Faculty of Agriculture
Universiti Putra Malaysia

Land Resource Management and Urban Development in Europe

This course is a continuation of the longstanding relationships between the Institute and the Federal Government of Malaysia Ministry of Land and Co-operative Development, and between Cambridge and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The 20 participants are mainly officers from departments of federal or state governments with major responsibilities relating to land resources, and many of them are enrolled on the UPM MSc degree programme. This course is an integral part of the curriculum, and participants will be working on projects during their two-week visit to Europe.

The course objectives are to examine a range of aspects of land resource management and urban development from recent experience in Europe, to discuss lessons of relevance to other countries, including Malaysia, and to explore wider implications in the context of a rapidly changing global economy.

The course will examine key concepts and issues in three countries in Northern Europe - mainly England and The Netherlands, with briefer reference to France. Topics will include: landownership and resource management, law and administration of land resource policy, agricultural and forest resources and policies, water resources management, environmental policies in an EU context, industrial change and economic decline, urban regeneration and urban growth, infrastructure and land development. Emphasis will be placed on the application of important principles such as resource conservation and sustainability, and on inter-relationships among stakeholders and between people and the environment in an historical and comparative context.

The course starts in Cambridge, and the itinerary will include visits to Norfolk, Ipswich and Felixstowe, and then across to the Hook of Holland, Wageningen, Delft and Amsterdam, returning to London, Lille and The Channel Tunnel.

The group will be accompanied by representatives from the Faculty of Agriculture. The course leader from the UK side will be Dr Derek Nicholls, Director of the Institute, who has been personally involved in developing our Malaysian links and has been a regular visitor to Malaysia since 1991.