Planering för hållbar landsbygd
This is my final thesis in landscapeplaning at the Swedish University ofAgricultural Sciences (SLU). I discuss howthe countryside should be planned, witha sustainable perspective. In the study Iexamine four important conditions forplanning.The countryside is often defined bywhat it is not which makes it difficult todescribe in general terms. The definition ofthe term countryside in this study is takenfrom the National Rural DevelopmentAgency (Glesbygdsverket). The conclusionis: Planners and scientists should have anunderstanding for the complexity of thecountryside; otherwise there is a risk oflosing the characteristics of the country.The legislation, goals and conventionswhich have an impact on the Swedishcountryside are both national and international.To find out how the settlementdevelopment is dealt with, I havestudied the Swedish building legislations(among others, plan- och bygglagen andmiljöbalken).Similar to the difficulties on finding asuitable definition for the term countryside,it is complex to define the term sustainabledevelopment. It can mean different thingsfor different people. The centre of interestis how planners can work for better socialsustainable development in the countryside.This is not as widely discussed in Sweden,as economical or ecological sustainability.Planners can create conditions for bettersocial sustainability in the countryside.The Habitat Agenda state the UN goalsfor sustainable development and it is alsofundamental for the Swedish work onsustainable town and country planning.I have also examined who inhabits thecountryside. The largest group movingto the Swedish country is it the workingclass, mostly young families or middleaged couples. I present these facts becauseplanners need to know who they areplanning for.To get a broader perspective on countrysideplanning, I counducted interviewswith people working with differentparts of planning. They have all differentperspectives on sustainable countrysideplanning which gives my study a broaderwider view of the subject. I met bothscientists and planners from two differentmunicipalities.The theoretical discussion and theinterviews resulted in guidelines forsustainable planning in the countryside.These guidelines are concretized withexamples applied to Funbo, an area withrural housing outside Uppsala.