Designing a monitoring programme for Peak District National Park

The purposes of the National Park are: a. to preserve natural beauty and historical value; b. to provide recreation and enjoyment to the public. Our aim is to understand how well does the Peak District National Park meet these two purposes, and achieve sustainable development, through monitoring some indicators.

In my opinion, we can consider sustainable development in two aspects: sustainability and development. They are two sides of a coin. In sustainability assessment, the pressures, our response and effects should be identified and measured. In development assessment the growth of economy and society, living standard and benefits received by the community should be measured.

The topics concerned can be sorted in these two categories. From the structure plan of Peak District, we can obtain the aspects concerned, key areas and measures to be taken. What we need further are general principles of measuring sustainability, existing monitoring programmes and measurement methods, e.g. framework, indicator sets and models.

In the stucture plan there are a number of chapters, each concentrate on a topic. They may be considered as key concerns on sustainable development. They are: conservatioin, housing, shops, services and community facilities, economy, recreation and tourism, utilities, minerals, waste management, transport, and the centre town in the District: Bakewell.

In each chapter some issues are identified. This issues may give us directions on what indicators and measurements are needed. For example, issues in conservation include: development in the countryside; development in the towns, villages and conservation areas; farming and forestry; buildings, wildlife, sites and features of heritage or landscape importance; environment enhancement and improvement; pollution and disturbance; development on unstable or contaminated land; energy; rivers, water courses and flood defence.

There are also survey reports to look at. In Rural White Paper and This Common Heritage some national indicators are given.