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SPRINGER BRIEFS IN EARTH SCIENCES

Graciela Metternicht

Land Use and

Spatial Planning
Enabling
Sustainable
Management of
Land Resources
SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8897
Graciela Metternicht

Land Use and Spatial

Planning
Enabling Sustainable Management
of Land Resources

123
Graciela Metternicht
School of Biological, Earth and
Environmental Sciences, PANGEA
Research Centre
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW
Australia

ISSN 2191-5369 ISSN 2191-5377 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences
ISBN 978-3-319-71860-6 ISBN 978-3-319-71861-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71861-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959544

© The Author(s) 2018

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Preface

Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem
services rises. Pressures for the conversion of agricultural land to other uses such as
reforestation and biofuels are raising underpinned by issues related to food security,
renewable energy, and emerging carbon markets. This is happening in tandem with
greater demands from land systems for the supply of ecosystem services (provi-
sioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural). Managing increasing competition for
the supply of these services while accounting for different stakeholders’ interests
requires efficient allocation of land resources. Land use planning can aid in finding
a balance among competing and sometimes contradictory uses, while promoting
sustainable land use options.
This Brief identifies and discusses evidence of land use planning, spatial plan-
ning, territorial (or regional) planning, and ecosystem-based or environmental land
use planning as tools that can strengthen land governance, improve economic
opportunities based on sustainable management of land resources, and develop land
use options that reconcile conservation and development objectives.
Case studies analyzed show that as process and/or instrument, spatial and land
use planning can contribute to sustainable land management (SLM) through, inter
alia, protecting natural capital, including lands of agricultural significance from
urban and peri-urban encroachment; ensuring land use reflects land capability or
land suitability; preventing or limiting vegetation clearing; avoiding the occurrence,
and/or planning for the rehabilitation, of degraded land and contaminated sites;
promoting conservation and enhancement of ecological corridors; and accounting
for sea-level rise and increased storm surge, arising from coastal development
(Australia 2008, 2011, 2013).
Land use planning can also contribute to protecting the quality and quantity of
freshwater resources, to enhancing management of areas prone to natural disasters
(e.g., floodplains), and to protecting natural habitats from destruction and frag-
mentation. In areas of communal land tenure, land use planning assists in the
sustainable management of rangelands, inter alia, resolving issues related to com-
peting land uses and land tenure conflicts, and strengthening land governance.

v
vi Preface

The main policy messages arising from this Brief are:

1. Comprehensive land use planning is an instrument for sustainable land man-
agement, concurrently advancing sustainable development (Walsh 2006); it
creates the preconditions required to achieve a type of land use that is envi-
ronmentally sustainable, socially just and desirable, as well as economically
sound (GIZ 2012).
2. Land use planning should be approached from both land cover and land func-
tionality perspectives, as the latter is a nexus to other transversal land issues.
3. Land use planning is centered around a participatory definition of future land
uses; it is, therefore, a useful approach whenever natural capital and biodiversity
are to be protected, restored, and/or rehabilitated, and unexplored land use
potential has to be identified and evaluated.
4. Land use and spatial planning can: (a) reconcile land use with environmental
concerns and resolve potential conflicts between sectoral interests and potential
uses (ESPON 2012); (b) clarify customary land tenure of communal lands and
increase land tenure security.
5. Policy responses to coordinate human activities with environmental conserva-
tion—alongside suitable financial, legal, and technical support—are needed to
guide land use planning in supporting sustainable land management, and to help
resolve conflicting land use demands.
6. The integration of cross-sectoral policies (e.g., land use, energy, and water
management) into a single planning instrument at the regional level, based on an
understanding of territorial dynamics, can bolster sustainable land management.
7. Planning at the regional scale enables the cumulative impacts of future devel-
opment on the natural capital of a region to be accounted for, and the sharing of
responsibility for protection and management across a wider number of
stakeholders.
8. As a process undertaken at national and/or territorial level, following well-
established principles of participation, integration, and assessment of land and
water potential, LUP can address systemic issues of policy and institutional
coherence, multi-stakeholder partnership, and high-quality data availability,
identified as essential factors to strengthen the means of implementation of the
Sustainable Development Goals.

Sydney, Australia Graciela Metternicht

October 2017
Acknowledgements

This report benefited from the inputs of Sasha Alexander (UNCCD) and two
anonymous reviewers. The author is thankful to Natalia Ipatow from Munich
University of Applied Sciences (Germany) for the cartography of this brief. This
report was commissioned by the UNCCD.

vii
Key Definitions

Best practice: a procedure that has been shown by research and experience to
produce optimal results and that is established or proposed as a standard suitable for
widespread adoption (Merriam-Webster, n.d.).
Ecosystem restoration: the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that
has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed (SER 2004).
Land use planning: the systematic assessment of land and water potential, alter-
natives for land use and economic and social conditions in order to select and adopt
the best land use options. Its purpose is to select and put into practice those land
uses that will best meet the needs of the people while safeguarding resources for the
future FAO 1993.
See Table 2.1 for:
• Ecological land use planning;
• Integrated land use planning;
• Participatory land use planning;
• Regional land use planning;
• Rural territorial land use planning; and
• Spatial land use planning.
Multi-functional landscapes: landscapes which serve different functions and
combine a variety of qualities (i.e., different material, mental, and social processes
in nature and society occur simultaneously in any given landscape and interact
accordingly); ecological, economic, cultural, historical, and aesthetic functions
coexist in a multi-functional landscape (ESPON 2012).
Peri-urban zone: area between an urban settlement and its rural hinterland. Larger
peri-urban zones can include towns and villages within an urban agglomeration.
Such areas are often fast changing, with complex patterns of land use and land-
scape, fragmented between local and regional boundaries (Zivanovic-Miljkovic
et al. 2012).

ix
x Key Definitions

Policy: a course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organization or

individual (Dictionaries, n.d.). Strategies provide a means to implement policies.
Actions describe specific elements within a strategy.
Sustainable use: the use of components of biological diversity in a way, and at a
rate, that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity, thereby
maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of the present and future
generations (Convention on Biological Diversity 1992).
Sustainable land management (SLM): adoption of land use systems that, through
appropriate management practices, enable land users to maximize the economic and
social benefits of land, while maintaining or enhancing the ecological support
functions of its resources (soil, water, vegetation, and animal resources) (Liniger
et al. 2011). SLM combines technologies, policies, and activities aimed at inte-
grating socioeconomic principles with environmental concerns, so as to simulta-
neously maintain or enhance production, protect the potential of natural resources,
and prevent (or halt) soil, vegetation, and water degradation, while being eco-
nomically viable and socially acceptable (Smyth and Dumanski 1993).
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1
1.1 Land Use Planning—A Contribution to Sustainable Land
Management (SLM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2
1.2 The Nexus Between Land Use Planning and Changes
in the Land System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3
1.3 Land Use, Land Governance and Land Tenure: Interdependent
Factors Influencing Land Use Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 4
2 Planning: Definitions and Evolution in the Context of SLM . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Types of Land Use Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 Land Use Planning Approaches: Basic Requirements . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Principles of Best Practice in Land Use Planning for SLM . . . . . . . 15
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 Socio-political and Legal Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Multi-stakeholder Engagement: Integration and Participation . . . . . 18
3.4 Multi-scale Relevance and Vertical Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.5 Multi-sectoral Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6 Multi-functionality of the Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.7 Best Planning Policies and Practices: Representative Case
Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 23
3.8 Key Directions for Supporting SLM Through Land Use
Planning Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... 23
4 Contributions of Land Use Planning to Sustainable Land Use
and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 35
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 35
4.2 Land Use Planning: An Instrument for SLM . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 39
4.3 Land Use Planning: An Instrument for Promoting Sustainable
Land Use and Ecosystem Restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 41

xi
xii Contents

4.4 Land Use Planning: A Tool for Sustainable Infrastructure

Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.5 Land Use Planning: A Tool to Improve Economic
Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.6 Land Use Planning: A Tool to Strengthen Land Governance . . . . . 48
5 Land Use Planning for Advancing Internationally Agreed
Development Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.1 LUP and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.2 LUP Supporting Other International Agreed Environmental
Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.1 Opportunities of LUP for SLM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.2 Remaining Challenges of LUP for SLM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6.3 Policy Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Appendix A: Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Appendix B: Selected Land Use Policy Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Appendix C: Sustainable Development Goals and Targets . . . . . . . . . . . 107
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Drivers and pressures of land use change; their underpinning
of the need for planning, and planning as a response. Adapted
from (Walsh 2006). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3
Fig. 2.1 The land use planning universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 12
Fig. 2.2 Steps of the land use planning process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 13
Fig. 3.1 Role of function-analysis and valuation in environmental
planning, management and decision making (de Groot 2006) . .. 22
Fig. 4.1 Suitability of irrigated annual crops in Northern Australia. Most
land is marginal or unsuitable for that specific use
(Classes C1 and C2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 46
Fig. 5.1 Key elements of the scientific conceptual framework for LDN
and their interrelations. From: Orr et al. (2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 56
Fig. 5.2 Integrated LUP for sustainable development and LDN. From:
Orr et al. (2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 57
Fig. 5.3 Sustainable development goal target 15.3 on achieving land
degradation neutrality as a catalyst for advancing other SDG
targets. From: Akhtar-Schuster et al. (2017) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 58
Fig. 5.4 SDG targets that explicitly (inside green circle) or implicitly
(inside grey circle) recognize LUP as process or instrument to
their achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Fig. B.1 Overview of Western Australia's centralized planning system . . . 70
Fig. B.2 Western Australia State Planning Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Fig. B.3 Western Australia approach to State planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Fig. B.4 Approach to spatial planning in Denmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Fig. B.5 Approach of territorial LUP in Mexico (Wong-González 2009).
Programas de Ordenamiento Ecológico del Territorio (POET)
mandate of SEMARNAT; Ordenamiento Territorial (OT);
Programas Estatales de Ordenamiento del Territorio (PEOTs),
mandate of SEDESOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 99

xiii
xiv List of Figures

Fig. B.6 The LUP process of Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Fig. B.7 Hierarchy, responsibilities and interlinkages of spatial planning
in Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
List of Tables

Table 2.1 Land use planning and its variants, including spatial
land use planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9
Table 3.1 Best land use policy case studies and criteria of best
practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 24
Table 3.2 Summary table of case studies. Underlined are exemplary
best practice criteria identified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26
Table 4.1 Examples of LUP which identifies and promotes sustainable
land use options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 36
Table B.1 Summarizes the planning and land use policy instruments
adopted at different administrative levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 86
Table C.1 SDG targets that explicitly (green cells) or implicitly (grey
cells) recognize the relevance of LUP as process or instrument
to their achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

xv
List of Boxes

Box 1 Land under pressure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 2

Box 2 Example of the impact of governance and lack of land use
planning on rangelands, leading to degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 4
Box 3 Land tenure issues relevant for land use planning . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
Box 4 Principles of leading LUP practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 16
Box 5 Socio-political and legal contexts enabling LUP: evidence from
Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 17
Box 6 Challenges associated to participatory land use planning (PLUP)
in developing countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19
Box 7 Spatial planning in Denmark: multi-scale and multi-sectoral
coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 20
Box 8 Land use planning and multi-sectoral coordination: an essential
nexus for more integrated policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 21
Box 9 Joint village LUP for sustainable rangeland
management—Tanzania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 39
Box 10 Land use planning to promote sustainable land use
and conservation of tropical forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 41
Box 11 Biodiversity conservation through land use planning in Western
Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 42
Box 12 Efficient land allocation and spatial targeting: planning future
land use alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 47
Box 13 Improving economic and environmental performance through
planning land use change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 47
Box 14 Participatory rural LUP to increase tenure security and resolve
land use conflicts: Laos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 49
Box 15 Land use, land tenure and sustainable wildlife management
in Kenya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 51
Box 16 LUP as key process and tool supporting the implementation
of the SDGs in a coherent and integrated manner . . . . . . . . . . . .. 54

xvii
Chapter 1
Introduction

Competition for land is increasing as demand for multiple land uses and ecosystem
services rises. Issues related to food security, renewable energy targets and
emerging carbon markets are creating price signals for the conversion of agricul-
tural land to other uses, such as reforestation and biofuels. This is occurring in
parallel with other growing demands from an ever increasing population (Box 1) for
the supply of ecosystem services (e.g. provisioning, regulating, supporting and
cultural) from land systems. Land use change may increase the supply of some
ecosystem services, though trade-offs with other services are unavoidable. The 2017
Global Land Outlook (UNCCD 2017b) argues that though land is a finite resource,
evidence suggests that with the adoption of more efficient planning and sustainable
practices and changes in consumer and corporate behavior, we will have sufficient
land available in the long-term to meet both the demand for essentials and the need
for a wider array of goods and services. The latter requires managing increasing
competition for the supply of goods and services, while attending to the interests
and values of different stakeholders; and as a process, land use planning enables
efficient land allocation that promotes sustainable land use options (Bryan et al.
2015) and aids in finding a balance among competing and sometimes contradictory
uses (GIZ 2012).
This brief analyzes the role of land use and spatial planning tools, processes and
approaches to improve socio-economic opportunities through sustainable man-
agement of land resources (i.e., soil, water, and biodiversity). Chapter 1 explores
the nexus between land use planning and changes in the land system, as well as
interdependent factors which influence land use planning. Chapter 2 briefly
describes the evolution of different land use types over time, and the basic
requirements of land use planning. Principles of best practice in land use planning
for sustainable land use and management are identified, and case studies of land use
policy, built upon these principles, are presented in Chap. 3. Evidence of contri-
butions of land use and spatial planning to sustainable land use and management, as
well as to the improvement of economic opportunities and the strengthening of land
governance are discussed in Chap. 4. The brief concludes by highlighting the
© The Author(s) 2018 1
G. Metternicht, Land Use and Spatial Planning, SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71861-3_1
2 1 Introduction

contributions of land use planning to advance internationally agreed development

goals (Chap. 5) and some of the challenges spatial and land use planning instru-
ments face in their application for sustainable land use and management and
coherent territorial development (Chap. 6).

Box 1—Land under pressure

• Around 10% of the world’s land surface is under intense human man-
agement, half of it under medium and one-fifth under extensive
management
• Grazing and forest harvest and tree species selection are the largest (in
terms of extent) land management practices, covering almost 60% of the
terrestrial land surface (Erb et al. 2016)
• 38.5% of the world land area is dedicated to agriculture
• The total world water withdrawal used for agriculture is 95%
• Agriculture and forestry account for 2% of total world energy used.
Source (Erb et al. 2016)

1.1 Land Use Planning—A Contribution to Sustainable

Land Management (SLM)

Sustainable land management (SLM) encompasses the ecological, economic and

socio-cultural dimensions of sustainable development (Hurni 1997); as a process, it
comprises land use planning, land use design and land development (GIZ 2012).
Technologies for the adoption, spread, adaptation and implementation of SLM
practices rely on approaches that enable and empower people to this end; land use
planning has proven to be such an approach (Bryan et al. 2015). Land use planning,
spatial planning, territorial (or regional) planning, and, more recently,
ecosystem-based or environmental land use planning (Table 4.1) foster sustainable
land use and management; this occurs via the acknowledgements of stakeholders
and their differing objectives, and the need to strike a balance among the diverse,
and often conflicting, interests of these actors. An aspiration of land use planning is
to coordinate current and future societal needs, while minimizing conflicts
(Hersperger et al. 2015).
1.2 The Nexus Between Land Use Planning and Changes 3

1.2 The Nexus Between Land Use Planning and Changes

in the Land System

Land development deals with land use change. The assessment of the driving forces
behind land use and land use change is necessary when analyzing and explaining
past patterns, as well as when aiming to forecast future patterns. Figure 1.1 sum-
marizes the drivers and pressures of land use change, and their underpinning of the
need for planning. Urbanization, agricultural intensification, and land use special-
ization are processes resulting from the interaction of driving forces related to
geographical characteristics, population dynamics, economic growth, the political
environment, and strategies and polices at different levels.
Land use planning influences the state of the environment (Fig. 1.1); its
implementation may have positive as well as negative environmental and
socio-economic effects. For example, Jia et al. (2003) argue that much of the
environmental degradation occurring in China is closely connected to the ways in
which land is used and/or managed (Tao et al. 2007).
Planning systems and the practice of zoning are both driving forces of change, as
well as responses to it (Fig. 1.1). Such practices can promote environmentally
sound land use and management options, resulting in a number of positive con-
sequences like: tackling land degradation, effecting ecosystem rehabilitation and/or
restoration, resolving conflicting land use demands, and ensuring territorial

Fig. 1.1 Drivers and pressures of land use change; their underpinning of the need for planning,
and planning as a response. Adapted from (Walsh 2006)
4 1 Introduction

cohesion towards sustainability. Policy responses related to spatial planning,

transport, integrated coastal zone management, and integrated water resource
management directly affect the use of land, and land use change. Likewise, changes
in land use can be indirectly effected by policy instruments, such as taxation and
incentives, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, strategies for sus-
tainable development, and territorial agendas (Lambin et al. 2014).

1.3 Land Use, Land Governance and Land Tenure:

Interdependent Factors Influencing Land Use
Planning

Weak governance is a major constraint with regard to planning for sustainable

development; it underpins land degradation and can exacerbate conflicts over the
use of land (Box 2). Many examples exist of national norms that have failed to
protect valuable ecosystems from clearance, partly because they failed to align with
land use planning and governance efforts (Brassett et al. 2011).
Land use planning that strengthens land governance requires processes that:
• are clear—with specific objectives for the protection of natural capital (specific
outcomes),—and with emphasis and focus on comprehensive natural resource
planning;
• include spatial tracking and evaluation of the type of land lost to development
(e.g., forest, farmland) so as to better differentiate between planned and
unplanned losses, both within and outside urban growth boundaries;
• include a system for the tracking and evaluation of the quality of land lost to
development, based on soil types and other topographic information;
• use spatial land use data to examine both the effects of development on forestry
and farming viability, and related mitigation effects resulting from land use
planning;
• analyze quality-of-life factors (i.e., beyond economic aspects) that the planning
programme influences by means of land conservation (Gosnell et al. 2011).

Box 2—Example of the impact of governance and lack of land use

planning on rangelands, leading to degradation
Pastoral areas of Ethiopia are characterized by low, variable and unpre-
dictable rainfall, with rangelands made up of patchily distributed resources of
high and low production potential. The absence of a spatial planning
framework has led to haphazard, and often contradictory, government-led
pastoral land use planning; decisions made at different government levels
often occur without consultation across and between levels, and rarely
involve local land users. This has led to conflicts in the use of the land,
pressure on local water resources, and changes of land use that have
1.3 Land Use, Land Governance and Land Tenure 5

wide-ranging and long-term negative consequences. The previously

highly-productive rangelands are being increasingly fragmented. Livestock
routes are increasingly blocked due to unplanned settlements, fenced
enclosures/exclosures, and agricultural areas along rivers. Local land use
plans have not been included within local government development plans.
In 2013, the government of Ethiopia initiated the design and implemen-
tation of a national land use planning policy. A village (kebele) level
implementation—the lowest government administrative level—was chosen,
but it soon became clear that a different approach was required to reflect the
inherent variability in scale and units of planning, ecology, and land uses. The
government then initiated a complementary participatory, community-led
land use planning process. This was implemented at a district level and
tailored to the socio-political (communal land tenure, nested governance),
economic and cultural context of pastoralists and their traditional use of the
land, in which the movement of people and livestock is key to a healthy and
productive pastoral system.

Source (Tigistu Gebremeskel 2016)

Good governance structures foster responsible land use management through,

for instance, the coordination of sectoral policies and interests. Strengthening land
governance can, thus, deliver multiple positive outcomes, including improvements
in the food economy, environmental benefits, and security and peace. Published
accounts of strengthening local-level governance, in a wide array of places, show
common elements that can be adapted to different political and cultural contexts
(Davies 2016).
Land ownership is another factor affecting land use planning (see Box 3). Each
chosen use of land may pre-determine who the potential users will be; this is
influenced, in turn, by the existing type of land tenure or property regime. Conflicts
can arise when two or more tenure systems coexist, as occurs in Ethiopia, where
individual land holdings are common in the crop-farming areas of the highlands,
while communal land tenure dominates lowland pastoral areas (see Box 2).

Box 3—Land tenure issues relevant for land use planning

• Existing private, public and common land rights, their boundaries and
overlaps;
• Existing private, public and common rights over natural resources, such as
water, minerals, and forests;
• Local people’s land/resource rights (e.g., indigenous land tenure, cus-
tomary land tenure, religious land tenure, or other informal land tenure
arrangements);
6 1 Introduction

• Existing secondary rights, such as right of way, access to water ponds or

woods;
• Administrative boundaries;
• Clarification regarding the responsibility for natural resource management
between the state and local communities.
Source (GIZ 2012)
Chapter 2
Planning: Definitions and Evolution
in the Context of SLM

2.1 Definition

Planning is contained within, and constrained by, economic and political forces,
and priorities (Owens 1992). The process of land use planning, and its imple-
mentation, hinge on three elements: the stakeholders involved in, or affected by, the
land units managed; the qualities or limitations of each component of the land units
being planned for; and the consideration of available and/or viable land use options.
From a technical perspective, factors of planning are: amount of land available, and
its system of tenure; quality, potential productivity and suitability of land (i.e.,
environmentally sound land use); level of technology used to exploit the land
resources; demographic conditions, and the needs and living standards of the
affected people. Each of these factors interacts with the others (Agrell et al. 2004).
The land use planning process can serve to screen preliminary land use options
that should be considered for land evaluation, a process useful for setting national
priorities for development, as well as for selecting specific projects for imple-
mentation at local or sub-national levels (George, n/a). Land use planning has
become a central prerequisite for (spatial) development that aims at social, eco-
logical and economic sustainability. To meet this challenge, different types of land
use planning exist, as described hereafter.

2.2 Types of Land Use Planning

Land use planning (LUP) has evolved from a top-down, expert-driven approach, to
one of land suitability, in the 1960s and 1970s. From the 1980s onwards, this
shifted towards a more integrated approach, involving planning experts,
decision-makers, and ordinary citizens (Bourgoin et al. 2012); an approach inte-
grated into national institutions, and increasingly linked to financial planning.

© The Author(s) 2018 7

G. Metternicht, Land Use and Spatial Planning, SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71861-3_2
8 2 Planning: Definitions and Evolution …

The traditional concept of LUP has diversified over time, to include the appraisal
of factors related to sustainability (i.e., social acceptance, economic viability,
physical suitability, and environmental sustainability), as well as social impacts
(i.e., access to land resources, nutritional status, health status, and education). In this
way, related concepts of integrated LUP, spatial LUP, participatory LUP, par-
ticipatory rural planning, territorial ecological planning, ecosystem-based LUP
(Table 2.1) originated from the 1980s onwards. This transition parallels the shifting
attitudes of the time regarding humankind’s relationship with land. In the 1700s,
land equated ‘wealth’; it was later understood through the more comprehensive
concept of ‘commodity’ (late 1700s to World War II); this shifted again to that of
‘scarce resource’ (post World War II to the 1970s); from the 1980s onwards, it was
generally viewed as a ‘scarce community resource’, representing both a commodity,
and wealth). This paper considers spatial planning as a sub-set of LUP (Ting et al.
1999) (Fig. 2.1).
Land use planning can be improved if the value of the spatial relationships
between land uses can be computed with sufficient ease (Gaaff and Reinhard 2012).
The spatial aspect of planning (or spatial planning) was apparently embedded
within the traditional concept of LUP, up until the modernist period in planning
(i.e., 1970s–1980s) when it drew considerable attention, shifting from a
product-oriented (master plan) to a process-oriented activity (Okeke 2015). In terms
of coverage of issues and scale of operation, spatial planning is a more integrated
concept; equally, it is an activity that may change in form in different contexts,
depending on the institutional and legal framework, or variations in planning cul-
tures and traditions (Healey 1997).
Spatial planning is linked to the economic development of countries. It facilitates
infrastructure planning, especially transportation planning, to determine land uses in
the management of urban regions (Okeke 2015); it is a culture- and
context-influenced process of determining the use of space for sustainable land use
and management. Its adoption has facilitated a change regarding the way in which
governments think about, and the emphasis they place upon, the role of planning.
This form of planning relates also to aspects such as supporting and managing
economic growth, improving quality of life through a better understanding of the
dynamics of development, and better comprehending where and when development
occurs, as illustrated in several case studies of Chap. 3. Spatial planning shows that
planning can be more than the traditional regulatory and zoning practices of land
use (Morphet 2007).
Depending on the conditions in which it is implemented, LUP can be more or
less complex, ranging from the simple inclusion of spatial aspects into local
development planning, to comprehensive spatial planning approaches at different
administrative levels (GIZ 2012). Regional differences in planning can be signifi-
cant too, as shown in Table 2.1, and in the case study of the European Union
(Appendix B.4). Spatial planning is increasingly oriented towards being an
instrument and/or process for resolving conflicting demands on space; it is a means
of looking at the spatial dimension of strategic policies, with the objective of
2.2 Types of Land Use Planning
Table 2.1 Land use planning and its variants, including spatial land use planning
Name Definition/purpose
Land use planning The systematic assessment of
land and water potential,
alternatives for land use and
economic and social conditions,
in order to select and adopt the
best land use options. Its
purpose is to select and put into
practice those land uses that will
best meet the needs of the
people while safeguarding
resources for the future (FAO
1993)
Spatial land use Regional/spatial LUP gives
planning geographical expression to the
economic, social, cultural and
ecological policies of society. It
is, at the same time, a scientific
discipline, an administrative
technique and a policy
developed as an
interdisciplinary and
comprehensive approach
directed towards balanced
regional development, and the
physical organization of space,
according to an overall strategy
Integrated land use Assesses and assigns the use of
planning resources, taking into account
different uses, and demands
from different users, including
all agricultural sectors—
pastoral, crop and forests—as
well as industry and other
interested parties (Liniger 2011,
Agrell et al. 2004, Giasson et al.
2005, Walker et al. 2007)
Participatory land use Used for planning of communal
planning (PLUP) or common property land,
important in many communities
where communal lands are the
most seriously degraded, and
where conflicts over land use
rights exist (Liniger 2011, Rock
2004)
9
Examples of application
Extensive application for rural,
regional, local land use planning
in developing and developed
countries
European Regional/Spatial
Planning: Torremolinos charter
(CEMAT 1983)
Regional agricultural
development of Bungoma
region, Kenya (Agrell et al.
2004), rural planning in Laos
(Sawathvong 2004); Land Use
and Water Allocation on a
Watershed Scale in Iran
(Ahmadi et al. 2012); Land use
and transportation planning,
Jinan, China (Shirgaokar et al.
2013); risk sensitive land use
planning: case studies of Nepal,
Spain and Vietnam
(Sudmeier-Rieux et al. 2015)
Laos (Luang Prabang Province)
(Bourgoin et al. 2012, Rock
2004, Bourgoin and Castella
2011); Loess Plateau in
Northern China—EROCHINA
project (Ritsema 2003); China
(GIZ 2012); Costa Rica
(Marchamalo and Romero
2007); rangelands in northern
(continued)
10 2 Planning: Definitions and Evolution …

Table 2.1 (continued)

Name Definition/purpose Examples of application
Arrangements can be regulated Tanzania (Kaswamila and
through negotiation among Songorwa 2009); Reunion
stakeholders, and communally Island: to integrate biodiversity
binding rules for SLM, based on into land use planning
planning units. Social units (Lagabrielle et al. 2010); US—
(e.g., village) or geographical South Florida: urban planning
units (e.g., watershed) can be (Labiosa et al. 2013);
adopted. Namibia; Oromia (Ethiopia)
People-centered, bottom-up (Tigistu Gebremeskel 2016)
approach recognizing
differences that exist from place
to place, with respect to
socio-cultural, economic,
technological and
environmental conditions (GIZ
2012)
Gestion des terroirs A participatory catchment Francophone West Africa
(Village land use approach; it associates groups (Liniger 2011)
planning) and communities with a
traditionally recognized land
area, aiding these communities
in building skills and
developing local institutions for
the implementation of
sustainable management plans.
It focuses on natural resource
management at the village or
community level through:
(1) technical projects, such as
those related to soil
conservation;
(2) socio-economic factors
related to the organizational
structures within which people
arrange their livelihood
strategies; and (3) the legal
system and its administration,
by which use rights are enforced
in practice (Liniger 2011)
Ordena-miento A politico-administrative and Argentina and several
territorial rural (Rural technical process aimed at Spanish-speaking countries of
territorial land organizing, planning and Latin America (Paruelo et al.
planning) managing the use and 2014)
occupation of the territory,
contingent to its biophysical,
cultural, socio-economic,
socio-political and institutional
characteristics. This process
should be participatory,
(continued)
2.2 Types of Land Use Planning 11

Table 2.1 (continued)

Name Definition/purpose Examples of application
interactive and based on explicit
goals that promote wise and fair
land use, taking advantage of
opportunities, reducing risks,
and protecting resources in the
short, medium and long term. It
should also aim at a rational
distribution of costs and benefits
of territorial use amongst its
users (Paruelo et al. 2014)
Regional land use A process of territorial Lithuania, European Union,
planning development designed to Canada (Francis and Hamm
facilitate the elaboration of a 2011); Australia
general spatial concept and land
use priorities, determination of
environmental and heritage
protection conditions, formation
of a system of residential,
productive and infrastructure
areas, and regulation of
population employment.
Comprehensive land use
planning is regarded as its main
constituent. Integral planning is
used to determine policies of
spatial development of a given
territory, priorities of territory
use, protection and basic
principles of management
(Kavaliauskas 2008)
Ecological land use An environmental policy Mexico (Wong-González
planning instrument to regulate land use 2009); Argentina, Costa Rica
(Ordenamien-to and productive activities, to and Chile have developed
territorial ecológico) protect the environment, methodological frameworks that
promote the conservation and include ecosystem services
sustainable use of natural within spatial LUP (Laterra
resources, considering land use 2014).
potential and land degradation A tool for rural LUP, combining
trends. It is considered the most strategic environmental
appropriate policy instrument to assessment and valuation of
harmonize human activities and ecosystem services has been
environmental sustainability in applied in the Southeast Pampas
the short, medium and long Region of Argentina (Barral and
term (Mexicanos 2012) Oscar 2012)

integrating and coordinating all space-consuming activities within a single geo-

graphic territory (Okeke 2015).
Whether considering traditional LUP, or variations such as spatial planning
(Table 2.1), the challenge for LUP is to ensure the efficient use of limited land
12 2 Planning: Definitions and Evolution …

Fig. 2.1 The land use

planning universe

resources, and to contribute to sustainable economic development (at the regional,

national, and local levels), as well as to safeguard the balanced use of resources
(e.g., soil, water and biodiversity) (Brackhahn and Kärkkäinen 2001).

2.3 Land Use Planning Approaches: Basic Requirements

Land use planning approaches need to be flexible and adaptive so as to be able to

suit varying circumstances. In other words, “blueprint approaches” that define the
steps, procedures and tools do not function; rather, LUP must be structured as a
process designed according to the needs, demands, capacities, rules and institutional
structures of the place in question, following the principles described in Chap. 3
(GIZ 2012).
There are two main phases to LUP and processes—i.e., formulation and
implementation—each comprising a range of activities. The formulation of a land
use plan requires a broad assessment of current land uses, as well as main limita-
tions, and opportunities for development. This assessment requires the collection
and analysis of a substantial amount of information including: biophysical data,
infrastructure, population, land ownership, land tenure and legal context. Tools
such as ecological and economic zoning (EEZ) of the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), land evaluation, and land suitability analysis are commonly
applied. It is also at this stage that valuation of ecosystem services for inclusion in
2.3 Land Use Planning Approaches: Basic Requirements 13

Fig. 2.2 Steps of the land use planning process

land use plans can be undertaken (Paula and Oscar 2012). Once the assessment is
complete, a scoping study into public opinion and social impacts also needs to be
carried out, via participatory processes (Glave 2012) (Fig. 2.2).
Using this information, different land use scenarios can be developed and the
best option selected, taking into account criteria of sustainable land use. This can be
challenging as the most suitable scenario may not always be the most profitable one
as shown by Metternicht and Suhaedi (2003) who provided a list of alternative land
use options, each addressing environmental and economic objectives to differing
extents, in a rural area of Indonesia. In some cases, social dynamics could be
drastically affected if an activity, such as pastoralism, were to be impacted (e.g.,
Ethiopia pastoral rangeland management; see Box 2). Integrated environmental-
economic systems that model land use futures can be used to consider multiple
objectives simultaneously, enabling the identification of efficient land use
arrangements (e.g., meeting society’s preferences for ecosystem services provision).
This was undertaken, recently, in Australia, to identify efficient land use arrange-
ments that anticipate future demand for land-sector greenhouse gas emissions
abatement, and manage requisite trade-offs between agriculture, water and biodi-
versity (Bryan et al. 2015).
After the land use zoning plan, or spatial plan, is elaborated, instruments have to
be identified with which to develop specific programmes and initiatives to achieve
the desired results (e.g., payment for ecosystem services; market-based instruments,
policy mixes, land zoning). This needs be carried out within a clearly defined
framework, including mechanisms to plan and monitor implementation, identify
and correct mistakes, and improve the ongoing process (Paruelo et al. 2014, Glave
2012).
Another random document with
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 “You mean a goof?” I queried, wondering how she could have
penetrated the unhappy man’s secret.
“No, a goop. A goop is a man who’s in love with a girl and won’t
tell her so. I am as certain as I am of anything that Ferdinand is fond
of me.”
“Your instinct is unerring. He has just been confiding in me on that
very point.”
“Well, why doesn’t he confide in me, the poor fish?” cried the high-
spirited girl, petulantly flicking a pebble at a passing grasshopper. “I
can’t be expected to fling myself into his arms unless he gives some
sort of a hint that he’s ready to catch me.”
“Would it help if I were to repeat to him the substance of this
conversation of ours?”
“If you breathe a word of it, I’ll never speak to you again,” she
cried. “I’d rather die an awful death than have any man think I
wanted him so badly that I had to send relays of messengers
begging him to marry me.”
I saw her point.
“Then I fear,” I said, gravely, “that there is nothing to be done. One
can only wait and hope. It may be that in the years to come
Ferdinand Dibble will acquire a nice lissom, wristy swing, with the
head kept rigid and the right leg firmly braced and—”
“What are you talking about?”
“I was toying with the hope that some sunny day Ferdinand Dibble
would cease to be a goof.”
“You mean a goop?”
“No, a goof. A goof is a man who—” And I went on to explain the
peculiar psychological difficulties which lay in the way of any
declaration of affection on Ferdinand’s part.
“But I never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life,” she
ejaculated. “Do you mean to say that he is waiting till he is good at
golf before he asks me to marry him?”
 “It is not quite so simple as that,” I said sadly. “Many bad golfers
marry, feeling that a wife’s loving solicitude may improve their game.
But they are rugged, thick-skinned men, not sensitive and
introspective, like Ferdinand. Ferdinand has allowed himself to
become morbid. It is one of the chief merits of golf that non-success
at the game induces a certain amount of decent humility, which
keeps a man from pluming himself too much on any petty triumphs
he may achieve in other walks of life; but in all things there is a
happy mean, and with Ferdinand this humility has gone too far. It has
taken all the spirit out of him. He feels crushed and worthless. He is
grateful to caddies when they accept a tip instead of drawing
themselves up to their full height and flinging the money in his face.”
“Then do you mean that things have got to go on like this for
ever?”
I thought for a moment.
“It is a pity,” I said, “that you could not have induced Ferdinand to
go to Marvis Bay for a month or two.”
“Why?”
“Because it seems to me, thinking the thing over, that it is just
possible that Marvis Bay might cure him. At the hotel there he would
find collected a mob of golfers—I used the term in its broadest
sense, to embrace the paralytics and the men who play left-handed
—whom even he would be able to beat. When I was last at Marvis
Bay, the hotel links were a sort of Sargasso Sea into which had
drifted all the pitiful flotsam and jetsam of golf. I have seen things
done on that course at which I shuddered and averted my eyes—
and I am not a weak man. If Ferdinand can polish up his game so as
to go round in a fairly steady hundred and five, I fancy there is hope.
But I understand he is not going to Marvis Bay.”
“Oh yes, he is,” said the girl.
“Indeed! He did not tell me that when we were talking just now.”
“He didn’t know it then. He will when I have had a few words with
him.”
 And she walked with firm steps back into the club-house.

It has been well said that there are many kinds of golf, beginning
at the top with the golf of professionals and the best amateurs and
working down through the golf of ossified men to that of Scotch
University professors. Until recently this last was looked upon as the
lowest possible depth; but nowadays, with the growing popularity of
summer hotels, we are able to add a brand still lower, the golf you
find at places like Marvis Bay.
To Ferdinand Dibble, coming from a club where the standard of
play was rather unusually high, Marvis Bay was a revelation, and for
some days after his arrival there he went about dazed, like a man
who cannot believe it is really true. To go out on the links at this
summer resort was like entering a new world. The hotel was full of
stout, middle-aged men, who, after a misspent youth devoted to
making money, had taken to a game at which real proficiency can
only be acquired by those who start playing in their cradles and keep
their weight down. Out on the course each morning you could see
representatives of every nightmare style that was ever invented.
There was the man who seemed to be attempting to deceive his ball
and lull it into a false security by looking away from it and then
making a lightning slash in the apparent hope of catching it off its
guard. There was the man who wielded his mid-iron like one killing
snakes. There was the man who addressed his ball as if he were
stroking a cat, the man who drove as if he were cracking a whip, the
man who brooded over each shot like one whose heart is bowed
down by bad news from home, and the man who scooped with his
mashie as if he were ladling soup. By the end of the first week
Ferdinand Dibble was the acknowledged champion of the place. He
had gone through the entire menagerie like a bullet through a cream
puff.
First, scarcely daring to consider the possibility of success, he had
taken on the man who tried to catch his ball off its guard and had
beaten him five up and four to play. Then, with gradually growing
confidence, he tackled in turn the Cat-Stroker, the Whip-Cracker, the
Heart Bowed Down, and the Soup-Scooper, and walked all over their
faces with spiked shoes. And as these were the leading local
amateurs, whose prowess the octogenarians and the men who went
round in bath-chairs vainly strove to emulate, Ferdinand Dibble was
faced on the eighth morning of his visit by the startling fact that he
had no more worlds to conquer. He was monarch of all he surveyed,
and, what is more, had won his first trophy, the prize in the great
medal-play handicap tournament, in which he had nosed in ahead of
the field by two strokes, edging out his nearest rival, a venerable old
gentleman, by means of a brilliant and unexpected four on the last
hole. The prize was a handsome pewter mug, about the size of the
old oaken bucket, and Ferdinand used to go to his room immediately
after dinner to croon over it like a mother over her child.
You are wondering, no doubt, why, in these circumstances, he did
not take advantage of the new spirit of exhilarated pride which had
replaced his old humility and instantly propose to Barbara Medway. I
will tell you. He did not propose to Barbara because Barbara was not
there. At the last moment she had been detained at home to nurse a
sick parent and had been compelled to postpone her visit for a
couple of weeks. He could, no doubt, have proposed in one of the
daily letters which he wrote to her, but somehow, once he started
writing, he found that he used up so much space describing his best
shots on the links that day that it was difficult to squeeze in a
declaration of undying passion. After all, you can hardly cram that
sort of thing into a postscript.
He decided, therefore, to wait till she arrived, and meanwhile
pursued his conquering course. The longer he waited the better, in
one way, for every morning and afternoon that passed was adding
new layers to his self-esteem. Day by day in every way he grew
chestier and chestier.

Meanwhile, however, dark clouds were gathering. Sullen

mutterings were to be heard in corners of the hotel lounge, and the
spirit of revolt was abroad. For Ferdinand’s chestiness had not
escaped the notice of his defeated rivals. There is nobody so chesty
as a normally unchesty man who suddenly becomes chesty, and I
am sorry to say that the chestiness which had come to Ferdinand
was the aggressive type of chestiness which breeds enemies. He
had developed a habit of holding the game up in order to give his
opponent advice. The Whip-Cracker had not forgiven, and never
would forgive, his well-meant but galling criticism of his back-swing.
The Scooper, who had always scooped since the day when, at the
age of sixty-four, he subscribed to the Correspondence Course
which was to teach him golf in twelve lessons by mail, resented
being told by a snip of a boy that the mashie-stroke should be a
smooth, unhurried swing. The Snake-Killer—But I need not weary
you with a detailed recital of these men’s grievances; it is enough to
say that they all had it in for Ferdinand, and one night, after dinner,
they met in the lounge to decide what was to be done about it.
A nasty spirit was displayed by all.
“A mere lad telling me how to use my mashie!” growled the
Scooper. “Smooth and unhurried my left eyeball! I get it up, don’t I?
Well, what more do you want?”
“I keep telling him that mine is the old, full St. Andrew swing,”
muttered the Whip-Cracker, between set teeth, “but he won’t listen to
me.”
“He ought to be taken down a peg or two,” hissed the Snake-Killer.
It is not easy to hiss a sentence without a single “s” in it, and the fact
that he succeeded in doing so shows to what a pitch of emotion the
man had been goaded by Ferdinand’s maddening air of superiority.
“Yes, but what can we do?” queried an octogenarian, when this
last remark had been passed on to him down his ear-trumpet.
“That’s the trouble,” sighed the Scooper. “What can we do?” And
there was a sorrowful shaking of heads.
“I know!” exclaimed the Cat-Stroker, who had not hitherto spoken.
He was a lawyer, and a man of subtle and sinister mind. “I have it!
There’s a boy in my office—young Parsloe—who could beat this man
Dibble hollow. I’ll wire him to come down here and we’ll spring him
on this fellow and knock some of the conceit out of him.”
There was a chorus of approval.
“But are you sure he can beat him?” asked the Snake-Killer,
anxiously. “It would never do to make a mistake.”
“Of course I’m sure,” said the Cat-Stroker. “George Parsloe once
went round in ninety-four.”
“Many changes there have been since ninety-four,” said the
octogenarian, nodding sagely. “Ah, many, many changes. None of
these motor-cars then, tearing about and killing—”
Kindly hands led him off to have an egg-and-milk, and the
remaining conspirators returned to the point at issue with bent
brows.
“Ninety-four?” said the Scooper, incredulously. “Do you mean
counting every stroke?”
“Counting every stroke.”
“Not conceding himself any putts?”
“Not one.”
“Wire him to come at once,” said the meeting with one voice.
That night the Cat-Stroker approached Ferdinand, smooth, subtle,
lawyer-like.
“Oh, Dibble,” he said, “just the man I wanted to see. Dibble, there’s
a young friend of mine coming down here who goes in for golf a little.
George Parsloe is his name. I was wondering if you could spare time
to give him a game. He is just a novice, you know.”
“I shall be delighted to play a round with him,” said Ferdinand,
kindly.
“He might pick up a pointer or two from watching you,” said the
Cat-Stroker.
“True, true,” said Ferdinand.
 “Then I’ll introduce you when he shows up.”
“Delighted,” said Ferdinand.
He was in excellent humour that night, for he had had a letter from
Barbara saying that she was arriving on the next day but one.

It was Ferdinand’s healthy custom of a morning to get up in good

time and take a dip in the sea before breakfast. On the morning of
the day of Barbara’s arrival, he arose, as usual, donned his flannels,
took a good look at the cup, and started out. It was a fine, fresh
morning, and he glowed both externally and internally. As he crossed
the links, for the nearest route to the water was through the fairway
of the seventh, he was whistling happily and rehearsing in his mind
the opening sentences of his proposal. For it was his firm resolve
that night after dinner to ask Barbara to marry him. He was
proceeding over the smooth turf without a care in the world, when
there was a sudden cry of “Fore!” and the next moment a golf ball,
missing him by inches, sailed up the fairway and came to a rest fifty
yards from where he stood. He looked round and observed a figure
coming towards him from the tee.
The distance from the tee was fully a hundred and thirty yards.
Add fifty to that, and you have a hundred and eighty yards. No such
drive had been made on the Marvis Bay links since their foundation,
and such is the generous spirit of the true golfer that Ferdinand’s first
emotion, after the not inexcusable spasm of panic caused by the
hum of the ball past his ear, was one of cordial admiration. By some
kindly miracle, he supposed, one of his hotel acquaintances had
been permitted for once in his life to time a drive right. It was only
when the other man came up that there began to steal over him a
sickening apprehension. The faces of all those who hewed divots on
the hotel course were familiar to him, and the fact that this fellow was
a stranger seemed to point with dreadful certainty to his being the
man he had agreed to play.
 “Sorry,” said the man. He was a tall, strikingly handsome youth,
with brown eyes and a dark moustache.
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Ferdinand. “Er—do you always drive like
that?”
“Well, I generally get a bit longer ball, but I’m off my drive this
morning. It’s lucky I came out and got this practice. I’m playing a
match to-morrow with a fellow named Dibble, who’s a local
champion, or something.”
“Me,” said Ferdinand, humbly.
“Eh? Oh, you?” Mr. Parsloe eyed him appraisingly. “Well, may the
best man win.”
As this was precisely what Ferdinand was afraid was going to
happen, he nodded in a sickly manner and tottered off to his bathe.
The magic had gone out of the morning. The sun still shone, but in a
silly, feeble way; and a cold and depressing wind had sprung up. For
Ferdinand’s inferiority complex, which had seemed cured for ever,
was back again, doing business at the old stand.

How sad it is in this life that the moment to which we have looked
forward with the most glowing anticipation so often turns out on
arrival, flat, cold, and disappointing. For ten days Barbara Medway
had been living for that meeting with Ferdinand, when, getting out of
the train, she would see him popping about on the horizon with the
love-light sparkling in his eyes and words of devotion trembling on
his lips. The poor girl never doubted for an instant that he would
unleash his pent-up emotions inside the first five minutes, and her
only worry was lest he should give an embarrassing publicity to the
sacred scene by falling on his knees on the station platform.
“Well, here I am at last,” she cried gaily.
“Hullo!” said Ferdinand, with a twisted smile.
 The girl looked at him, chilled. How could she know that his
peculiar manner was due entirely to the severe attack of cold feet
resultant upon his meeting with George Parsloe that morning? The
interpretation which she placed upon it was that he was not glad to
see her. If he had behaved like this before, she would, of course,
have put it down to ingrowing goofery, but now she had his written
statements to prove that for the last ten days his golf had been one
long series of triumphs.
“I got your letters,” she said, persevering bravely.
“I thought you would,” said Ferdinand, absently.
“You seem to have been doing wonders.”
“Yes.”
There was a silence.
“Have a nice journey?” said Ferdinand.
“Very,” said Barbara.
She spoke coldly, for she was madder than a wet hen. She saw it
all now. In the ten days since they had parted, his love, she realised,
had waned. Some other girl, met in the romantic surroundings of this
picturesque resort, had supplanted her in his affections. She knew
how quickly Cupid gets off the mark at a summer hotel, and for an
instant she blamed herself for ever having been so ivory-skulled as
to let him come to this place alone. Then regret was swallowed up in
wrath, and she became so glacial that Ferdinand, who had been on
the point of telling her the secret of his gloom, retired into his shell
and conversation during the drive to the hotel never soared above a
certain level. Ferdinand said the sunshine was nice and Barbara said
yes, it was nice, and Ferdinand said it looked pretty on the water,
and Barbara said yes, it did look pretty on the water, and Ferdinand
said he hoped it was not going to rain, and Barbara said yes, it would
be a pity if it rained. And then there was another lengthy silence.
“How is my uncle?” asked Barbara at last.
I omitted to mention that the individual to whom I have referred as
the Cat-Stroker was Barbara’s mother’s brother, and her host at
Marvis Bay.
“Your uncle?”
“His name is Tuttle. Have you met him?”
“Oh yes. I’ve seen a good deal of him. He has got a friend staying
with him,” said Ferdinand, his mind returning to the matter nearest
his heart. “A fellow named Parsloe.”
“Oh, is George Parsloe here? How jolly!”
“Do you know him?” barked Ferdinand, hollowly. He would not
have supposed that anything could have added to his existing
depression, but he was conscious now of having slipped a few rungs
farther down the ladder of gloom. There had been a horribly joyful
ring in her voice. Ah, well, he reflected morosely, how like life it all
was! We never know what the morrow may bring forth. We strike a
good patch and are beginning to think pretty well of ourselves, and
along comes a George Parsloe.
“Of course I do,” said Barbara. “Why, there he is.”
The cab had drawn up at the door of the hotel, and on the porch
George Parsloe was airing his graceful person. To Ferdinand’s
fevered eye he looked like a Greek god, and his inferiority complex
began to exhibit symptoms of elephantiasis. How could he compete
at love or golf with a fellow who looked as if he had stepped out of
the movies and considered himself off his drive when he did a
hundred and eighty yards?
“Geor-gee!” cried Barbara, blithely. “Hullo, George!”
“Why, hullo, Barbara!”
They fell into pleasant conversation, while Ferdinand hung
miserably about in the offing. And presently, feeling that his society
was not essential to their happiness, he slunk away.
George Parsloe dined at the Cat-Stroker’s table that night, and it
was with George Parsloe that Barbara roamed in the moonlight after
dinner. Ferdinand, after a profitless hour at the billiard-table, went
early to his room. But not even the rays of the moon, glinting on his
cup, could soothe the fever in his soul. He practised putting sombrely
into his tooth-glass for a while; then, going to bed, fell at last into a
troubled sleep.

Barbara slept late the next morning and breakfasted in her room.
Coming down towards noon, she found a strange emptiness in the
hotel. It was her experience of summer hotels that a really fine day
like this one was the cue for half the inhabitants to collect in the
lounge, shut all the windows, and talk about conditions in the jute
industry. To her surprise, though the sun was streaming down from a
cloudless sky, the only occupant of the lounge was the octogenarian
with the ear-trumpet. She observed that he was chuckling to himself
in a senile manner.
“Good morning,” she said, politely, for she had made his
acquaintance on the previous evening.
“Hey?” said the octogenarian, suspending his chuckling and
getting his trumpet into position.
“I said ‘Good morning!’” roared Barbara into the receiver.
“Hey?”
“Good morning!”
“Ah! Yes, it’s a very fine morning, a very fine morning. If it wasn’t
for missing my bun and glass of milk at twelve sharp,” said the
octogenarian, “I’d be down on the links. That’s where I’d be, down on
the links. If it wasn’t for missing my bun and glass of milk.”
This refreshment arriving at this moment he dismantled the radio
outfit and began to restore his tissues.
“Watching the match,” he explained, pausing for a moment in his
bun-mangling.
“What match?”
The octogenarian sipped his milk.
 “What match?” repeated Barbara.
“Hey?”
“What match?”
The octogenarian began to chuckle again and nearly swallowed a
crumb the wrong way.
“Take some of the conceit out of him,” he gurgled.
“Out of who?” asked Barbara, knowing perfectly well that she
should have said “whom.”
“Yes,” said the octogenarian.
“Who is conceited?”
“Ah! This young fellow, Dibble. Very conceited. I saw it in his eye
from the first, but nobody would listen to me. Mark my words, I said,
that boy needs taking down a peg or two. Well, he’s going to be this
morning. Your uncle wired to young Parsloe to come down, and he’s
arranged a match between them. Dibble—” Here the octogenarian
choked again and had to rinse himself out with milk, “Dibble doesn’t
know that Parsloe once went round in ninety-four!”
“What?”
Everything seemed to go black to Barbara. Through a murky mist
she appeared to be looking at a negro octogenarian, sipping ink.
Then her eyes cleared, and she found herself clutching for support at
the back of the chair. She understood now. She realised why
Ferdinand had been so distrait, and her whole heart went out to him
in a spasm of maternal pity. How she had wronged him!
“Take some of the conceit out of him,” the octogenarian was
mumbling, and Barbara felt a sudden sharp loathing for the old man.
For two pins she could have dropped a beetle in his milk. Then the
need for action roused her. What action? She did not know. All she
knew was that she must act.
“Oh!” she cried.
“Hey?” said the octogenarian, bringing his trumpet to the ready.
 But Barbara had gone.
It was not far to the links, and Barbara covered the distance on
flying feet. She reached the club-house, but the course was empty
except for the Scooper, who was preparing to drive off the first tee. In
spite of the fact that something seemed to tell her subconsciously
that this was one of the sights she ought not to miss, the girl did not
wait to watch. Assuming that the match had started soon after
breakfast, it must by now have reached one of the holes on the
second nine. She ran down the hill, looking to left and right, and was
presently aware of a group of spectators clustered about a green in
the distance. As she hurried towards them they moved away, and
now she could see Ferdinand advancing to the next tee. With a thrill
that shook her whole body she realised that he had the honour. So
he must have won one hole, at any rate. Then she saw her uncle.
“How are they?” she gasped.
Mr. Tuttle seemed moody. It was apparent that things were not
going altogether to his liking.
“All square at the fifteenth,” he replied, gloomily.
“All square!”
“Yes. Young Parsloe,” said Mr. Tuttle with a sour look in the
direction of that lissom athlete, “doesn’t seem to be able to do a thing
right on the greens. He has been putting like a sheep with the botts.”
From the foregoing remark of Mr. Tuttle you will, no doubt, have
gleaned at least a clue to the mystery of how Ferdinand Dibble had
managed to hold his long-driving adversary up to the fifteenth green,
but for all that you will probably consider that some further
explanation of this amazing state of affairs is required. Mere bad
putting on the part of George Parsloe is not, you feel, sufficient to
cover the matter entirely. You are right. There was another very
important factor in the situation—to wit, that by some extraordinary
chance Ferdinand Dibble had started right off from the first tee,
playing the game of a lifetime. Never had he made such drives,
never chipped his chip so shrewdly.
 About Ferdinand’s driving there was as a general thing a fatal
stiffness and over-caution which prevented success. And with his
chip-shots he rarely achieved accuracy owing to his habit of rearing
his head like the lion of the jungle just before the club struck the ball.
But to-day he had been swinging with a careless freedom, and his
chips had been true and clean. The thing had puzzled him all the
way round. It had not elated him, for, owing to Barbara’s aloofness
and the way in which she had gambolled about George Parsloe like
a young lamb in the springtime, he was in too deep a state of
dejection to be elated by anything. And now, suddenly, in a flash of
clear vision, he perceived the reason why he had been playing so
well to-day. It was just because he was not elated. It was simply
because he was so profoundly miserable.
That was what Ferdinand told himself as he stepped off the
sixteenth, after hitting a screamer down the centre of the fairway,
and I am convinced that he was right. Like so many indifferent
golfers, Ferdinand Dibble had always made the game hard for
himself by thinking too much. He was a deep student of the works of
the masters, and whenever he prepared to play a stroke he had a
complete mental list of all the mistakes which it was possible to
make. He would remember how Taylor had warned against dipping
the right shoulder, how Vardon had inveighed against any movement
of the head; he would recall how Ray had mentioned the tendency to
snatch back the club, how Braid had spoken sadly of those who sin
against their better selves by stiffening the muscles and heaving.
The consequence was that when, after waggling in a frozen
manner till mere shame urged him to take some definite course of
action, he eventually swung, he invariably proceeded to dip his right
shoulder, stiffen his muscles, heave, and snatch back the club, at the
same time raising his head sharply as in the illustrated plate (“Some
Frequent Faults of Beginners—No. 3—Lifting the Bean”) facing page
thirty-four of James Braid’s Golf Without Tears. To-day he had been
so preoccupied with his broken heart that he had made his shots
absently, almost carelessly, with the result that at least one in every
three had been a lallapaloosa.
 Meanwhile, George Parsloe had driven off and the match was
progressing. George was feeling a little flustered by now. He had
been given to understand that this bird Dibble was a hundred-at-his-
best man, and all the way round the fellow had been reeling off fives
in great profusion, and had once actually got a four. True, there had
been an occasional six, and even a seven, but that did not alter the
main fact that the man was making the dickens of a game of it. With
the haughty spirit of one who had once done a ninety-four, George
Parsloe had anticipated being at least three up at the turn. Instead of
which he had been two down, and had to fight strenuously to draw
level.
Nevertheless, he drove steadily and well, and would certainly have
won the hole had it not been for his weak and sinful putting. The
same defect caused him to halve the seventeenth, after being on in
two, with Ferdinand wandering in the desert and only reaching the
green with his fourth. Then, however, Ferdinand holed out from a
distance of seven yards, getting a five; which George’s three putts
just enabled him to equal.
Barbara had watched the proceedings with a beating heart. At first
she had looked on from afar; but now, drawn as by a magnet, she
approached the tee. Ferdinand was driving off. She held her breath.
Ferdinand held his breath. And all around one could see their
respective breaths being held by George Parsloe, Mr. Tuttle, and the
enthralled crowd of spectators. It was a moment of the acutest
tension, and it was broken by the crack of Ferdinand’s driver as it
met the ball and sent it hopping along the ground for a mere thirty
yards. At this supreme crisis in the match Ferdinand Dibble had
topped.
George Parsloe teed up his ball. There was a smile of quiet
satisfaction on his face. He snuggled the driver in his hands, and
gave it a preliminary swish. This, felt George Parsloe, was where the
happy ending came. He could drive as he had never driven before.
He would so drive that it would take his opponent at least three shots
to catch up with him. He drew back his club with infinite caution,
poised it at the top of the swing—
 “I always wonder—” said a clear, girlish voice, ripping the silence
like the explosion of a bomb.
George Parsloe started. His club wobbled. It descended. The ball
trickled into the long grass in front of the tee. There was a grim
pause.
“You were saying, Miss Medway—” said George Parsloe, in a
small, flat voice.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” said Barbara. “I’m afraid I put you off.”
“A little, perhaps. Possibly the merest trifle. But you were saying
you wondered about something. Can I be of any assistance?”
“I was only saying,” said Barbara, “that I always wonder why tees
are called tees.”
George Parsloe swallowed once or twice. He also blinked a little
feverishly. His eyes had a dazed, staring expression.
“I’m afraid I cannot tell you off-hand,” he said, “but I will make a
point of consulting some good encyclopædia at the earliest
opportunity.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Not at all. It will be a pleasure. In case you were thinking of
inquiring at the moment when I am putting why greens are called
greens, may I venture the suggestion now that it is because they are
green?”
And, so saying, George Parsloe stalked to his ball and found it
nestling in the heart of some shrub of which, not being a botanist, I
cannot give you the name. It was a close-knit, adhesive shrub, and it
twined its tentacles so loving around George Parsloe’s niblick that he
missed his first shot altogether. His second made the ball rock, and
his third dislodged it. Playing a full swing with his brassie and being
by now a mere cauldron of seething emotions he missed his fourth.
His fifth came to within a few inches of Ferdinand’s drive, and he
picked it up and hurled it from him into the rough as if it had been
something venomous.
 “Your hole and match,” said George Parsloe, thinly.

Ferdinand Dibble sat beside the glittering ocean. He had hurried

off the course with swift strides the moment George Parsloe had
spoken those bitter words. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts.
They were mixed thoughts. For a moment joy at the reflection that
he had won a tough match came irresistibly to the surface, only to
sink again as he remembered that life, whatever its triumphs, could
hold nothing for him now that Barbara Medway loved another.
“Mr. Dibble!”
He looked up. She was standing at his side. He gulped and rose to
his feet.
“Yes?”
There was a silence.
“Doesn’t the sun look pretty on the water?” said Barbara.
Ferdinand groaned. This was too much.
“Leave me,” he said, hollowly. “Go back to your Parsloe, the man
with whom you walked in the moonlight beside this same water.”
“Well, why shouldn’t I walk with Mr. Parsloe in the moonlight
beside this same water?” demanded Barbara, with spirit.
“I never said,” replied Ferdinand, for he was a fair man at heart,
“that you shouldn’t walk with Mr. Parsloe beside this same water. I
simply said you did walk with Mr. Parsloe beside this same water.”
“I’ve a perfect right to walk with Mr. Parsloe beside this same
water,” persisted Barbara. “He and I are old friends.”
Ferdinand groaned again.
“Exactly! There you are! As I suspected. Old friends. Played
together as children, and what not, I shouldn’t wonder.”
 “No, we didn’t. I’ve only known him five years. But he is engaged
to be married to my greatest chum, so that draws us together.”
Ferdinand uttered a strangled cry.
“Parsloe engaged to be married!”
“Yes. The wedding takes place next month.”
“But look here.” Ferdinand’s forehead was wrinkled. He was
thinking tensely. “Look here,” said Ferdinand, a close reasoner. “If
Parsloe’s engaged to your greatest chum, he can’t be in love with
you.”
“No.”
“And you aren’t in love with him?”
“No.”
“Then, by gad,” said Ferdinand, “how about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Will you marry me?” bellowed Ferdinand.
“Yes.”
“You will?”
“Of course I will.”
“Darling!” cried Ferdinand.

“There is only one thing that bothers me a bit,” said Ferdinand,

thoughtfully, as they strolled together over the scented meadows,
while in the trees above them a thousand birds trilled Mendelssohn’s
Wedding March.
“What is that?”
“Well, I’ll tell you,” said Ferdinand. “The fact is, I’ve just discovered
the great secret of golf. You can’t play a really hot game unless
you’re so miserable that you don’t worry over your shots. Take the
case of a chip-shot, for instance. If you’re really wretched, you don’t
care where the ball is going and so you don’t raise your head to see.
Grief automatically prevents pressing and over-swinging. Look at the
top-notchers. Have you ever seen a happy pro?”
“No. I don’t think I have.”
“Well, then!”
“But pros are all Scotchmen,” argued Barbara.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m sure I’m right. And the darned thing is that
I’m going to be so infernally happy all the rest of my life that I
suppose my handicap will go up to thirty or something.”
Barbara squeezed his hand lovingly.
“Don’t worry, precious,” she said, soothingly. “It will be all right. I
am a woman, and, once we are married, I shall be able to think of at
least a hundred ways of snootering you to such an extent that you’ll
be fit to win the Amateur Championship.”
“You will?” said Ferdinand, anxiously. “You’re sure?”
“Quite, quite sure, dearest,” said Barbara.
“My angel!” said Ferdinand.
He folded her in his arms, using the interlocking grip.
 CHAPTER II
HIGH STAKES

The summer day was drawing to a close. Over the terrace outside
the club-house the chestnut trees threw long shadows, and such
bees as still lingered in the flower-beds had the air of tired business
men who are about ready to shut up the office and go off to dinner
and a musical comedy. The Oldest Member, stirring in his favourite
chair, glanced at his watch and yawned.
As he did so, from the neighbourhood of the eighteenth green,
hidden from his view by the slope of the ground, there came
suddenly a medley of shrill animal cries, and he deduced that some
belated match must just have reached a finish. His surmise was
correct. The babble of voices drew nearer, and over the brow of the
hill came a little group of men. Two, who appeared to be the
ringleaders in the affair, were short and stout. One was cheerful and
the other dejected. The rest of the company consisted of friends and
adherents; and one of these, a young man who seemed to be
amused, strolled to where the Oldest Member sat.
“What,” inquired the Sage, “was all the shouting for?”
The young man sank into a chair and lighted a cigarette.
“Perkins and Broster,” he said, “were all square at the
seventeenth, and they raised the stakes to fifty pounds. They were
both on the green in seven, and Perkins had a two-foot putt to halve
the match. He missed it by six inches. They play pretty high, those
two.”
“It is a curious thing,” said the Oldest Member, “that men whose
golf is of a kind that makes hardened caddies wince always do. The
more competent a player, the smaller the stake that contents him. It
is only when you get down into the submerged tenth of the golfing
world that you find the big gambling. However, I would not call fifty