| Abstract: | This paper centres on the fundamental issue of environmental conservation from a planning perspective. For many years planners have been criticised for not integrating conservation with the need for development with one usually occurring in isolation to the other. Thus, this paper reviews environmental planning to disclose a gap that may exist in current practice in relation to protection of cultural heritage places from threats generated within their surrounds.As conservation of the built and natural environment confronts in practice common problems, it is suggested that a technique applied in natural heritage protection to ‘buffer’ national parks from external threats occurring outside the legal bounds of protected places can be adapted to the urban environment in the protection of cultural heritage. This technique is the buffer zone planning (BZP) technique developed by Kozlowski and Ptaszycka-Jackowska.From the limited application that has been undertaken of the technique as applied to heritage conservation and which is summarised here, it is evident that the technique shows certain strengths suggesting that with further development BZP may become an important planning tool in conserving built heritage. This paper therefore presents the findings of this application in the hope that it will generate constructive discussions in relation to the technique in an urban application. |
