and institutions - two of the latter are evaluated empirically: growth in the bid culture, and monitoring and evaluation. Amongst 65 Agents of Rural Governance (ARGs) in Gloucestershire, both were found to be increasing over time, but those relating to finance were a greater burden than those of monitoring: the latter can improve ARG performance. Increasing transactions costs in rural decision-making appears to be at variance with ambitions of achieving 'smaller government' through, for example, the Big Society. Smaller government is likely to be shifting the incidence of these costs, rather than reducing them. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Participation in environmental enhancement and conservation activities for health and well-being in adults: a review of quantitative and qualitative evidence

PUBHLT

Broadly engaging with tranquillity in protected landscapes:A matter of perspective identified in GIS

References to the subjective notion of tranquillity have long been extensively deployed in marketing\ud literature and in planning policy in relation to both its promotion and its protection, particularly in protected\ud areas. Whilst a liberal use of the term has ensued, a plethora of research interprets tranquillity\ud primarily with noise, and where broader interpretations are progressed, traditional, directional questioning\ud techniques are evident in attempts to understand tranquillity and quantify its features. Surprisingly,\ud few enquiries have taken a broader, inductive approach to determining the range of stakeholders’ views\ud and of these even fewer have engaged specifically with local residents and particularly those classed as\ud hard-to-reach. Using these latter approaches, of the few and most recent studies conducted, the Broadly\ud Engaging with Tranquillity project provides a replicable framework for determining and mapping tranquillity.\ud An extensive community engagement process launched the study, using participatory principles\ud from which stakeholders’ views were modelled using Geographical Information Systems. Results of this\ud research are reported together with an interpretation of the models created according to four distinct\ud groups representing views of institutions and members of the public. Similar views are identified amongst\ud the groups with tranquillity commonly related to natural environments, whereas nontranquillity was\ud primarily equated to seeing and hearing people and the products of human activity. Yet distinctions are\ud identified between the four groups that have important implications for who should be involved in determining\ud local characteristics of tranquillity and for how protected area managers might include nonexpert\ud views in their understanding and conservation of tranquillity

Death of the high street: identification, prevention, reinvention

Location is of paramount importance within the retail sector, yet defining locational obsolescence remains overlooked, despite significant concerns over the viability of parts of the complex sector. This paper reviews the existing literature and, through this, explores retail locational obsolescence, including the multi-spatial nature of the driving forces that range from the global economy, local markets and submarkets, to individual property-specific factors; and, crucially, the need to disentangle locational obsolescence from other important concepts such as depreciation and functional obsolescence that are often mistakenly used. Through this, a conceptual model, definition and diagnostic criteria are presented to guide future studies, policy development and the allocation of resources. Importantly, three stages are presented to enable the operationalization of the model, essential to future academic and industry studies as well as the ongoing development of policy in this economically important, complex and contentious area

Religious communities, immigration, and social cohesion in rural areas: Evidence from England

Religious communities are important sources of bridging and bonding social capital that have varying implications for perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas. In particular, as well as cultivating cohesiveness more broadly, the bridging social capital associated within mainline religious communities may represent an especially important source of support for the social integration of new immigrant groups. Although the bonding social capital associated with evangelical communities is arguably less conducive to wider social cohesion, it may prompt outreach work by those communities, which can enhance immigrant integration. This article examines these assumptions by exploring the relationship between mainline and evangelical religious communities, immigration, and residents' perceptions of social cohesion in rural areas in England. I model the separate and combined effects of religious communities and economic in-migration on social cohesion using multivariate statistical techniques. The analysis suggests that mainline Protestant communities enhance social cohesion in rural Englwhile evangelical communities do not. The social integration of immigrants appears to be more likely where mainline Protestant and Catholic communities are strong, but is unaffected by the strength of evangelical ones