Designing eco-civic regions for NRM
The ecological sustainability of future landscapes depends on a range of institutions, including civic engagement in local resource and land use issues. However, for citizens to participate in regional resource management in ways that are meaningful to them, it is important that both the landscape units being discussed and the jurisdictional boundaries are also meaningful. This project uses spatial mapping techniques to explore how resource management regions might be developed. The work is based on the premise that civic engagement is likely to be enhanced where the biophysical character of the landscape units within the region are similar, and if the choice of management region coincides with what the inhabitants perceive as their broader 'community'. The ability to ' scale up' for some resource management administration, policy and planning issues will also enhance civic engagement. The method was applied to delineate a series of nested 'eco-civic' resource management regions for northern New South Wales, and could serve as a framework for both Federal and State resource management program delivery.