Finding Public Consensus: The Relevance of Public Participation in Post-industrial Landscape Reclamation LUIS LOURES* + & PAT CRAWFORD + * Department of Landscape Architecture; Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, PORTUGAL + Landscape Architecture Program; School of Planning, Design, and Construction, Michigan State University, 48824-1221 East Lansing, U.S.A. Abstract: It is often recognized by landscape architects, landscape ecologists, and sociologists, among others, that the social component plays a relevant role in urban planning and management activities. For this reason, over the last decades, public participation has become increasingly more important in determining the way society will manage, protect and reclaim natural and built environments. A wide range of methods have been established all over the world, including new ways of people interacting, new types of events, new services and new support frameworks. This paper addresses the benefits of using public participation in the reclamation of post-industrial landscapes, and the ways in which the introduction of public opinion can improve the design process. In order to analyse this subject a best practice example will be examined (IBA - Emscher Park), emphasising the reason why public participation should be an integral part of post-industrial landscape reclamation. Key-words: Public Participation, Consensus, Landscape Reclamation, Post-industrial Landscape. 1 Introduction The last decades we have seen a rapid change in environmental awareness among professionals as well as the general public [31]. Furthermore, there is a growing trend in governmental policy to conclude that the commitment and will of the population is a crucial element to sustainable city development [18], and that the reclamation of derelict, abandoned or underutilized land can play a significant role in it [26]. For this reason it is often recognized by landscape architects, landscape ecologists, and sociologists, among others that the social component plays a relevant role in planning and management activities [10, 16, 21]. However, the above-mentioned subject is not new. Nearly a century ago, Burnham (1910) mentioned that the role of the public was crucial in planning activities [9], the increasing need for public participation since the early seventies of the twentieth century is probably related to the growing dissatisfaction with the results of the technocratic administrative process [13], once as it is known after the World War II the role of the governments has expanded dramatically. Since then a long time has passed and the necessity of introducing public participation into planning and management activities has been reinforced not only by governments and private associations but also by several international conventions. Examples include Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992); the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision- making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (1998); and the recent Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities (2007), among others [1, 25, 34]. In fact, public participation has become increasingly more important, playing a relevant role in determining the way society will manage, protect and reclaim the environment. A wide range of methods have been established all over the world, including new ways of people interacting, new types of event, new services and new support frameworks. Governments look now to provide greater community input in the identification of needs and problems, and in the design and implementation of remedial and preventive solutions [23]. The present article discusses the use of public participation in the re-development of a post-industrial landscape located in the Ruhr Region, Germany, trying to emphasise its contributions to achieve sustainable development. 2 Public participation in landscape reclamation Public participation in planning, management and reclamation of post-industrial landscapes has gained wide acceptance among private and public domains, motivated by the introduction of it in several 1st WSEAS International Conference on LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE (LA '08), Algarve, Portugal, June 11-13, 2008 ISBN: 978-960-6766-72-5 117 ISSN: 1790-5095