Addressing a Lost Opportunity: Towards Science-Informed Land Use Planning

• Post–World War II (WWII), Australia was a leader in the development of scientific information systems to support natural resource management including the assessment of a landscape’s non-urban development potential. • Surprisingly, there was little uptake of these environmental resource mapping initiatives into the land use planning sector, which deals with significant landscape modifications. • Overlooking of this noteworthy development represented a major lost opportunity to better inform the decision-making process through a land use planning process that was based on reliable biophysical science. • Alternative planning paradigms have subsequently emerged that address this lost opportunity and demonstrate the use of science to better inform the land use planning process. • Holistic and environmentally based planning, with a strong nexus between land use planning and environmental sciences, will require a ‘marriage’ between planners and scientists.