The peri-urban conundrum stakeholder engagement for land use and site planning through digital tools

Abstract

New Zealand is facing immense pressure for urban expansion as populations grow and demand for housing increases. Located on some of the most highly productive soils, New Zealand cities are expanding into these productive hinterland landscapes, with valuable soil resources indefinitely lost. This chapter explores how digital tools can be used to engage stakeholders with the issue of peri-urban land use change, and how these tools can be utilised to consider and evaluate alternative futures. Outlining two case studies, this chapter presents methods and outcomes of two participatory processes for engaging with the peri-urban land use conundrum. The first case presents a site-scale project where digital design outputs were used to engage with multiple stakeholder groups. The second case presents a landscape-scale project where local government was engaged in an alternative futures scenario-based activity where GIS mapping was used to create the scenario plans. Communication benefits and constraints for bridging viewpoints between different stakeholders are illustrated and discussed.