Multiple Use Of Land Conservation Problem

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31385, 2 June 1967, Page 10

Multiple Use Of Land Conservation Problem

Professor C. Kidson, professor of physical geography at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth, believes competition for the multiple use of land is becoming one of the biggest problems of conservation. Formerly head of the physiographical unit of the British Nature Conservancy, he is visiting professor of geography at the University of Canterbury for the winter term. Professor Kidson said he was keen to study New Zealand’s coastal geomorphology. He hoped for some refreshing relief from British problems. “It may be hard for you out here to understand the new pressures on coastal regions in Britain,” he said on his

arrival yesterday. Britain had about 50 million people competing for space in roughly the same area that New Zealand had fewer than three million, he said. The novel twist was the demand for nuclear power station sites. These had to be at least five miles from any substantial centre of population, so the coasts were preferred. “Apart from social considerations, scientific interests come face to face with the big battalions £ s d,” said Professor Kidson. The collision arose when business did not know the interest of science and other groups in a given area. So much might have been sunk in site exploration that, say, nuclear power interests would not back down. Professor Kidson said he had been a leader in stating other interests in a number of test cases. It was a matter of deciding which claims would be least harmful. Another example of the problem was the proposal to draw water for Manchester from the scenic lakes district. Now estuary barrages on the Dee river were being considered as an alternative method of getting water. Professor Kidson said his special Interest in the British coasts was the effect of the storm environment and its depositions. In 1956 his team began introducing radioactive isotopes into beach pebbles and tracing their movements with Geiger counters. In New Zealand he expected to find coastal influences of a different kind—longdistance swells. These could be fascinating in comparison. There were possibilities for exchange of students in coastal work between Canterbury and Aberystwyth, he said.