40 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA
Michael Steven is a landscape architect in private practice , based in Pohara , Golden Bay . He specialises in landscape planning matters in rural and coastal environments , and has appeared as an expert witness in numerous Environment Court hearings , most recently concerning marine farming appeals in the Marlborough Sounds . He divides his time between his home office and the deck of his classic wooden boat , from where he spends many hours taking pleasure in the natural character of the coastal environment of Abel Tasman National Park .
1 . What is rural character ? Are there a series of defining attributes that are universal , and if so , what are they , or is rural character entirely context specific ?
Rural character is the ( predominantly ) visual expression of what makes an area recognisable as rural , as distinct from , say ( to use the most common antonym ), urban . But in practice , what is rural is as slippery as what is natural ... rather like grey , it comes in 50 shades . What is rural will be coloured by different individual constructions and representations . It comes down to personal perceptions of the concept , which in turn will be influenced by individual world views and / or ideologies .
My own world view of rural identifies it as the place where my food - including barley and hops for my beer - is produced . As such I associate rural with primary production , and to the extent that there are any universally defining attributes , evidence of systems for food and fibre production would be key among them . As there are different shades of rural , the character of rural will be context dependent , according to land use and terrain .
The specific expressions of rural character will be context dependent , but the factors by which we analyse character have some
universality1 . Tviet et al ( 2006 ) suggest nine key visual concepts : stewardship , coherence , disturbance , historicity , visual scale , imageability , complexity , naturalness and ephemera . Other schemas no doubt exist . As a general principle , the higher order the concepts , the more universal they are likely to be in their application .
2 . A degree of dynamism is implicit in rural character associated with productive rural landscapes as highlighted in Raewyn Peart ’ s “ Landscape Planning Guide for Peri- Urban and Rural Areas ” publication . Given the changing nature of rural character associated with productive rural landscapes , do you think that Outstanding Natural Landscapes ( ONLs ) can include elements of productive rural character and if so , to what extent . Can an entirely productive rural landscape be outstanding and if so how do you retain its quality in the face of rural dynamism ?
The inclusion of productive land within an outstanding natural landscape is a well established practice , and there are many examples of ONLs containing areas of such land - the Mackenzie Basin is an example .
However , the question of whether an entirely productive rural landscape can be recognised as ONL goes to the matter of the landscape ’ s natural character , and the question of whether a landscape can be regarded as a natural landscape for the purposes of a section 6 ( b ) assessment .
A simple test for identifying the threshold at which a landscape transitions from being predominantly the product of human intervention and ongoing management , to being natural enough for s6 ( b ) purposes , can be understood as the range of the natural character scale where processes begin to dominate over human agency and management . Such conditions may prevail where extensive grazing exists within rangeland landscapes ( e . g ., parts of the Mackenzie Basin ), but not in areas of improved pasture , and certainly not in arable farming landscapes .
For a productive rural landscape to be regarded as an ONL , it must also be a natural landscape , and there are inherent tensions and contradictions in the idea that a productive rural landscape - in a general sense - is also a natural landscape . An ONL could include elements of productive rural character up to the point where a prevailing expression of human agency indicates the landscape can no longer be regarded as a natural landscape .
3 . Why have so few territorial authorities not identified section 7 ( c ) Resource Management Act amenity landscapes , only capturing our highly attractive rural landscapes in ONLs ? Do you think this is a shortcoming and what are the alternatives for protecting , enhancing and sustainably managing these landscapes as they change over time so that they can become healthy and resilient ?