The implications of recent planning and environmental reform for the South African planning profession

Abstract

Recent literature suggests that the environment is crucial to achieve urban sustainability (Anderson & Elmqvist, 2012:269). Environmental considerations have in this sense become an integral part of developmental thinking and decision-making and there is now an expanded scientific understanding that environmental management is substantially beneficial to urban communities and should be included as part of broader spatial planning approaches (Llausàs & Roe, 2012:644; Surma, 2015:4; Thomas & Littlewood, 2010:212; Wright, 2011:1008). But despite efforts such as policy and legislative development directives by South African authorities to mainstream environmental consideration into broader land-use decision-making, there are concerns over inadequate integration of environmental considerations in planning (Wilhelm-Rechmann & Cowling, 2012:4-5). It has also been noted that planners have uncertainties on the processes and requirements for enhancing such environmental consideration (Wilhelm-Rechmann & Cowling, 2012:4-5). This includes proficiency (awareness and knowledge) of land-use decision-makers to employ municipal planning and environmental management instruments such as environmental management frameworks (EMFs), conservation plans (C-plans), strategic environmental assessments (SEAs) and environmental authorisation (EA). As environmental management instruments identify environmental significant areas such as open spaces, critical biodiversity areas and high potential agricultural land, planners can use this environmental information to spatially integrate environmental objectives and land-use planning and management. However, municipal planning and environmental management are mandates of different spheres of government. The current reality suggests that there are silo planning approaches for municipal planning and environmental management as they are considered as separated functions (Cilliers, 2009:1; Turpie, 2009:54-56). This research calls for a more aligned and integrated planning process and considers the implications of the recent planning and environmental law reform for the South African planning profession in terms of the alignment of environmental management and municipal planning. Moreover, this research claims that environmental management is informative to land-use planning and management. Therefore, alignment between municipal planning and environmental management is crucial to capitalize on the benefits of integrated planning and to integrate environmental consideration in land-use planning and management. Some of the major implications of the recent planning and environmental law reform are the directive principles and requirements to consider environmental management instruments in land-use planning and management and “restriction of environmentally harmful behaviour” through land-use planning and management (Nel et al., 2015a:48). While the recent planning and environmental law reform have several implications on the planning profession, limited research exists on planning practitioners’ proficiency in the use of municipal planning instruments to restrict behaviour that can have a detrimental impact on the environment (Nel et al., 2015a:48) and planning practitioners’ perspectives and use of environmental instruments during decision-making. Furthermore, limited practice guidelines exist on how to integrate environmental consideration into land-use planning and management. In an attempt to provide insight on the current challenges this research followed a multi-method approach, which included considering two important case studies, questionnaires and expert interviews. Research findings concluded on planning practitioners’ proficiency with municipal planning instruments, including development controls to protect environmental attributes and significant areas and the professional views with regard to the planning reality and challenges relating to integrated planning. The survey results suggest that participants’ proficiency on the use of servitudes could improve. The lack of common terminologies, resource constraints and inadequate consideration of land-use planning and management in environmental management plans were identified as possible areas for intervention. This research also proposed a schematic representation for municipal planning interface with environmental management to improve land-use decision-making in practice. The schematic representation aims to balance environmental protection and development needs by integrating environmental consideration in land-use planning and management through leveraging information environmental instruments have to offer. Synergies between environmental management and spatial planning will ultimately promote effective and responsible planning and land-use management. Lastly, recommendations are made for further research