Research & Publications -> On-going Research -> Land Use and Sustainability

Land Use and Sustainability

Timothy Collins

Project Abstract

Land use patterns are important to the health and well-being of communities, especially as development spreads across the urban-rural fringe. A stakeholder-based curriculum for sustainable land use that I helped develop for Penn State Cooperative Extension and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development demonstrates the need for a systems-based approach to coordinate the numerous dynamic elements of land use. This project builds on that model, using the Community Capitals Framework to target stakeholders and systematize sustainability values to underpin land use education programs. The sustainability values emerge out of environmental principles that are deeply rooted in Western and American culture. Based on Aldo Leopold's land ethic, the curriculum focuses on the community as an ecosystem where human agents need to work within and for their natural environment to create sustainable land use patterns. In addition, the values can become assessment tools for sustainable land use and development.

Deliverables from Project

The project will generate papers and professional presentations, a Rural Research Report documenting best land use practices, and an honors course for Western Illinois University undergraduates.