Understanding land use philosophy through ontology and epistemology

Land use planning, as a scientific discipline, is a nexus among philosophy of science, planning theories and methodological frameworks. It is built primarily upon two distinct schools of thought, landscape ecology and land ecology, each supported by different ontological roots and epistemic commitments. The methodologies in this domain have been extensively developed and refined at a technical level; however, the underlying philosophies and ethical implications remain largely implicit. Consequently, spatial planning practices can potentially be stuck in a path-dependent cycle, where ethical blind spots and methodological numbness can arise. The current study analyzes how such foundations are embedded within the theories and methodologies of influential schools of thought in land use planning, a situation which currently constitutes a research gap. We address this gap by examining the epistemological and ethical underpinnings, and their methodological and planning implications, of both schools of thought. More specifically, our examination compares the way these planning approaches conceptualize, componentize and synthesize the land for planning and how they treat integration of socioeconomic and ecological data and delineate land units. Our analysis also shows how they rely on inductive and deductive reasoning, or causal and correlational analysis and how methodological choices can affect the level of holism/reductionism and non-anthropocentrism/anthropocentrism in the methodologies. This philosophical and analytical study contributes to advancing discussion and methodological innovations in land use science.