Contemporary New Zealand rural population trends: planning issues, response and challenge
Heenan, L.D.B.
New Zealand Agricultural Science 14(1): 45-55
1980
Document Number: 253984
The paper explores the role of population-related influences in rural planning problems and planning responses to them. Toward these ends a very basic question is considered first, namely, the limitations and possibilities of contemporary population data. This is followed by an examination of planning problems encountered in demographically contracting and expanding rural communities. Territorial mobility is identified as the principal agent of population redistribution in rural areas. The consequences of movement are, however, different for contracting and contrasting kinds of expanding communities; they also vary according to the form and composition of mobility flows. Mobility is detrimental to social and economic life in some rural situations, whereas in others it raises questions about social integration, creates new demands for service provision, and presents opportunities for rural development. Nevertheless, such possibilities for development may be and often are thwarted by attitudinal and institutional factors which influence rural planning. The paper concludes, therefore, with a call for the formation of a distinctively rural perspective on rural planning problems, and for an integrated approach to planning for social and economic development in the open countryside.