The Significance of Rural Land Use Planning for the Conservation of Nature and Culture

Abstract

It is not easy to conserve nature and culture in rural regions, because rural areas are so huge, covering over 90% of the earth's land surface. This paper first describes the author's views about how to cope with the conservation of nature and culture in such huge rural areas. The significant point is to consider hierarchical methods of conservation, ranging from macroscopic to microscopic. Conservation is ultimately impossible if rural areas are not taken into consideration as a whole. It is important to bring order to the whole when working with rural regions. The paper gives the principles of regional order. The idea of a rural settlement sphere is proposed for the structure of rural regions. A rural settlement sphere is a sphere within a 20~30km radius centering on a local city, and this is a unit of living sphere. The construction of rural settlement spheres becomes a basis for sustainable development for rural regions. Rural regions cannot conserve nature and culture until a regional structure is constructed. Last, the methodological base of land use planning which becomes a basis for making rural settlement sphere is described. It includes major land use planning, middle land use planning, and minor land use planning. The hierarchical construction of land use planning is important. The base of conservation of nature and culture cannot be laid until land use planning is definitely measured. Proceeding steadily with land use planning is an important way of conserving the global environment.