Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

254 Designing ecological Habitats
Natural Catchment Overlay
This explores the biophysical characteristics and natural resources of the
study area, including climate, geology, rock and soil types, mineral resources,
water catchments and riparian systems, ecosystems, nature reserves,
sensitive environments, biodiversity, wildlife corridors, land-use systems and
capability, agricultural land, forestry, industries based on value-adding of
local primary resources and production, and risk of natural hazards (fire,
flood, etc.). This analysis also identifies regulatory bodies (local, regional,
state and national), as well as professional and community organisations
pertaining to the natural environment and resources.
This analysis is more than a simple inventory; it also evaluates the
health of these systems, the sustainability and impacts of land use and
management, threats and challenges, opportunities and thresholds. An
example of thresholds might be water resources, including quality and
availability, supply and demand, and relationship to factors identified in
the Social and Services catchment overlays. It can support evaluating the
potential for local food production and food security.
Social Catchment Overlay
Social catchments explore how people move around and congregate to
satisfy material, social and cultural needs within an identifiable sense of
community. Included are the historical context of settlement patterns and
land-use, the relationship of people to their living environment and what
contributes to their sense of place. Also included are demographics and
demographic trends, socio-economic profiles and cultural and human
diversity – including minority and special needs groups.
Material needs include access and proximity to shopping, commerce,
education, employment, enterprise opportunities, specialist and professional
services. Social and cultural elements include social meeting nodes, parks,
open space, recreation facilities, entertainment, cultural events and facilities,
community halls, community centres, as well as community groups and
organisations.
The Social catchments overlay is useful in identifying the patterns and
hierarchies of social nodes and settlement forms in the landscape and the
layers of Social catchments for key functions, activities and themes. For
example, to explore the theme of education in a bioregion, there will be
all the primary school catchments, then the secondary school catchments
which will encompass a number of primary schools, then local polytechnic/
technical colleges which will have a much larger catchment than that
encompassed by the catchments of a number of secondary schools.
Exploring the theme of shopping is a revealing activity, how far people
need to travel to access essential needs and their commerce-related commuting
habits. For example, my local village has a great little commercial centre
of small local businesses: baker, butcher, organic shop, independent small
supermarket with bulk foods, hardware, newsagent, bookstore, laundry,