Free public lecture by Brendan Stewart, SEDRD Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, University Guelph.

"PLANNING FOR GOLF'S DECLINE:  A talk on landscape adaptation opportunites for a dynamic region".

Summary:   

As demographic trends, cultural values, and economic forces shrink the sport of golf over the coming decades, large swaths of land are likely to become available for new uses. Based on a regional analysis of the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) — a special planning zone that is home to 8 million people and is projected to grow to 13.5M by 2041 — this talk argues that these lands represent an important resource to address some of the urgent challenges of our times, and proposes the need to develop a pro-active planning framework to maximize progressive social, economic, and environmental planning outcomes.

Summarizing initial research, the talk presents a map-based inventory and analysis of the GGH’s golf land resource, and begins to explore possible future scenarios for planning, conservation, and design that stem from a unique set of aesthetic, cultural, and environmental attributes.