Community perception of forest sector development on the New Zealand East Coast : likely and acceptable employment activities, infrastructure and landscape change

Opinion leaders in the Gisborne East Coast community have contrasting views on the likely character and benefits of employment, infrastructure and landscape change arising from forest sector development. The views expressed in the survey suggest that there is a need to address such issues as scale of land conversion, felling practices, and log transportation. There is a need for public education on the extent of downstream processing already being undertaken, and of the extent and benefits of indirect employment created by the sector

Urban comfort in a future compact city: Analysis of open-space qualities in the rebuilt Christchurch central city

The increase in urban population has required cities to rethink their strategies for minimising greenhouse gas impacts and adapting to climate change. While urban design and planning policy have been guided by principles such as walkability (to reduce the dependence on cars) and green infrastructure (to enhance the quality of open spaces to support conservation and human values), there have been conflicting views on what spatial strategies will best prepare cities for a challenging future. Researchers supporting compact cities based upon public Transit Oriented Development have claimed that walkability, higher density and mixed-uses make cities more sustainable (Owen, 2009) and that, while green spaces in cities are necessary, they are dull in comparison with shopfronts and street vendors (Speck, 2012, p 250). Other researchers claim that green infrastructure is fundamental to improving urban sustainability and attracting public space users with improved urban comfort, consequently encouraging walkability (Pitman and Ely, 2013). Landscape architects tend to assume that ‘the greener the better’; however, the efficiency of urban greenery in relation to urban comfort and urbanity depends on its density, distribution and the services provided. Green infrastructure can take many forms (from urban forests to street trees) and provide varied services (amended microclimate, aesthetics, ecology and so forth). In this paper, we evaluate the relevance of current policy in Christchurch regarding both best practice in green infrastructure and urban comfort (Tavares, 2015). We focus on the Christchurch Blueprint for rebuilding the central city, and critically examine the post-earthquake paths the city is following regarding its green and grey infrastructures and the resulting urban environment. We discuss the performance and appropriateness of the current Blueprint in post-earthquake Christchurch, particularly as it relates to the challenges that climate change is creating for cities worldwide

Visitors’ and locals’ views of environmental management in Christchurch, New Zealand

The objective of the research presented in this report was to develop an understanding of visitors' and locals' views of environmental management in Christchurch. A total of 63 people were selected in a diverse, non-random sample with roughly equal proportions of men and women, and including 21 overseas visitors, 33 domestic visitors and 22 local people. Each subject sorted a pre selected set of structured photographs into nine piles, ranging from those that represented good environmental management to those that represented poor environmental management, to create their own Q sort. All Q sorts were factor analysed to identify three factors or views on environmental management. Subjects' attitudes, beliefs and expectations in making their selections were recorded in interviews and provide an additional basis for interpreting the three different factors. The themes distinctive to the factors, and the themes that are common to the factors, are discussed to develop some theoretical implications. Finally, a number of implications for policy are considered, in particular the need to retain a breadth of approaches to environmental management

The consequences of an innovative water quality policy

This study assesses the consequences of Nitrogen Trading on the Lake Taupō catchment. It is designed to keep the agricultural sector productive as well as within environmental limits, and this makes the Lake Taupō Trading Programme unique. To date it is the only cap and trade programme in which a limit on non-point source nitrogen discharges is applied at both the watershed and the farm levels. Consequently, the Taupō case is acknowledged worldwide as an exemplar implementation of a cap and trade for water quality management. Water bodies, particularly lakes, are vulnerable to excess nutrients. The cap, in a cap and trade regime, enables an environmental goal (such as the amount of nitrate entering a lake) to be met while the trading part allows flexibility of farm management, encourages technology uptake and innovation, and allows changes that are in line with market signals. The study found that significant change has taken place since properties in the Catchment were benchmarked, and the direction of some of this change was unexpected. An important conclusion of the study is that caps on the discharge of nitrogen from farms, need to be coupled with sustained research investment into low nitrogen land uses and farm practices

Urban ecology and ecological design: New Zealand perspectives and future pathways

The main goals of the workshop were to identify ways in which ecology and design can be successfully integrated and to determine future research and teaching directions in urban ecology and ecological design. Now more than ever we need to understand the role of urban ecology and design in dealing with social, climatic, economic and biodiversity crises in a rapidly changing world. This presentation identifies New Zealand perspectives and future pathways

Bilateral capital physeal dysplasia in a ferret (Mustela putorius furo) treated with femoral head ostectomy

A six-month-old male entire ferret presented for investigation of atraumatic bilateral pelvic limb lameness. Radiographic and subsequent histopathological assessment of the femoral heads following bilateral femoral head ostectomy was consistent with capital physeal dysplasia. At six-months postoperatively, pelvic limb function was deemed normal with no evidence of ongoing discomfort. This is the first report of capital physeal dysplasia in the ferret and femoral head ostectomy appears to be an appropriate intervention in the management of these patients

Forty years of Landscape research

Papers of four decades published in Landscape Research are reviewed in order to chronicle the journal’s development and to assess the academic performance of the journal relative to its own aims. Landscape Research intends to reach a wide audience, to have a broad thematic coverage and to publish different types of papers with various methodological orientations. Cutting across these first aims are the interdisciplinary ambition of the journal, and its overall focus on landscape. These aims are evaluated based upon categorisation of article content, authorship and methodology, using data derived through interpretative inquiry and quantitative analyses. The results tell the story of how Landscape Research has developed from a newsletter of the Landscape Research Group, mainly aimed at practitioners, into an interdisciplinary, international journal with academic researchers as its primary community of interest. The final section discusses the current profile of the journal and identifies issues for its future direction and development

Attitudes towards trees : a case study in the New Zealand eastern high country

Attitudes of stakeholders towards the role and management of trees and plantations in the New Zealand eastern high country were surveyed in a series of depth interviews in 1988-89. Analysis of the sample of 58 respondents revealed seven distinctive ways of thinking about trees and plantations. Each was characterised by different perceptions of the appropriate role of trees and plantations, and different beliefs about responsibilities for management

Overview of the statutory context

Environmental administration is one of many areas in which the role of the state and the nature of the public interest has been reshaped. The key statutes affecting landscape assessment are the Environment Act 1986, and, in particular, the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA91)