Reflections on Value: looking back at the LI Conference 2018

Over 300 delegates and 40 world-class speakers were in attendance at the LI’s 2018 conference to debate and discuss the topic of valuing landscape.

As we continue to face urgent artificially created issues, such as climate change, a growing population, and increased urbanisation, we are presented with a crucial opportunity to categorically identify the ways in which placemaking and landscape intervention can deliver the greatest possible good for people, place and nature.

Acknowledging this, the Landscape Institute, in association with IFLA Europe and the University of Greenwich, staged an international conference on 6-7 September 2018 centring on this vital topic.

Leaders and practitioners from both the built and natural environment professions were invited to trade knowledge, share insight and generate thinking around the cultural, economic and societal benefits of landscape, while the conference itself made a rigorous case for placing landscape at the forefront of positive social change.

Across the two-day event, sessions prompted debate around interdisciplinary collaboration, future trends and natural capital accounting, in addition to current UK policy and planning.

Inspiring as well as wiring

A panel of experts spanning landscape science, planning and management discussed how their combined expertise could unlock the value of protected natural spaces, imparting some of the challenges faced and insights gained when attributing value to land on the largest scale.

Delegates heard from New Forest National Park Authority CEO Alison Barnes, who said that, despite having limited tools, NFNPA does great work by ‘brokering partnerships’. She introduced the audience to the Green Halo partnership [newforestnpa.gov.uk/conservation/ green-halo-partnership], a multilateral alliance spanning the public, private and third sectors.

Deborah Sandals, Project Manager at Scottish Natural Heritage, demonstrated the ways in which she makes substantial use of big data as part of a Scotland-wide monitoring programme. Working with a huge range of partners, SNH has provided a comprehensive information resource for every designated landscape in Scotland [gateway.snh.gov.uk].

Thamesmead site vist

Images © Paul Upward

The National Trust’s Nature and Science Director Rosemary Hails suggested that the value of a landscape, whether as a place to live or a place to visit, is perhaps best expressed by those who use it. The Royal Parks attract some 77 million visitors per year, who attend free of charge. To prevent misuse of the landscape, it is crucial to build a principle of value and respect for it. ‘Even something as simple as a selfie,’ Rosemary said, ‘can connect someone with an outdoor space’.

One’s gain, another’s loss – on place and competition

Another panel, from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Place Management concurred that ‘place competitiveness’ encourages developers to ‘get more out of land’. But Professor Ares Kalandides, Director of the Institute of Place Management, approached the notion of competitiveness with scrutiny.

His home city of Berlin, he said, attracts upwards of 100,000 new residents each year – who, when surveyed, cite the quality of public space as the number one reason for moving to the city. But, as Ares soberly reflected, ‘It is a shame to think only in terms of competition – because what Berlin gains, another city loses’.

It was a reminder to the assembly that, while beautiful and competitive places are good, the problems our professions truly need to solve are global – and no single method of valuation holds all the answers.

Collaboration is key

A major strategic goal for the Landscape Institute is to increase collaboration between the built and natural environment professions, and it was gratifying to see such a wide-ranging delegation engage in discussion around this crucial theme. The conference boasted not just an inclusive range of delegates, but tremendously varied speakers too – some of the world’s foremost thinkers were in attendance to share their views.

The impressive international roster of keynotes spanned America, Europe and Canada, with notable speakers including Tony Williams (President, IFLA Europe), Sarah Weir OBE (CEO, Design Council), Ursula Hartenberger (Global Head of Sustainability, RICS Brussels) and Mark Kristmanson (CEO, National Capital Commission, Ottawa, Canada).

‘It’s really interesting that many of the delegates were not members of the Landscape Institute, but people involved alongside the profession and interested in how we can collaborate,’ noted LI President, Adam White. ‘And that’s what’s really exciting about this conference. It was very much an outward-looking celebration of the work we do, and proved to be a stimulating debate, and that’s what I believe we should be doing as an industry.’

Ebbsfleet competition exhibition

Images © Paul Upward