title: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Conformance-Based Plans: Attributing Built Heritage Outcomes to Plan Implementation Under New Zealand's Resource Management Act

authors: Mason, Greg

subjects: plan effectiveness

abstract: Little is known about the effectiveness of district plans in protecting built heritage, which is a matter of national importance under New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 (RMAct). This is despite the fact that the RMAct directs planning agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of plan provisions. This lack of evaluation is not unique to New Zealand or merely symptomatic of heritage planning. Instead, it is a shortcoming in planning theory and practice internationally; a well recognised impediment being that planning lacks a suitable evaluation approach. This thesis aims to address this deficiency by proposing a methodology for evaluating plan effectiveness and applying it to the built heritage provisions of two district plans.

The methodology adopted has been shaped by the theory-based and realist evaluation approaches, as developed in the field of programme evaluation. Both approaches share a common ontology regarding claims of causality, which stresses 'knowledge in context'. Thus, a central endeavour of the research is not only to identify the environmental outcomes arising from plan implementation, but also to understand how and why the implementation context promoted or inhibited the achievement of plan goals. In so doing, the causal and implementation theories underpinning the plans' heritage provisions are exposed, modelled and tested.

The findings reveal that plan implementation failed to prevent the loss of built heritage values in many instances. While the plans' causal theory was largely sound, key aspects of the implementation theory were not realised during the development control process. Plan quality was a significant factor, as was the commitment and capacity of developers to comply with the plans. The institutional fixation on consent processing speed rather than environmental outcomes was a further impediment. Overall, the theory-based approach provided a useful framework for determining plan effectiveness and holds promise for evaluating plan issues other than built heritage.

text: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Conformance-Based Plans: Attributing Built Heritage Outcomes to Plan Implementation Under New Zealand's Resource Management Act Little is known about the effectiveness of district plans in protecting built heritage, which is a matter of national importance under New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 (RMAct). This is despite the fact that the RMAct directs planning agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of plan provisions. This lack of evaluation is not unique to New Zealand or merely symptomatic of heritage planning. Instead, it is a shortcoming in planning theory and practice internationally; a well recognised impediment being that planning lacks a suitable evaluation approach. This thesis aims to address this deficiency by proposing a methodology for evaluating plan effectiveness and applying it to the built heritage provisions of two district plans.

The methodology adopted has been shaped by the theory-based and realist evaluation approaches, as developed in the field of programme evaluation. Both approaches share a common ontology regarding claims of causality, which stresses 'knowledge in context'. Thus, a central endeavour of the research is not only to identify the environmental outcomes arising from plan implementation, but also to understand how and why the implementation context promoted or inhibited the achievement of plan goals. In so doing, the causal and implementation theories underpinning the plans' heritage provisions are exposed, modelled and tested.

The findings reveal that plan implementation failed to prevent the loss of built heritage values in many instances. While the plans' causal theory was largely sound, key aspects of the implementation theory were not realised during the development control process. Plan quality was a significant factor, as was the commitment and capacity of developers to comply with the plans. The institutional fixation on consent processing speed rather than environmental outcomes was a further impediment. Overall, the theory-based approach provided a useful framework for determining plan effectiveness and holds promise for evaluating plan issues other than built heritage.

year: 2008

title: The extrapolation of social landscape values to a national level in New Zealand using landscape character classification

authors: Brown, Greg

subjects: character

abstract: The human perception and valuation of landscapes is a complex process but has been pragmatically advanced through public participation GIS (PPGIS). PPGIS methods have the capacity to generate spatial data to empirically examine relationships between human landscape values and physical landscape character. In 2011, PPGIS methods were used to identify a range of social landscape values for two regions in southern New Zealand, Otago and Southland. Seven of these landscape values were analysed to identify significant relationships with physical landscape character from the New Zealand Landscape Classification system. In this paper we examine methods to extrapolate landscape values from this regional data set to a national level using these landscape value and character relationships. In the absence of empirical value data at a national level, we examine two quantitative approaches for extrapolating landscape values: (1) landscape component weights based on the percentage of value counts found within landscape components, and (2) landscape component weights based on the ratio of landscape values to the landscape area. We prepare and present maps of seven landscape values for the entire country of New Zealand to demonstrate the method. We conclude that landscape value extrapolation can assist impact assessment for land use change but should be kept simple for decision support.

text: The extrapolation of social landscape values to a national level in New Zealand using landscape character classification The human perception and valuation of landscapes is a complex process but has been pragmatically advanced through public participation GIS (PPGIS). PPGIS methods have the capacity to generate spatial data to empirically examine relationships between human landscape values and physical landscape character. In 2011, PPGIS methods were used to identify a range of social landscape values for two regions in southern New Zealand, Otago and Southland. Seven of these landscape values were analysed to identify significant relationships with physical landscape character from the New Zealand Landscape Classification system. In this paper we examine methods to extrapolate landscape values from this regional data set to a national level using these landscape value and character relationships. In the absence of empirical value data at a national level, we examine two quantitative approaches for extrapolating landscape values: (1) landscape component weights based on the percentage of value counts found within landscape components, and (2) landscape component weights based on the ratio of landscape values to the landscape area. We prepare and present maps of seven landscape values for the entire country of New Zealand to demonstrate the method. We conclude that landscape value extrapolation can assist impact assessment for land use change but should be kept simple for decision support.

year: 2012

title: Addiction Phenomenology In Substance Use  And Non-Substance Use Disorders

authors: McLachlan, Andre David

subjects: Addiction

abstract: There is growing research evidence and public concern over the burgeoning of disorders which share common features with substance addictions. In order to investigate the presence and role of addiction features in disorders outside of substance addictions, symptoms of addiction were explored within three addiction groups: alcohol dependence (AD), an established addiction (n = 24); pathological gambling (PG) a disorder with growing empirical support as an addiction (n = 20); and compulsive shopping (CS), a proposed 'novel' addiction(n = 20).
Participants were recruited from either the general population, or from the Auckland Salvation Army Bridge residential alcohol and drug treatment programme; Salvation Army Oasis Gambling Service; Pacific Peoples Addiction Service Incorporated; or Te Kahui Hauora O Ngati Koata Trust. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures comprising a demographics questionnaire; Addictive Disorder Questionnaire (ADQ); anxiety and depression subscales of the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90R); Barratt Impulsivity Scale II-r; and substance specific adaptations of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS).
Three general categories of addiction symptoms: physiological, salience and dyscontrol, were identified as broad aspects of addiction, common across all three groups. Measurable aspects of addiction, including impulsivity, obsessions, anxiety and depression were found to be endorsed similarly across the three addictions, irrespective of the severity of their addiction. Compulsions were found to be higher in the AD group. Higher anxiety was found to be correlated with higher addiction in the behavioural addictions (CS and PG), whereas depression and anxiety were associated with higher addiction severity in the AD group.
The results provide support for broadening addiction diagnostic definitions, to be more encompassing of the psychological and physiological experiences of each symptom; and developing different diagnostic categories for non-substance addictions that reflect the severity of the addiction. Results also provide evidence for developmental phases of addiction, from an early 'hedonistic' impulsive phase, to a compulsive phase, in which increased dyscontrol, mood and anxiety, marks the severity of the addiction.

text: Addiction Phenomenology In Substance Use  And Non-Substance Use Disorders There is growing research evidence and public concern over the burgeoning of disorders which share common features with substance addictions. In order to investigate the presence and role of addiction features in disorders outside of substance addictions, symptoms of addiction were explored within three addiction groups: alcohol dependence (AD), an established addiction (n = 24); pathological gambling (PG) a disorder with growing empirical support as an addiction (n = 20); and compulsive shopping (CS), a proposed 'novel' addiction(n = 20).
Participants were recruited from either the general population, or from the Auckland Salvation Army Bridge residential alcohol and drug treatment programme; Salvation Army Oasis Gambling Service; Pacific Peoples Addiction Service Incorporated; or Te Kahui Hauora O Ngati Koata Trust. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures comprising a demographics questionnaire; Addictive Disorder Questionnaire (ADQ); anxiety and depression subscales of the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL-90R); Barratt Impulsivity Scale II-r; and substance specific adaptations of the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS).
Three general categories of addiction symptoms: physiological, salience and dyscontrol, were identified as broad aspects of addiction, common across all three groups. Measurable aspects of addiction, including impulsivity, obsessions, anxiety and depression were found to be endorsed similarly across the three addictions, irrespective of the severity of their addiction. Compulsions were found to be higher in the AD group. Higher anxiety was found to be correlated with higher addiction in the behavioural addictions (CS and PG), whereas depression and anxiety were associated with higher addiction severity in the AD group.
The results provide support for broadening addiction diagnostic definitions, to be more encompassing of the psychological and physiological experiences of each symptom; and developing different diagnostic categories for non-substance addictions that reflect the severity of the addiction. Results also provide evidence for developmental phases of addiction, from an early 'hedonistic' impulsive phase, to a compulsive phase, in which increased dyscontrol, mood and anxiety, marks the severity of the addiction.

year: 2008