Geography 4742 Land Use
Platt Chap. 2.
Land use geography explains the patterns and functional inter-relationships of units of land and land uses.
Describe: where, how much, what conditions
Explain: why.
Why Platt’s focus on law? (besides fact he is also trained as a lawyer?)
Because the state has long had a big role to play in land use and thus to explain patterns one must turn to legal institutions.
So, we have a third epistemological category:
Prescribe: What are desirable land uses, how might they be achieved, and who has the authority to decide?
Private right ---- public values ---- public power
WHY?
Spatial organization of land uses: physical, human factors
Economic explanations: land rent.
Cultural and social explanations: traditions, goals, desires, NIMBY, etc.
Technological explanations:
Scales
Owner – local (minor civil division) like municipalities, counties, special districts --- states --- federal
Hierarchy:
Physical: drainages, bio-regions.
Human:
Use: residential, retail, industrial, etc.
Function: Primary, secondary, tertiary
Externalities: transboundary issues
Ownership/jurisdiction: rights to use, right to regulate use.
Right to regulate land use: Anglo-American common law legal tradition/doctrine
Constitutional law: federal and state constitutions: especially "takings"
Fifth Amendment: due process, compensation,
Local: statutes, regulations, ordinances
How the "law" and federal policy affect land patterns: surveys, parcels, riparian, etc.