Learn to Manage Amenity Landscapes
Who manages amenity horticulture sites? These days many different professions are involved in the management of natural and designed landscapes, including architects, town planners, engineers, landscape architects, environmental scientists, sport and recreation specialists, botanists, biologists, horticulturists and agronomists. Depending on the size and nature of the site, and the inputs required to manage that site, people from these (and possibly other) professions might be employed as specialist consultants, as site managers or as team leaders.
The management of a horticultural site typically includes the following tasks:
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Defining a mission, vision, goals and activities planning
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Ensuring that the above are reached or planned within a specified time frame
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Managing budgets
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Managing human resources
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Managing material resources
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Managing natural resources
What that means is that the manager must define where the organisation is going or, if that is already defined, how to get there with the resources available, in the time available. This usually means looking for more resources and solving problems related to the running of the amenity site together with the team that he or she is leading.
Lesson Structure
There are 7 lessons in this course:
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Adapting Amenity Horticulture to Changing Needs
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What is an amenity horticulture site
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Challenges of amenity horticulture: political, social, economic, environmental
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Management of Amenity horticulture sites
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Defining a mission, vision, goals and activities planning
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Ensuring that the above are reached or planned within a specified timeframe
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Managing budgets
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Managing human resources
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Managing material resources
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Managing natural resources
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Management options
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Amenity sites; horticultural displays
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Management framework
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Types of organisational structures
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Chains of command
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Macro Panning for Amenity Land Provision
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Macro planning introduction
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What to plan for
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Principles of neighbourhood planning
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What is a community
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Principles of leisure facility planning, including sports grounds
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Resources and Information
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Information sources
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PBL project to create and present a report that identifies, describes and uses up-to-date information sources relating to changing influences on the amenity industry
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Social, Cultural and Environmental Impacts
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Introduction
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Comparing positive and negative aspects of different factors
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Examples of environmentally driven management decisions
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Cultural, social and environmental issues
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Economic Impacts
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Financing amenity horticulture sites
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What are we funding
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Funding sources
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Funding amounts
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Human resource management
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Volunteer management
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Material resources management
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Community Involvement
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Amenity horticulture and the community
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Where might you find community participation
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Community needs or wants: not always the same
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What motivates community involvement
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Community participation to develop parks and playgrounds
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Developing a Management Plan
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PBL project to create and present a management plan for an amenity horticulture site.
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Components of a management plan
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What to do to make those plans come true
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Staff morale and enthusiasm
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Involving the community so that they take responsibility
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Solving the budget problem without cutting on services
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
What You Will Do
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Identify optional management approaches for amenity horticulture sites.
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Determine varying features of optional management approaches for amenity horticulture sites.
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Explain planning concepts and processes used for provision of amenity land.
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Identify and describe up to date information sources relating to changing influences on the amenity industry.
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Explain current social environmental issues as they evolve in a changing political climate, for example community involvement, sustainability, public/private partnerships.
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Explain current economic issues as they evolve in a changing political climate, for example community involvement, sustainability, public/private partnerships.
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Describe Methods of community involvement from user surveys and consultation exercises through to physical involvement using volunteer groups.
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Explain the relationship between the amenity industry, government policies and communities.
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Critically evaluate the means by which the community can be engaged with the amenity industry.
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Determine the impact of community policies on local strategies.
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Determine relevant issues (social, political, economic and environmental) that relate to management of amenity sites.
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Develop an appropriate management plan for an amenity site.
Challenges to the Amenity Horticulture Industry
The amenity horticulture industry has evolved with the use of landscapes by humans. In this respect the amenity industry is as old as humans, since when we started living in organised communities, decisions were made in respect to the location of dwellings, foraging and hunting areas, and other areas of community life. The larger the community, the more complex landscape planning that evolved.
Nowadays the amenity industry faces political, social, economic and environmental challenges:
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Political: Policies decided by different groups define the landscape, be it urban or rural. They can be out of consent, or imposed. They can be of local scope, or international. In general the tendency now is to have consensus though, as democratic values are promoted as a valuable political regime in many countries of the world and globalisation becomes increasingly dominant. Fortunately, with those also come sustainability principles which promote community participation.
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Social: Demographics are a key factor in changing the landscape. In many areas population pressure is impacting negatively on amenity sites, while in other areas population growth has meant that poorly managed areas receive sufficient funding to be properly managed. One of the latest social trends affecting the amenity industry is the greater community involvement in the management of public land.
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Economic: Funding is crucial for any amenity site to survive, be it urban or rural, private or public. Funding can be done by making some profit from the area visitors or, as in the case of public funding, through allocating tax funds to an area annually. There are mixed solutions, where private amenity sites are economically supported at a certain percentage, and where public sites are supported through private donations.
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Environmental: Pollution, population pressure, erosion, climate change, loss of diversity and invasion by exotic species are just some of the factors affecting amenity horticulture sites throughout the world.
Amenity Landscapes include:
- Sports grounds
- Streetscapes
- Public parks
- Commercial car parks
- The landscaped grounds of schools, shopping centres, industrial estates
- Any other landscaped area that has an amenity or specific purpose to it.
How Can This Course Help You?
This course is the perfect addition to Amenity Horticulture I. Having already established your awareness and understanding of different areas of amenity horticulture, with this course you can learn about how to manage a range of different horticulture projects from public gardens to temporary displays. You'll find out how to plan and secure funding for projects, as well as how to oversee staff and volunteers to make the most use of the resources at hand. The course is perfect for people looking for positions of greater responsibility and is ideal for those wishing to work in:
- Public horticulture projects
- Private horticulture practices
- Parks & gardens
- General horticulture
- Ecotourism
- Garden conservation & restoration
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