Public explanations for environmental degradation in a sustainable land use planning exercise

Technically, those who participate in planning for sustainable development should understand what causes environmental degradation, because environmental degradation equates to the reverse of sustainable development. But in a democratic planning process what members of the public take to be the causes of environmental degradation matters as much as what experts say the causes really are. A study was therefore conducted to determine how laypersons involved in planning explain environmental degradation. The main method was content analysis of written submissions to public hearings of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Round Table of the Lands for Life sustainable land use planning process in Ontario, Canada. Results indicate that members of the Lands for Life public, decision-makers, and planners all have an inadequate appreciation of the causes of environmental degradation.