Developing a Landscape Design Approach for the Sustainable Land Management of Hill Country Farms in New Zealand

Abstract

<jats:p>Landscape modification associated with agricultural intensification has brought considerable challenges for the sustainable development of New Zealand hill country farms. Addressing these challenges requires an appropriate approach to support farmers and design a better landscape that can have beneficial environmental outcomes whilst ensuring continued profitability. In this paper we suggest using geodesign and theories drawn from landscape ecology to plan and design multifunctional landscapes that offer improved sustainability for hill country farm systems and landscapes in New Zealand. This approach suggests that better decisions can be made by considering the major landscape services that are, and could be, provided by the landscapes in which these farm systems are situated. These important services should be included in future landscape design of hill country by creating a patterning and configuration of landscape features that actively maintains or restores important landscape functioning. This will help to improve landscape health and promote landscape resilience in the face of climate change. Through illustrating the potential of this type of approach for wider adoption we believe that the proposed conceptual framework offers a valuable reference for sustainable farm system design that can make an important contribution to advancing environmental management globally as well as in New Zealand.</jats:p>

Key Roles for Landscape Ecology in Transformative Agriculture Using Aotearoa—New Zealand as a Case Example

“…Despite having great potential to be applied in agricultural planning, LE has not had much opportunity to work in a more constructive sense and play a role in creating future farm landscapes. It has also had sparse practical flow through to on-ground farm planning and management and links between landscape science and farm system design are limited [62,63]. However, taking a landscape ecological approach to the integrated analysis of landscape function has the potential to help provide farmers and land managers with approaches, information, and important knowledge that can guide future management strategies and assist in land use decision making [64].…”

“…Ideas put forward by Meurk and Swaffield [13], which focus on creating integrated landscapes, with a patchwork of landscape elements consisting of natural features and native species co-existing in unison with production in the landscape, is one of encouraging multifunctionality. The idea of creating multifunctional landscapes by applying LE principles has been widely discussed [70][71][72][73] and there is great potential to consider this more strongly in the planning and design of future farming systems especially in response to some of the challenges facing NZ [63].…”

“…In this context, LE has an important role to play in providing appropriate tools, approaches and frameworks that can facilitate the planning, design, and advice required to help work towards the creation of future farming systems that meet societal needs, respond to the environmental challenges and that can sit within sustainable landscapes. Despite its obvious potential in this area, LE has only recently started to be practically applied in this context to a NZ setting [62,63].…”

“…Linked to this is the potential for LE to assist with the creation of spatial decision support tools. Suggested approaches include the application of a spatial decision support framework using approaches that can build on important LE concepts and design agendas in a spatial planning context to work towards the creation of multifunctional landscapes [63,88].…”

“…Geodesign [89][90][91] offers a framework for smart planning in a spatial environment that enables the analysis of multiple data layers so that planning proposals can be evaluated, and new scenarios tested. This type of approach paves the way for an integrated holistic approach to farm and landscape planning which is vitally needed in NZ [62,63]. Such a framework can provide a basis under which it is possible to analyse the impacts of on-farm land use change prior to a change being implemented.…”