A Reciprocal Triangulation Process For Identifying And Mapping Potential Land Use Conflict

Land use in many areas is highly contested. An understanding of the nature of such conflicts, and of spatial variation in their intensity, is required to develop planning solutions. We present a novel process for attaining these outcomes which involves mapping of values and potential conflict between stakeholders determined using participatory GIS (PGIS) processes. Our starting point was an a priori identification of the values that were potentially in conflict. We produced quantitative and qualitative maps of each of the values that formed a basis for workshop discussion among small stakeholder groups. Each participant was asked to complete a questionnaire to determine their values and their attitudes to land use and to map the places that they would not be prepared to lose. Principal components analysis was used to identify the major independent axes in values and attitudes among all participants. We then used repeatable descriptive quantitative procedures to identify attitude groups. These analyses allowed us to identify potential conflicts between values that could be expressed in land use, spatial variation in attachment of groups and the intensity of potential conflict. In our test of the process in the Tarkine region of Tasmania, Australia, we found that land use conflict was multidimensional, involving incompatible recreational activities and incompatibility between nature conservation and economic production. Two-fifths of the area was shown to be not in contest, with considerable spatial variation in the intensity of conflict potential in the remainder. This latter variation could facilitate a process of land use compromise.