Sustainable Development through Compatible Development

Plnr. K.D. Fernando

It is argued that Sustainable Development can be achieved on real ground through the achievement of Compatible Development in countries. Compatibility is where things are matched and integrated in the development processes with less adverse impacts to the environment. This is achievable through techno-economic and scientific methods pertaining to logical and rational decision making process in spatial development planning. Accordingly Compatible Development is in the domain of integrated spatial planning. This approach ensures the needs of Compatible Development which marches aspects of physical and technical feasibility, economic viability, social acceptability and environmental compatibility.

A review of the validity of the concept of Sustainable Development in its operation is essential to evolve a planning strategy to address the above issues within the framework of Compatible Development. Sustainable Development which was expected cannot be achieved due to inherent positive as well as negative factors. This was a focus for debates throughout many decades.

Writer thinks that Sustainable Development is more achievable when the term sustainability is replaced with the term, compatibility. Accordingly, on a theoretical basis it will demonstrate the possible strategies to enhance the validity of Sustainable Development in the context of its operation through a multi-disciplinary approach based Compatible Development, within the purview of Integrated Spatial Development Planning.

Brundtland Report (1987) said: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs of the present without comprising the needs of future”.

Climate change

Nevertheless the current global Climate Change phenomenon clearly indicates environmental issues as a manifestation of the deficiencies in the approaches of Sustainable Development in its operation. The existing ecological imbalance and its effects such as global warming, depletion of ozone layer and carbon emission are adversely affecting the validity of Sustainable Development.

The current global development trends are being infused with the unplanned urbanization and its related environmental issues. Countries are making all efforts to urbanize their population directly and indirectly through economic development strategies in the absence of appropriately defined national policy measures pertaining to integrated agro-urban settlement development as a measure to combat ill effects of sub-metropolinization, which is the severest negative impacting process of phenomena which are taking place on natural resources than other forms of urban sprawl (Fernando, KD 2007). This causes an disequilibrium between the green spaces(Forestry and agricultural land), blue spaces(water sheds and its related land) and brown spaces(built up areas)at a higher magnitude with an irrevocable cost to the economy.

In majority of the countries, the urbanization process is taking place in a sporadic manner which results in haphazard physical development by adversely impacting on the green and blue spaces. This is severely impacting on the blue spaces which are rather essential for the sustenance of forestry and agricultural spaces which are commonly understood by any human being. This inter-dependency between green and blue spaces is essential for their symbioses, which in turn creates a conducive habitable environment for human beings and other beasts. UN agencies are shredding crocodile tears in respect of environmental issues. By and large these agencies are only fattening the payroll of their so called experts, instead of providing tangible solutions. The countries with great civilizations such as Sri Lanka should tackle their environmental issues with their own expertise in the Asian region and be vigilant of external advice.

The processes of urban sprawl is constantly taking place at different scales throughout the world. In situ, the conventional definition of urban sprawl has to be testified in the context of growth scenarios pertaining to megapolitan and metropolitan development. These scales of physical urban development and its sprawl have a higher magnitude of land conversion of adjacent agriculture, forestry and watersheds while negatively impacting on their biodiversity. The biodiversity is part and parcel of the ecology system and it is also helping the sustenance of human ecology in symbiosis with the natural environment.

Development strategies

The world organizations are internally making deliberations by investing a colossal amount of capital resources to combat the adverse effects in order to maintain a balance between the human ecological and the natural ecological systems. It should not be mistaken that Sustainable Development can be achieved merely by mitigatory measures on paper. For this purpose it is essential to evolve Compatible Development strategies which are framed within the purview of integrated spatial development planning.

The irrational argument that based on the advantages of opportunity cost obtainable by the investor countries due to relatively low labour wages and low cost resources available in the host country in sphere of the extraction and manufacturing industries, the pollutants generated by such industries in turn will not be affecting cannot be ruled out due to the atmospheric process of transportability of CO2 by its high emission levels between those investor and its host countries. This could takes place from one region to the other. The decisions made by a region, with the belief that the excess reserve capital could be invested in another country for economic gains in terms of opportunity cost advantages of internal economies are disastrous.

This is a consequence which has to be undergone by the so called developed countries promoting Foreign Direct Investments in developing countries to exhaustively deplete the natural resources of the host countries.

Their populations too have to pay the price in terms of its consequences. The economic advantages will be set off in the form of diseconomies which is an negative result in development. This is the Disequilibrium of Economic Development at a global scale with short sighted scenario building with a higher level of biasness on GDP growth phenomena.

Therefore the entire world has to come to consensus on rate of CO2 emission by development activities, climate change and the ultimate goal to be achieved by cutting down the wasteful consumption of resources without surpassing the equilibrium points of thresholds and its connected diminishing marginal return of production. According to Wakernagel, Rees 1997, Wada, 1999 , Daly, 1996 Brundtland’s growth-bound ‘sustainable development’ is not biophysically feasible. Inevitably CO2 emission phenomena is a hindrance in maintaining the level of sustainability pertaining to development.