Ruth Potts | Cardiff University (original) (raw)

Papers by Ruth Potts

Research paper thumbnail of The good, the bad, and the statutory: are statutory or non-statutory natural resource management plans higher in quality?

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, Dec 16, 2016

Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on th... more Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on the assumption that they lead to greater consistency and higher quality of plans. While a number of studies have examined the relationship between mandates to develop plans and plan quality, there has been limited study of the influence of state mandates for plan content on plan quality in a regional natural resource management (NRM) planning context. This paper explores the relationship between the quality of regional NRM plans between statutory and non-statutory NRM regions in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. An analysis of 22 regional NRM plans indicates that there is no evidence of a relationship between plan quality and the presence of statutory mandates for regional NRM plans in Australia. However, the paper identifies and discusses several other factors with unexpected relationships with an impact on the quality of NRM plans in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia.

Research paper thumbnail of Northern Australia: a contested landscape

Routledge eBooks, 2017

There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the la... more There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the last 5 years (DPMC Schneiders, 2015). This is not the first time northern Australia has been positioned as the next frontier of national development (Megarrity, 2011). It is, however, the first time that the need to resolve major competing land use agendas in the north has featured as an all-pervasive policy challenge. These significant conflicts have been playing out at the landscape and community scale for the past 40 years (Dale, 2014). While attempts to resolve these complex conflicts have been recognized through ‘experiments’ in regional land use planning in the north, most are far from resolved, creating uncertainty for investors and concerned communities alike. This chapter explores how landscape-scale conflicts have emerged in northern Australia and why they are nationally significant. It overviews several experiments in regional-scale land use planning across the north and their evolution. In doing so, we consider the evolution of these approaches through the lens of emerging new governance and planning theories. Our conclusions are that highly rationalist, centralist and non-adaptive forms of planning have generally failed northern Australia. We also contend that the northern Australian landscape is indeed suffering a crisis-in-confidence. This crisis has resulted from the failure of effective land use planning to provide a stable foundation for durable decision making for societal investment in commerce, infrastructure, Indigenous development and environmental protection and conservation.

Research paper thumbnail of Digital planning practices: benchmarking planners’ use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)

Planning Practice and Research, May 29, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Smarter cities, smarter planning: an exploration into the role of planners within the smart city movement

Research paper thumbnail of e-participation in developing countries: an Iranian case study

Research paper thumbnail of Northern Australia

Research paper thumbnail of Typical Social Adaptation Measures in Climate Change Planning: A Tropical Region Case Study

While many regions across the globe are vulnerable to climate change (Hare, Cramer, Schaeffer, Ba... more While many regions across the globe are vulnerable to climate change (Hare, Cramer, Schaeffer, Battaglini, & Jaeger, 2011), planning for climate change adaptation has tended to focus its efforts on biophysical and engineering adaption responses (Stanley, 2010). The social dimension of these kinds of adaptation responses is typically framed around inclusive citizen participation (Chu, Anguelovski, & Carmin, 2016) or community-based governance approaches to climate planning (Forsyth, 2013). For vulnerable groups and geographies exposed to the more frequent and severe effects of climate change, however, broader social adaptations are needed to enable them to participate in and take effective leadership of climate adaptation outcomes (Chu et al., 2016; Dodman & Mitlin, 2013; Warrick, 2011).

Research paper thumbnail of Northern Australia: a contested landscape

There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the la... more There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the last 5 years (DPMC Schneiders, 2015). This is not the first time northern Australia has been positioned as the next frontier of national development (Megarrity, 2011). It is, however, the first time that the need to resolve major competing land use agendas in the north has featured as an all-pervasive policy challenge. These significant conflicts have been playing out at the landscape and community scale for the past 40 years (Dale, 2014). While attempts to resolve these complex conflicts have been recognized through ‘experiments’ in regional land use planning in the north, most are far from resolved, creating uncertainty for investors and concerned communities alike. This chapter explores how landscape-scale conflicts have emerged in northern Australia and why they are nationally significant. It overviews several experiments in regional-scale land use planning across the north and their e...

Research paper thumbnail of The good, the bad, and the statutory: are statutory or non-statutory natural resource management plans higher in quality?

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 2016

Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on th... more Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on the assumption that they lead to greater consistency and higher quality of plans. While a number of studies have examined the relationship between mandates to develop plans and plan quality, there has been limited study of the influence of state mandates for plan content on plan quality in a regional natural resource management (NRM) planning context. This paper explores the relationship between the quality of regional NRM plans between statutory and non-statutory NRM regions in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. An analysis of 22 regional NRM plans indicates that there is no evidence of a relationship between plan quality and the presence of statutory mandates for regional NRM plans in Australia. However, the paper identifies and discusses several other factors with unexpected relationships with an impact on the quality of NRM plans in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia.

Research paper thumbnail of Barriers to employing e-participation in the Iranian planning system

Cities, Sep 1, 2021

e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the... more e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the engagement of people in decision-making processes. Previous studies on eparticipation have shown that this form of participation can increase the level of flexibility and inclusiveness of public engagements, make government interventions more responsive to citizens' needs, and increase government accountability. While there is a growing use of e-participation in the planning systems of developed countries, its application in developing countries has remained very limited. This paper explores the barriers to employing eparticipation in the context of a developing country's planning system, using Iran as a case study. We have conducted interviews with different planning actors, including both publicand private-sector planners, to investigate what they perceive as such barriers. The results of this study show that the primary barriers to e-participation in Iran are attitudes towards participation, the structure and culture of the planning system, and staff capacity to engage the public through e-participation. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations regarding how these barriers can be overcome.

Research paper thumbnail of Barriers to employing e-participation in the Iranian planning system

Cities

e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the... more e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the engagement of people in decision-making processes. Previous studies on eparticipation have shown that this form of participation can increase the level of flexibility and inclusiveness of public engagements, make government interventions more responsive to citizens' needs, and increase government accountability. While there is a growing use of e-participation in the planning systems of developed countries, its application in developing countries has remained very limited. This paper explores the barriers to employing eparticipation in the context of a developing country's planning system, using Iran as a case study. We have conducted interviews with different planning actors, including both publicand private-sector planners, to investigate what they perceive as such barriers. The results of this study show that the primary barriers to e-participation in Iran are attitudes towards participation, the structure and culture of the planning system, and staff capacity to engage the public through e-participation. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations regarding how these barriers can be overcome.

Research paper thumbnail of Age-Unfriendly by Design

Journal of the American Planning Association

Research paper thumbnail of Monitoring and adaptively reducing system-wide governance risks facing the GBR: final report

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessar... more The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government. While reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct, the Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication. Cover photograph: JCU Image Library.

Research paper thumbnail of An analysis of key governance domains affecting environment outcomes and their social and economic consequences in the Great Barrier Reef: core data tables

The intended outcomes of governance for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are made clear in the Reef L... more The intended outcomes of governance for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are made clear in the Reef Long Term Sustainability Plan (LTSP). At its broadest level, the vision for future outcomes in the GBR under the LTSP is "to ensure the Great Barrier Reef continues to improve on its Outstanding Universal Value every decade between now and 2050 to be a natural wonder for each successive generation to come" (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015). The Plan goes on to outline a range of quite specific water quality and reef health targets that it intends to achieve by 2050. This vision and associated outcomes are broadly agreed across the Australian and Queensland Governments and among key sectors with GBR interests. These outcomes are also implicitly supported internationally through recent decisions regarding the future status of the GBR taken by the United Nations Educations, Sciences and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2015). This document consists of a number of rapid assessment tab...

Research paper thumbnail of Analysis of governance for sustainability planning in the Cairns Region

The relationship between governance arrangements and sustainability planning outcomes in complex ... more The relationship between governance arrangements and sustainability planning outcomes in complex governance systems remains poorly understood, despite significant discussions of governance in the environmental management literature emerging in the last decade. In order to analyse and examine the relationship between the health of sustainability planning governance and decision-making outcomes, this paper applies the Governance Systems Analysis framework (GSA) in the Cairns region. This paper analyses the sustainability planning governance arrangements in the Cairns region by exploring the capacity, connectivity and knowledge use of institutions in the region to deliver desired sustainability planning outcomes. The paper finds that the planning for sustainability in the Cairns region is on a knife’s edge, and could fail or succeed to deliver its intended decision-making outcomes. The paper concludes with recommendations for governance reform for sustainability in the Cairns region.

Research paper thumbnail of Is a New ‘Planning 3.0’ Paradigm Emerging? Exploring the Relationship between Digital Technologies and Planning Theory and Practice

Planning Theory & Practice, 2020

In recent decades cities and urban planning have become increasingly digitised, complex and data ... more In recent decades cities and urban planning have become increasingly digitised, complex and data rich. Despite this, the planning theory literature has largely ignored the role and impact of information and communication technologies in shaping planning's ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies. This article explores empirical studies and three major planning paradigms to explore the changing role and influence of information and communication technologies on planning theory and practice. Based on this, the paper argues that information and communication technologies are driving a shift towards a more interactive, intelligent, self-organising, and interconnected planning paradigm.

Research paper thumbnail of Planning for climigration: a framework for effective action

Research paper thumbnail of Disconnected dots?: A systematic review of governance challenges for natural resource management

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2019

Changes made as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing, formatting and page number... more Changes made as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing, formatting and page numbers may not be reflected in this version. For the definitive version of this publication, please refer to the published source. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite this paper.

Research paper thumbnail of Pokémon Go-ing or staying: exploring the effect of age and gender on augmented reality game player experiences in public spaces

Journal of Urban Design, 2019

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for ... more This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for publication in the Journal of Urban Design.

Research paper thumbnail of Avoiding Implementation Failure in Catchment Landscapes: A Case Study in Governance of the Great Barrier Reef

Environmental management, Jan 4, 2017

Water quality outcomes affecting Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are governed by multi-l... more Water quality outcomes affecting Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are governed by multi-level and multi-party decision-making that influences forested and agricultural landscapes. With international concern about the GBR's declining ecological health, this paper identifies and focuses on implementation failure (primarily at catchment scale) as a systemic risk within the overall GBR governance system. There has been limited integrated analysis of the full suite of governance subdomains that often envelop defined policies, programs and delivery activities that influence water quality in the GBR. We consider how the implementation of separate purpose-specific policies and programs at catchment scale operate against well-known, robust design concepts for integrated catchment governance. We find design concerns within ten important governance subdomains that operate within GBR catchments. At a whole-of-GBR scale, we find a weak policy focus on strengthening these delivery-ori...

Research paper thumbnail of The good, the bad, and the statutory: are statutory or non-statutory natural resource management plans higher in quality?

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, Dec 16, 2016

Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on th... more Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on the assumption that they lead to greater consistency and higher quality of plans. While a number of studies have examined the relationship between mandates to develop plans and plan quality, there has been limited study of the influence of state mandates for plan content on plan quality in a regional natural resource management (NRM) planning context. This paper explores the relationship between the quality of regional NRM plans between statutory and non-statutory NRM regions in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. An analysis of 22 regional NRM plans indicates that there is no evidence of a relationship between plan quality and the presence of statutory mandates for regional NRM plans in Australia. However, the paper identifies and discusses several other factors with unexpected relationships with an impact on the quality of NRM plans in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia.

Research paper thumbnail of Northern Australia: a contested landscape

Routledge eBooks, 2017

There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the la... more There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the last 5 years (DPMC Schneiders, 2015). This is not the first time northern Australia has been positioned as the next frontier of national development (Megarrity, 2011). It is, however, the first time that the need to resolve major competing land use agendas in the north has featured as an all-pervasive policy challenge. These significant conflicts have been playing out at the landscape and community scale for the past 40 years (Dale, 2014). While attempts to resolve these complex conflicts have been recognized through ‘experiments’ in regional land use planning in the north, most are far from resolved, creating uncertainty for investors and concerned communities alike. This chapter explores how landscape-scale conflicts have emerged in northern Australia and why they are nationally significant. It overviews several experiments in regional-scale land use planning across the north and their evolution. In doing so, we consider the evolution of these approaches through the lens of emerging new governance and planning theories. Our conclusions are that highly rationalist, centralist and non-adaptive forms of planning have generally failed northern Australia. We also contend that the northern Australian landscape is indeed suffering a crisis-in-confidence. This crisis has resulted from the failure of effective land use planning to provide a stable foundation for durable decision making for societal investment in commerce, infrastructure, Indigenous development and environmental protection and conservation.

Research paper thumbnail of Digital planning practices: benchmarking planners’ use of information and communication technologies (ICTs)

Planning Practice and Research, May 29, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Smarter cities, smarter planning: an exploration into the role of planners within the smart city movement

Research paper thumbnail of e-participation in developing countries: an Iranian case study

Research paper thumbnail of Northern Australia

Research paper thumbnail of Typical Social Adaptation Measures in Climate Change Planning: A Tropical Region Case Study

While many regions across the globe are vulnerable to climate change (Hare, Cramer, Schaeffer, Ba... more While many regions across the globe are vulnerable to climate change (Hare, Cramer, Schaeffer, Battaglini, & Jaeger, 2011), planning for climate change adaptation has tended to focus its efforts on biophysical and engineering adaption responses (Stanley, 2010). The social dimension of these kinds of adaptation responses is typically framed around inclusive citizen participation (Chu, Anguelovski, & Carmin, 2016) or community-based governance approaches to climate planning (Forsyth, 2013). For vulnerable groups and geographies exposed to the more frequent and severe effects of climate change, however, broader social adaptations are needed to enable them to participate in and take effective leadership of climate adaptation outcomes (Chu et al., 2016; Dodman & Mitlin, 2013; Warrick, 2011).

Research paper thumbnail of Northern Australia: a contested landscape

There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the la... more There has been considerable public discussion around the future of northern Australia over the last 5 years (DPMC Schneiders, 2015). This is not the first time northern Australia has been positioned as the next frontier of national development (Megarrity, 2011). It is, however, the first time that the need to resolve major competing land use agendas in the north has featured as an all-pervasive policy challenge. These significant conflicts have been playing out at the landscape and community scale for the past 40 years (Dale, 2014). While attempts to resolve these complex conflicts have been recognized through ‘experiments’ in regional land use planning in the north, most are far from resolved, creating uncertainty for investors and concerned communities alike. This chapter explores how landscape-scale conflicts have emerged in northern Australia and why they are nationally significant. It overviews several experiments in regional-scale land use planning across the north and their e...

Research paper thumbnail of The good, the bad, and the statutory: are statutory or non-statutory natural resource management plans higher in quality?

Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 2016

Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on th... more Numerous governments around the world have adopted statutory-mandates on plan content based on the assumption that they lead to greater consistency and higher quality of plans. While a number of studies have examined the relationship between mandates to develop plans and plan quality, there has been limited study of the influence of state mandates for plan content on plan quality in a regional natural resource management (NRM) planning context. This paper explores the relationship between the quality of regional NRM plans between statutory and non-statutory NRM regions in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia. An analysis of 22 regional NRM plans indicates that there is no evidence of a relationship between plan quality and the presence of statutory mandates for regional NRM plans in Australia. However, the paper identifies and discusses several other factors with unexpected relationships with an impact on the quality of NRM plans in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia.

Research paper thumbnail of Barriers to employing e-participation in the Iranian planning system

Cities, Sep 1, 2021

e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the... more e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the engagement of people in decision-making processes. Previous studies on eparticipation have shown that this form of participation can increase the level of flexibility and inclusiveness of public engagements, make government interventions more responsive to citizens' needs, and increase government accountability. While there is a growing use of e-participation in the planning systems of developed countries, its application in developing countries has remained very limited. This paper explores the barriers to employing eparticipation in the context of a developing country's planning system, using Iran as a case study. We have conducted interviews with different planning actors, including both publicand private-sector planners, to investigate what they perceive as such barriers. The results of this study show that the primary barriers to e-participation in Iran are attitudes towards participation, the structure and culture of the planning system, and staff capacity to engage the public through e-participation. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations regarding how these barriers can be overcome.

Research paper thumbnail of Barriers to employing e-participation in the Iranian planning system

Cities

e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the... more e-Participation has been employed by many planning authorities across the world to facilitate the engagement of people in decision-making processes. Previous studies on eparticipation have shown that this form of participation can increase the level of flexibility and inclusiveness of public engagements, make government interventions more responsive to citizens' needs, and increase government accountability. While there is a growing use of e-participation in the planning systems of developed countries, its application in developing countries has remained very limited. This paper explores the barriers to employing eparticipation in the context of a developing country's planning system, using Iran as a case study. We have conducted interviews with different planning actors, including both publicand private-sector planners, to investigate what they perceive as such barriers. The results of this study show that the primary barriers to e-participation in Iran are attitudes towards participation, the structure and culture of the planning system, and staff capacity to engage the public through e-participation. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations regarding how these barriers can be overcome.

Research paper thumbnail of Age-Unfriendly by Design

Journal of the American Planning Association

Research paper thumbnail of Monitoring and adaptively reducing system-wide governance risks facing the GBR: final report

The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessar... more The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Australian Government. While reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this publication are factually correct, the Commonwealth does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the contents, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance on, the contents of this publication. Cover photograph: JCU Image Library.

Research paper thumbnail of An analysis of key governance domains affecting environment outcomes and their social and economic consequences in the Great Barrier Reef: core data tables

The intended outcomes of governance for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are made clear in the Reef L... more The intended outcomes of governance for the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are made clear in the Reef Long Term Sustainability Plan (LTSP). At its broadest level, the vision for future outcomes in the GBR under the LTSP is "to ensure the Great Barrier Reef continues to improve on its Outstanding Universal Value every decade between now and 2050 to be a natural wonder for each successive generation to come" (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015). The Plan goes on to outline a range of quite specific water quality and reef health targets that it intends to achieve by 2050. This vision and associated outcomes are broadly agreed across the Australian and Queensland Governments and among key sectors with GBR interests. These outcomes are also implicitly supported internationally through recent decisions regarding the future status of the GBR taken by the United Nations Educations, Sciences and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, 2015). This document consists of a number of rapid assessment tab...

Research paper thumbnail of Analysis of governance for sustainability planning in the Cairns Region

The relationship between governance arrangements and sustainability planning outcomes in complex ... more The relationship between governance arrangements and sustainability planning outcomes in complex governance systems remains poorly understood, despite significant discussions of governance in the environmental management literature emerging in the last decade. In order to analyse and examine the relationship between the health of sustainability planning governance and decision-making outcomes, this paper applies the Governance Systems Analysis framework (GSA) in the Cairns region. This paper analyses the sustainability planning governance arrangements in the Cairns region by exploring the capacity, connectivity and knowledge use of institutions in the region to deliver desired sustainability planning outcomes. The paper finds that the planning for sustainability in the Cairns region is on a knife’s edge, and could fail or succeed to deliver its intended decision-making outcomes. The paper concludes with recommendations for governance reform for sustainability in the Cairns region.

Research paper thumbnail of Is a New ‘Planning 3.0’ Paradigm Emerging? Exploring the Relationship between Digital Technologies and Planning Theory and Practice

Planning Theory & Practice, 2020

In recent decades cities and urban planning have become increasingly digitised, complex and data ... more In recent decades cities and urban planning have become increasingly digitised, complex and data rich. Despite this, the planning theory literature has largely ignored the role and impact of information and communication technologies in shaping planning's ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies. This article explores empirical studies and three major planning paradigms to explore the changing role and influence of information and communication technologies on planning theory and practice. Based on this, the paper argues that information and communication technologies are driving a shift towards a more interactive, intelligent, self-organising, and interconnected planning paradigm.

Research paper thumbnail of Planning for climigration: a framework for effective action

Research paper thumbnail of Disconnected dots?: A systematic review of governance challenges for natural resource management

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2019

Changes made as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing, formatting and page number... more Changes made as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing, formatting and page numbers may not be reflected in this version. For the definitive version of this publication, please refer to the published source. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite this paper.

Research paper thumbnail of Pokémon Go-ing or staying: exploring the effect of age and gender on augmented reality game player experiences in public spaces

Journal of Urban Design, 2019

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for ... more This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for publication in the Journal of Urban Design.

Research paper thumbnail of Avoiding Implementation Failure in Catchment Landscapes: A Case Study in Governance of the Great Barrier Reef

Environmental management, Jan 4, 2017

Water quality outcomes affecting Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are governed by multi-l... more Water quality outcomes affecting Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are governed by multi-level and multi-party decision-making that influences forested and agricultural landscapes. With international concern about the GBR's declining ecological health, this paper identifies and focuses on implementation failure (primarily at catchment scale) as a systemic risk within the overall GBR governance system. There has been limited integrated analysis of the full suite of governance subdomains that often envelop defined policies, programs and delivery activities that influence water quality in the GBR. We consider how the implementation of separate purpose-specific policies and programs at catchment scale operate against well-known, robust design concepts for integrated catchment governance. We find design concerns within ten important governance subdomains that operate within GBR catchments. At a whole-of-GBR scale, we find a weak policy focus on strengthening these delivery-ori...