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Aesthetic
assets
‘Sculpting the Capricorn Coast’ is also framed to encourage a view
of local environmental management that goes beyond the measurable parameters of
environmental sustainability, with its utilitarian economic emphasis, to an approach
that foregrounds the need to value what we are calling aesthetic assets, such
as seascapes. The values placed on these assets are socially and culturally constructed,
and it is not the purpose of the project to lecture local communities about how
they should think about any particular natural feature. New and changed seascapes
might be as appealing as old and familiar ones. Rather, the aim of the case study
is to foster an awareness that, largely as a result of infrastructure development
but also by the force of nature, the Capricorn Coast has been sculpted, and continues
to be sculpted. From this people might be encouraged to look for opportunities
to contribute to the decisions that determine what the future shapes might be. |
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| The value attributed to
an aesthetic asset in a particular place will vary from person to person, and
opinions will differ about what is worth preserving and at what cost. The desire
to conserve aesthetic natural assets may also bang up against the utilitarianism
of sustainable development, an obvious case being the erection of noisy, and to
some, unsightly ‘wind farms’ across formerly serene land and seascapes.
Yet, there is a powerful congruence between empathy with place and a commitment
to the protection and maintenance of local natural ecosystems. A deep sense of
place instills a desire to act ethically towards that place, and usually it is
grounded in a concern for the life, human and otherwise, that is, and has been
integral to it. [Hay:2001:154] |
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