The earth sciences and planning in the third world. John C. Doornkamp. Liverpool University Press, 1985, 100 pp.
| Author | Alan Gilbert |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230080113 |
| Published date | 01 January 1988 |
| Date | 01 January 1988 |
120
Book
Reviews
In these areas, therefore, rainfall harvesting clearly has a major role. It is often already
practised and the challenge is to develop acceptable, effective and low-cost improvements.
In runoff farming the problem is the low short-run private return to the (often considerable)
amount of labour required in moving earth and rocks to create the bunds, contour ridges,
hoops (semi-circular catchments on slopes), etc. This is especially the case where household
labour has alternative employment during the slack season, e.g. migration,
or
where the
earthworks are meant primarily for soil conservation
or
afforestation. The study provides
useful case histories of work with communities under these circumstances, with development
of
simpler techniques (most notably the ingenious hose-level for marking contours).
My only points of criticism are that I would have liked to see more on the experience
with use of public works schemes
in
soil engineering works
in
order to overcome the
problem of their low short-run returns to labour, similarly
on
water harvesting
for
larger-
scale afforestation
in
arid and semi-arid areas. An apparently underexplored area is the
potential of rainwater harvesting for crop and tree cultivation in predominantly sandy soils.
MICHAEL
HUBBARD
Institute
of
Local Government Studies, University
of
Birmingham
THE SPATIAL DIMENSIONS
OF
DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Dennis
A.
Rondinelli
Bowker Publishing
Co., 1985,
264
pp.
THE EARTH SCIENCES AND PLANNING IN THE THIRD WORLD
John
C.
Doornkamp
Liverpool University Press,
1985,
100
pp,
These two books are intended to aid planners
in
less-developed countries. One is a guide
of
how to
go
about the task of planning; the other
is
more of a treatise of the ills that will
befall any planner who fails to include earth scientists in any planning exercise. Both
volumes are
full
of common sense and are written
in
a straightforward manner, and neither,
by admission, really offers anything very original.
Rondinelli’s book is the archetypal handbook. It instructs the planner
in
the tools
available for planning urban functions in rural development (UFRD); an approach
developed by Rondinelli during a session of USAID projects in the
1970s.
It is intended
for
planners with little experience
in
this field and introduces a series
of
basic methods of
data collection and analysis. Most of the tools are well known
in
the geographicalhegional
science literature but the book brings them usefully together in one place. Having recently
read several
M.
Sc dissertations by budding planners from less-developed countries who
have employed the concept, I am less than convinced that the handbook will be wholly
successful. It is very good at showing them how to use the
tools,
but what is less easily
absorbed is the rationale and purpose
of
the analysis. The final outcome, therefore, may
be a whole series of data collection and analysis exercises, with little use made of them to
really help poor people. I suspect that this may happen anyway in less-developed country
planning circles,
so
I
can’t really blame the author; and, unlike many planning handbooks,
the contents of this one do not contain any dangers for the local population.
If Rondinelli patiently leads the unsophisticated planner through a series
of
methods and
provides ten phases of UFRD analysis, Doornkamp is more interested in stimulating an
awareness of the need for earth science analysis. Perhaps I am too much the geographer,
but
I
am rather surprised that there is much need to make such a case. It seems to me
absolutely obvious that the stability of the land and its susceptibility to earthquakes should
be studied before a dam is built. Doesn’t everyone accept that the availability of water
should be studied before urban development is planned? And yet, beyond the constant
advocacy of this need, the book really offers very little. It does not tell the planner how
to carry out the evaluation, it really does little more than make the case for an appropriate
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