Land Use Policy and Practice on Karst Terrains: Living on Limestone

192 Pages·2009·17.33 MB·English

by  Spencer Fleury Dr (auth.)

Land Use Policy and Practice on Karst Terrains
Spencer Fleury
Land Use Policy and Practice
on Karst Terrains
Living on Limestone
123
Dr. Spencer Fleury
645 11th Avenue North
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701
USA
spencer.fl
Acknowledgments
I would like to take this opportunity to thank several individuals whose help
was instrumental in writing this book and the Ph.D. dissertation it was based
on. They are Alin Mos, of the Apuseni Natural Park; Jim Rebmann, formerly
of Lexington-Fayette County Urban Government; Dawn Velsor, of the Hernando
County Planning Department; Percy Doughtery, formerly of Kutztown University;
Todd Chavez, of the University of South Florida library; the Karst Research Group at
the University of South Florida and in particular group members Jason Polk, Leslie
North and Grant Harley; Dr. Bogdan Onac; Dr. Philip Reeder; Dr. Elizabeth Strom;
Dr. Graham Tobin; and Dr. Robert Brinkmann.
Special recognition and thanks go to my parents, who instilled in me a love of
reading and learning, and to my wife Ann, without whose support none of this would
have been possible.
v
Preface
At its core, this book is about understanding what happens when karst systems
and human systems overlap, and what we can do to control the outcome of those
cross-system interactions. Some of the social science disciplines—geography and
economics in particular—have theoretical underpinnings that predict karst-related
land use regulations are likely to have particular impacts on certain aspects of hu-
man systems, like housing densities or overall economic health. But does any of that
actually happen? Can we identify and quantify any examples? And if so, are these
impacts significant enough that land use planners and policymakers should consider
them during the regulation writing and implementation process?
In writing this book, I’ve tried to put together a solid overview of how land use
regulations are used to control and regulate human activity on karst lands in the
United States, what some of their actual impacts seem to be, and to draw upon that
information to propose a generally applicable framework for the development of
karst regulation. In the chapters that follow, I will describe how karst systems work
and the ways in which human activity can interfere with them; I will explore the
various regulatory techniques used to manage land use in karst areas throughout the
United States; I will examine the thoughts and experiences of the planners who work
with these regulations every day; I will describe some real-world examples of how
karst aware land use regulations have impacted the cities and towns that use them;
and finally, I will propose a basic framework by which we can better understand
karst land use regulations.
Contributing to the development of this framework is the main goal of this book.
It will be built upon the data collected and the conclusions discussed in the following
chapters and is intended to provide a description not just of the inputs and processes
that go into developing karst regulations and ordinances, but also a broad examina-
tion of the ways in which various inputs interact and the effect those interactions
have on the form that these regulations ultimately take. Since this is the first attempt
to develop this sort of framework, it is best understood as a starting point in the
process of creating a more detailed and refined model of the karst policy creation
process.
It’s true that a policy-based approach won’t necessarily keep thoughtless people
from pouring out their used motor oil in or around sinkholes. Certainly, individ-
ual behavior is more likely to be affected by education and public relations than
vii
viii Preface
by books on land use policy. My hope in writing this book is to contribute to a
big-picture understanding of how myriad factors in the karst land use regulation
process impact the human systems that choose to implement them. Because the
potential audience for this book ranges from the academic and scientific community
to working land use planners, some of the more technical aspects of karst systems
are either simplified or not discussed herein. This decision was made in the interests
of simply communicating the concepts underlying my research to a wider profes-
sional audience, and because there are several authoritative, technically-oriented
sources for information on karst and karst systems already available. Should you
wish to read a more technical explanation of how karst works, I suggest you be-
gin with either White’s Geomorphology of Karst Terrains (1988), or Ford and
Williams’ Karst Geomorphology and Hydrology (2007).
Tampa, Florida S. Fleury
Contents
1 Karst Processes, Landforms and Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Karst Aquifers: Fragile, Threatened and Vital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What Is Karst? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Karst Landscapes: An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Sinkholes (Dolines) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Caves and Caverns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Springs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Poljes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Karst Valleys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Swallow Holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Residual Hills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Cockpit Karst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Cone-and-Tower Karst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Geographical Distribution of Karst Landscapes and Landforms . . . . . . . 10
Issues of Human–Karst Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Subsidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Groundwater Contamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Caves and Ecosystem/Habitat Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 A Brief Look at Land Use Regulations in Karst Terrains . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Examples of Commonly Used Regulatory Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Zoning Ordinances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Subdivision Ordinances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Stormwater Management Ordinances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Setbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Comprehensive Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
State-Level Cave Protection Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Examples of Policy-Based Approaches to Karst Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Appalachian Belt (Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York,
New Jersey, Eastern Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Southeast (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ix
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South-central (Kentucky, Tennessee, Northern Alabama, Missouri) . . . . . 31
Great Lakes (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio) . . . . . . 33
The West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3 What Planners and Land Use Professionals Understand About Karst . 43
Survey Results: How Planners Think About Karst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Location of Respondents and Familiarity with Karst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Characteristics of the Local Karst and the Nature of Karst-Related Issues 45
The Regulations Themselves: Components, Restrictiveness and Goals . . 46
The Implementation Process: Stakeholders, Time, and Other Factors . . . . 47
Expected Outcomes and Actual Outcomes of Karst Regulation . . . . . . . . . 48
Appropriateness and Effectiveness of Regulating Development on Karst . 50
A More Detailed Analysis of the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Meaning of “Restrictive” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Goals, Effectiveness and the Potential for Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
How the Extent of the Local Karst Affects Choice
of Regulatory Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Preventative or Reactive Implementation and Regulatory Restrictiveness 55
Initiators vs. Restrictiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
The Influence of Non-elected Professionals vs. Regulatory Restrictiveness 58
Expected Outcomes vs. Propensity to Regulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Summary: What Planners Can Tell Us About Karst Land Use Regulation . . 62
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4 The Practical Impacts of Karst Regulations on the Communities that
Implement Them – a Pair of Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Case Study One: The Impact of Sinkhole Setbacks in Kentucky and
Missouri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
How These Four Cities Approach Issues of Karst and Land Use . . . . . . . . 65
Determining the Relationship Between Sinkhole and Structural Densities 67
Running the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
What All These Numbers Mean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Case Study 2: Strategic Behavior in the Development of Karst
Regulations: Does It Pay Off? A Case Study from Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . 73
South-central Pennsylvania and Its Karst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Land Use Regulation in Pennsylvania and How Karst Relates . . . . . . . . . . 77
Strategic Behavior and Land Use Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Running the Numbers: Is Strategic Behavior Good Strategy? . . . . . . . . . . 84
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5 Karst Land Use Regulation in Rural Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
The Brooksville Ridge Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
The Landscape of the Brooksville Ridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Contents xi
Efforts to Develop the Land and to Protect the Cave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
How Hernando County’s Groundwater Resource Protection Ordinance
Governs Land Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
The Apuseni Natural Park (Romania) and the Development of a Protected
Area Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The Apuseni Natural Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
The Protected Area Approach: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
How Protected Area Plans Work to Protect Karst Resources . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Yorkshire Dales National Park: An Example of Another Approach to
Protected Area Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Does the Protected Area Approach Actually Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
The Management Plan for Apuseni Natural Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Threats and Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Growing Tourism and Protecting the Natural Environment: Are They
Mutually Exclusive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Authority and Attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
How the Apuseni Experience Relates to Karst Regulations
in Municipalities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6 Moving Toward a Framework for Karst Land Use Regulations . . . . . . . 121
Karst Systems, Human Systems, and Where They Meet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Possible Future Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Appendix
A A Glossary of Karst Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
B Results of a Survey of Land Use Professionals Working in Karstic
Areas of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Color Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185