America's National Park Planning System Study From The Environmental Ethics Perspective

The consumptive and destructive use of natural resources in modern society has made the natural environment on which human beings live deteriorate day by day.Conservation and utilization of natural resources have become the focus of attention of the whole society,especially academia.According to the law of interaction between man and nature revealed by modern science,environmental ethics provides moral theoretical support for environmental protection practice,while national parks are important environmental protection practices which can well handle the relationship between natural resources protection and utilization and are internationally accepted.In China,the national park system is an important part of the construction of ecological civilization and is currently at the pilot stage,so the international advanced experience has important reference value for China to build a national park planning system.The United States is the birthplace and the research and application frontier of national parks and modern environmental ethics,and environmental ethics plays an important role in the national park planning.Therefore,based on the perspective of environmental ethics,this paper studies America`s national park planning system,analyses and summarizes its development process and characteristics of modern system,then combined with the reality of China constructs the Chinese national park planning system framework based on environmental ethics.This topic has theoretical significance to promote the development of interdisciplinary research,and practical significance to provide solutions to practical problems as well.Based on the review of environmental ethics and national parks at home and abroad,the paper finds that there is little research on America`s national parks planning system from the perspective of environmental ethics.Therefore,the paper carries out systematic research on macro,medium and micro dimensions,including internal and external levels.Firstly,it analyzes the relationships between environmental ethics and national park planning,which are two-way interaction and system mapping,then puts forward that the research paradigm is ‘two levels and four dimensions'.The first is the internal research level which combines the theory and practice of America`s national park planning system,including the macro-survey of the time dimension,the meso-analysis of the space dimension and the micro-perspective of the concrete dimension.The second is the extension researchlevel of China's national park planning system,including the path construction of the application dimension.Then,the research is carried out from four dimensions,by means of literature research,cross-disciplinary approach,expert interview,field research and case study.In the aspect of the macro-survey of the time dimension,the paper focuses on the development of America`s national park planning system from the perspective of environmental ethics evolution,which reflects the historical process and stage characteristics of the system.The evolution of environmental ethics in the United States is divided into three stages: the anthropocentrism dominating period,the non-anthropocentrism influencing period and the pluralism guiding period.From the end of the 19 th century to the end of the 1950 s,the anthropocentrism dominating period,the national park planning system was in its initial stage of development.Planning showed the characteristics of paying attention to material facilities construction but lacking natural care,‘people-oriented' park zoning and preserving natural landscape appearance for pleasing human beings.From the 1960 s to the late1980 s,the non-anthropocentrism influencing period,the national park planning system was in a transitional stage.Systematic development planning based on ecological science came into being,and the planning began to pay attention to the environmental impact.At the same time,various environmental legislation put forward requirements for the ecology of planning.Since the 1990 s,the pluralism guiding period,the national park planning system has been in the stage of gradual improvement.The planning builds a vision concerning of multiple parties at the system level and forms a dynamic open planning portfolio at the unit level.Meanwhile,science and technology have been applied to the whole planning process.In the aspect of the meso-analysis of the space dimension,serving America`s national parks as spatial carrier and selecting ‘modern' as the time point,the paper focuses on the characteristics of America`s national park planning system from the perspective of modern environmental ethics.The America`s national park planning system,guided by the view of nature,forms the planning concept of ‘committed to serve the resource conditions,visitor experience and management behavior as a whole,in order to maximize the protection of resources from impairment to provide enjoyment for contemporary and future generations'.Guided by ethical beliefs,the planning objectives are ‘to guide natural resource management and human public service management,to announce future decisions that are in line with the park'smission,to become solutions for reducing multi-party conflicts and promoting mutually benefit for both contemporary and future generations'.Guided by moral norms,planning measures have been formulated.That includes under the guidance of‘following nature and respecting science',there comes a systematic and efficient planning structure,scientific and accurate planning content,science and technology as planning support,dynamic and pluralistic planning management support,as well as planning control under the restriction of ‘avoiding irreversible damage and insisting on minimum harm',planning guidance under the criterion of ‘appropriate population and reasonable consumption' and ‘providing multiple choices',planning means under the guidance of ‘providing multiple choices and open dialogue platform'.In the aspect of the and the micro-perspective of the concrete dimension,the paper focuses on the interpretation of environmental ethics in typical cases of modern America`s national park planning system,and deeply analyses the embodiment of environmental ethics in different levels and different types of plannings.Three typical cases analyse how the contents and forms of planning comply with the national park environmental ethics`s view of nature,ethical beliefs and four moral norms.This dimension provides case support for macro and meso-level research,and demonstrates the concrete form of national park planning system based on environmental ethics,providing reference material for the transformation and application of American experience.In the aspect of the path construction of the application dimension,this paper focuses on the path exploration of building China's National Park Planning System based on environmental ethics,which according to the current situation of China and drawing lessons from the United States,puts forward the environmental ethics of China's national parks and the framework of planning system.Firstly,the paper analyses the construction background of China's national park planning system.Secondly,it puts forward the main problems existing in the planning system based on the pilot cases of national parks,as well as the thinking from the perspective of environmental ethics.Then,the paper puts forward the key points of environmental ethics of China`s national parks and the construction ideas of national park planning system.The planning concept established by the view of nature of China's national parks`s environmental ethics is ‘taking the protection of the natural value of nature as the center of planning work,protection takes precedence over utilization;promoting the ecological culture of harmonious coexistence of human and nature,carrying outscientific research,education,recreation and other activities within the scope of ecological carrying capacity,and improving the production and living standards of the residents in the park'.The key points of planning objectives established by ethical belief include ‘the primary goal of planning is to protect the authenticity and integrity of ecosystem;to guide the management of natural resources and human public services towards achieving harmonious coexistence;to balance the needs of contemporary and future generations for the use of natural resources in the long run,while taking into account the current interests of all parties to ensure the fair sharing of natural resources'.The main points of planning measures established by moral norms include taking science and technology as the support of planning,the design of planning structure reflects the characteristics of systematicness and flexibility;the planning content is both rigid and flexible,reflects precise and scientific management control,as well as the interests of multiple parties;and the security system is scientific,professional and well implemented.On the basis of research above,the framework of China's national park planning system is proposed,which includes four aspects:national park planning system structure,national park system planning,national park unit planning,planning compilation and implementation guarantee.In a word,the path of building China's national park planning system based on environmental ethics has been explored preliminarily.