Making future landscapes: defining a path to qualified sustainability

The term sustainability is increasingly used in both popular and scientific literature related to, or associated with the separate term, development. This paper discusses the inadequate nature of this term in relation to purported goals; and provides an alternative point of discussion which establishes a more clearly defined set of planning agendas for a given land unit. Interdependent conditions of ecological and socio-economic forces are viewed as the generators of an over-arching geopolitical perspective from which sustainability policies are supported or defeated. Additionally, the concept of land units as containers are considered with regard to questions of input/output, and equilibrium within a landscape. The application of these ideas to varying scales of land units, and implications for planning are discussed.