Identifying ranching landscape values in the Calgary, Alberta region: Implications for land‐use planning

Abstract

In recent years, ranching landscapes in the region of Calgary, Alberta have experienced intensifying land‐use pressures related to urban growth and development. At the same time, Alberta's land‐use policies have introduced voluntary, market‐based incentives to encourage the conservation and stewardship of private land. Given this new emphasis, this study aims to better understand different perspectives of ranching landscapes among residents and landowners in two rural municipalities surrounding Calgary. Drawing on cultural landscapes and political ecology literatures, this paper identifies four broad categories of ranching landscape values that participants felt were important to maintain: lifestyle and community values; ecological values; production values; and economic values and property rights. Participants’ diverse place meanings suggest a need to expand the ways in which landscapes are understood and assessed within local contexts, as a strategy for promoting private land stewardship and for resolving tensions in land‐use planning processes.

Characterizing culture’s influence in land systems

“…The work on values as part of cultural systems in land-system science is focused largely on relational values (the value of the relation to a part of a land system) 33,39,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58] and similarly, bequest values (benefits to children and future generations) 59,60 . Another large fraction showed how cultural identity and social prestige could be tied to specific land uses (especially for coffee 37,61 and ranching/pastoralism 62,63 ).…”

“…To answer these questions, we used an abductive approach 32 whereby we first coded the data using themes identified by previous synthetic causal studies linking structural Article https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01381-z such as use of land or forest (versus exchange/market or instrumental values) 68,69 . Many of these different culturally derived values outweigh profitability considerations in the decision to maintain forests 49,70 or other land uses 59,71 (Fig. 3c).…”

A Systematic Review of the Vertical Green System for Balancing Ecology and Urbanity

“…Furthermore, land use changes and urbanization have transformed the landscape patterns of metropolitan areas, since these areas have experienced considerable growth in recent decades. Contemporary urban planning strategies have been explored for reducing land consumption on account of a compact urban development approach [4]. However, these tactics inadvertently exert negative effects on extant green spaces, thereby hampering the delivery of essential ecosystem services [5,6].…”

Metropolitan planning in the Calgary region: A case study of farmland protection in the Municipal District of Foothills

“…However, Flyvbjerg (2006) has contended that while case studies do have the capacity to contribute to theory, theory development and testing has been overvalued in research with case studies offer alternative opportunities for deeper, contextualized understanding valuable to collective knowledge. As noted by Benoit, Johnston, MacLachlan, and Ramsey (2018), the Calgary region has been identified as having characteristics "particularly, ill-suited for 'one-size-fits-all' planning approaches developed in other geographic and political contexts" (p. 214). Therefore, this research has sought to examine the study area in greater depth and detail to fully understand local complexities while providing a comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of the legislative framework for farmland protection.…”

“…number of competing uses and demands in southern Alberta (Bentley, 2016). Competition has been observed between agriculture, conservation, and economics, in the Calgary region, influenced by differences in cultural values held by farmers, ranchers, and country residential landowners (Benoit, Johnston, MacLachlan, & Ramsey, 2018). Farmland fragmentation has been observed across the province evidenced by an increase in the number of agricultural plots and a decrease in farm size which has been especially clear in the Edmonton-Calgary corridor (Qiu, Laliberté, Swallow, & Jeffrey, 2015; Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, 2016a).…”