PhD defence: Haiyun Xu

Haiyun Xu defends her thesis,

Landscape corridor planning practices in Europe and China.
Envisioning public participation in landscape corridor development

Supervisors:
Professor Henrik Vejre, IGN
Professor Tobias Plieninger, University of Kassel and Göttingen - Germany
Professor Jørgen Primdahl, IGN

Assessment Committee:
Professor Claudia Bieling, University of Hohenheim - Germany
Professor Veerle van Eetvelde, Ghent University - Belgium
Associate Professor Anton Stahl Olafsson (chair), IGN

Summary:
Landscape corridors have attracted increasing policy attention for decades, and they have been widely promoted in open space planning for sustainable regional development. However, the literature rarely summarizes the overall knowledge of current experiences of landscape corridor practices. Moreover, in the promotion of numbers landscape corridor planning in China, the demands and reactions of local residents who live in the corridor projects areas are generally ignored by scholars, which leads to failures to anticipate potential conflicts and barriers to the implementation of corridor practices. Since Europe has a longer tradition of corridor and public participation policy-making and implementation, European experiences may be useful for ‘newcomers’ like China, which is developing landscape corridors of its own.
This PhD thesis begins by systematically reviewing the experiences of current landscape corridor planning practices. Then, while tracking a specific landscape corridor case, the thesis explores the potential of involving public stakeholders in landscape corridor planning in China. That is, by using a novel “alternative futures assessment” method, it assesses the value of incorporating local residents insights and interests into planning solutions.
The thesis provides overall knowledge on the current experiences and shortcomings of landscape corridor planning and management practices, ascertaining that involving public stakeholders is an overall shortage in the field of landscape corridor planning projects. The results provide accessible ways and useful insights for the future diffusion of participatory planning for landscape corridor planning in China by presenting a mechanism for improving decision-maker-drafted plans by including local residents’ values, ideas, interests. Results also yield insights regarding ways to manage conflicts between decision makers and residents, and highlight the potential for enhancing collaboration among multiple decision makers in landscape corridor planning practices. Mobilizing a broad array of stakeholders by developing new approaches for more effective public participation in the planning system is needed for future landscape corridor planning in China.

The thesis is available for inspection at the PhD administration office at Rolighedsvej 23.