4 Urbanization

In natural environments the main conflicts of accessibility-inaccessibility are connected with property rules and with conflicts in biodiversity. The drivers of biodiversity conflicts are analyzed in five habitat types: agricultural landscapes, forests, grasslands, uplands and freshwater habitat, where a multidisciplinary approach of conflict management is described (Young et al., 2005*). More studies have been made on the wetlands concerning the conflict of accessibility and property values (see Adger and Luttrell, 2000*) on water resources (Aguilera-Klink et al., 2000), on the eutrophication problem and its spatial dimensions (Peuhkuri, 2002*) or on the recreational use (Bell, 2000*). In forests, the major conflict is about the changes in forest management, such as changes in ownership patterns, transportation systems or changes in planning strategies (Young et al., 2005*; Bell et al., 2007*).

In the rural and natural environment, decentralization and extension of private rights to land have created mechanisms by which local alliances of landowners, governments, and the broader rural population encourage rapid urbanization of the countryside surrounding major cities (Wasilewski and Krukowski, 2004). Property values and management problems are often connected to physical indivisibility and over-exploitation (Adger and Luttrell, 2000*). The conflicts influenced by property restitution contain inherent conflicts and contradictions of restitution. For example in the case of Germany it has been studied how restitution is connected with the administrative organization (see Blacksell and Born, 2002).

As it emerges, the urbanization process itself causes conflicts in landscape. Urbanization is indirectly connected to the flow of tourism and recreation. More recently eco-tourism has become a fast growing economic sector (Young et al., 2005*). Studies have been made on conflicts in recreation, outdoor tourism, nature conservation, and management of the environment (Bell, 2000*; Young et al., 2005*; Bell et al., 2007*). In recreation, there are mainly two types of conflicts in landscape accessibility. The first one lies between users, like, for example, a walker could feel disturbed by a mountain biker or a dog owner. The second type is the conflict between users and environmentalists; like the natural balance being threatened by certain activities (Seeland et al., 2002). Accessibility is not the only problem when talking about recreation or tourism and natural resources, but also when talking about recreational activities themselves, like hunting, crowding, berry or mushroom picking, sports, which is a challenge to managers (see further Bell et al., 2007*).

Direct expressions of accessibility and urbanization are connected with road widening projects and ownership patterns (Young et al., 2005*) especially in the context of US-American landscapes. Given the popularity of motorized vehicles in the USA, conflicts between these and the natural resources are a constant theme requiring management action and monitoring (Bell et al., 2007). The changing social expectations have increased the demand for motorized access and recreational use (Wilson, 2008). To name more case studies, two road-widening projects in highly developed urban areas in London, England, and Kaohsiung County, Taiwan, are examined to uncover how property owners and tenants have reacted against the adversity brought on by the uncertainties of compulsory purchase. In this case study the evidence shows that instead of passively accepting the government-set cash compensation, a significant number of property owners and tenants have taken legal, market-oriented, and even political measures to reduce their possible loss, in addition to their appeal for a higher compensation (Lin and Lin, 2006).

Finding solutions in the accessibility conflict caused by urbanization is not easy due to different interest groups. Difficulties in finding solutions to the urbanization problem may be introduced with the example, where people produce sprawl by moving to urban fringes for many of the same reasons that municipalities want to preserve these edges as green space. The terms in which urban greening is often cast may present internal inconsistencies that may be particularly problematic in solving some of the social and environmental problems associated with sprawl in the first place – as these paradigms may be instrumental in reproducing these problems and their attendant landscapes (Cadieux, 2008).

The discursive historical materialist approach shows that the question of accessibility involves more than spatial mismatch, and many moral questions emerge in accessibility–inaccessibility opposition. In the next chapters further subjective interpretative perspectives of the creation of landscape’s accessibility through the post-structural approach are opened. Within this focus the purpose is to address the meaning of relational communicative man/material environment value as the condition of defining accessibility. From the moral point of view, the values of the post-structural approach are especially important to emphasize because of the creation of access for contested accessibilities.