Table 4: Comparison of Traditional and Sustainable Developments
| Activity | Traditional Development | Sustainable Development |
| Objectives | Traditional development consists of identifying target customers and assessing their desires, and then trying to make visitors comfortable in familiar surroundings and in heavily manipulated environments. Typically much of the site is totally reconfigured with pools patios terraces, and vegetative compositions. The experience is very controlled and reflects the view that earth's resources are for human use. | Sustainable development for tourism focuses on the preservation and interpretation of indigenous natural and cultural resources rather than creating a contrived or artificial environment. The development accentuates the indigenous natural and cultural assets while respecting resource constraints.
The basic programmatic objective of sustainable development is to help visitors appreciate the natural and cultural uniqueness of a site by bringing them physically closer to it. To achieve this the development must be human-scaled and intimate so that sensory features of the native landscape such as sights, smells and sounds are appreciated and preserved. The basic environmental objective is to achieve these experiences within acceptable limits of change. If these objectives cannot be achieved on the same site, the development cannot be justified. |
| Site Planning and Design | The traditional approach to site planning and design begins with collecting and mapping data pertinent to site development. A good geographic information system. (GIS) is a practical method for collecting data on biological (vegetation, wildlife) physical (topography, soils, climate) and cultural (ownership, legal, historical) factors. Analysis for preliminary design then combines and compares these data to determine the best areas for development and the areas in which development would be very difficult, costly, or environmentally unsound. | The sustainable approach to site planning and design goes beyond combining and comparing site inventories. A sustainable process attempts to determine the relationships between site factors and how those factors will adapt to change. Understanding these relationships also clarifies how development impacts from one area of the site will affect other areas. An evaluation of potential development impacts requires that a predevelopment baseline or environmental model be produced. This model will describe the essential functions and interrelationships of the individual site factors and will establish acceptable limits of change during and after construction. Selected environmental monitoring and testing will be done during construction. The entire build-out of the development will be phased to allow time between construction projects to monitor environmental impacts and adjust the baseline model. |
The major steps in a traditional approach to site planning and design are as follows:
| The major steps in a sustainable approach to site planning and design are as follows:
|
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